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Credit and debit card “swipe” fees have reached $198.25 billion, a new record, amid calls by President Trump and others to decrease the fees, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC).
“Credit card swipe fees make just about everything Americans buy more expensive,” says MPC executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel Doug Kantor. “Swipe fees set a new record by taking more of our money every year and the impact on American families and small businesses is devastating. President Trump, lawmakers across the political spectrum, business groups, labor unions, consumer groups, Native American tribes and more are calling for bipartisan swipe fee reform. It’s time for Congress to make America affordable again by ending the swipe fee ripoff.”
Swipe fees for credit and debit cards totaled $198.25 billion in 2025, up from $187.2 billion in 2024 and up 80% since the pandemic, according to the Nilson Report trade publication.
Visa and Mastercard credit cards again made up the majority of the total at $118.8 billion in 2025, up from $111.2 billion in 2024. Swipe fees for all brands of credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard, totaled $157.8 billion, up from $148.5 billion in 2024.
Credit and debit card swipe fees are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor. The fees are too high to absorb, especially for small merchants and drive up consumer prices by more than $1,200 a year for the average family, based on the new data.
The average swipe fee rate for Visa and Mastercard-branded credit cards rose to 2.36% of the transaction amount, up from 2.35% in 2024. The two card networks, which control over 80% of the market, each centrally set swipe fee rates for all banks that issue cards under their brands, and the average rate has risen from 2.02% in 2010. Debit card swipe fees totaled $40.5 billion, up from $38.7 billion in 2024.
Congress is considering the Credit Card Competition Act, endorsed by Trump earlier this year. The legislation is supported by almost 2,000 companies as well as many consumer, labor and pro-competition organizations.
In addition to centrally setting swipe fees, Visa and Mastercard also block competition by restricting processing to their own two networks. Under the bill, banks with at least $100 billion in assets would be required to enable credit cards to be processed over at least one unaffiliated network like Star, NYCE or Shazam in addition to Visa or Mastercard. The measure is expected to result in competition over fees, security and service that would save merchants and their customers over $17 billion a year.
