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My understanding is credit card companies make money based on a transaction cost, which presumably is the same for credit/debit. I can't really find information on this, so it might be a faulty assumption (?).

I suspect they make enough money on interest from credit cards to overcome the other perks they offer over debit cards (or the transaction costs are different). Or there are legal obligations for debit vs credit cards. But I really have no idea other than speculation for the answer to:

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enderland
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A search quickly led to http://www.cardfellow.com/blog/debit-card-credit-card-difference-charges/ which shows the difference in merchant fees charged.

A $200 charge costs $3.50-$3.60, a debit charge, $2.34-$2.39 but a PIN Debit, $1.87.

The debit cards are a full percent less cost to the merchant, so the money collected is less to use for rewards.

(I can't help but wonder how my card gives me 2% cash back, no fee, when I never pay interest.)

JoeTaxpayer
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Debit cards do not earn the bank any interest from you whereas credit cards do, so they want to give incentive to use credit over debit.