MPC Hill Blast: Americans Squeezed by Credit Card Interest and Swipe Fees — And the Hits Just Keep Coming
You may want to read this story from CBS. It points out ways that the credit card industry is hurting Americans including:
“The share of seriously delinquent auto loan balances has hit a record high this year, while nearly 13% of credit card balances are seriously past due — close to their 2010 peak in the aftermath of the housing crisis — according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”
“Credit card delinquency among people over 70 is at its highest level since 2011, the analysis also found.”
“More than half of Americans relied on credit cards to pay for basic needs like groceries, rent and utilities”
Not only that, but average credit card interest rates are now 19.65%— a 9 basis point increase in less than a month.
Did inflated credit card swipe fees make banks hesitate to raise interest rates on already stressed consumers? No, they didn’t.
Americans paid more than $250 billion in credit card interest and fees in 2025. And now, more people are falling behind on payments and being charged more interest!
Remarkably, with $250 billion in credit card interest and fees on top of nearly $200 billion in swipe fees, the credit card industry and megabanks still cry poverty and claim that it would be unfair to make them compete on their prices (like every other business does).
The credit card industry keeps proving that it will increase swipe fees even as it keeps charging consumers more interest and getting them into deeper financial trouble. Recent documented swipe fee increases by Visa and/or Mastercard include:
Fee increase in April 2022
Fee increase in October 2023
Fee increase in January 2025
Fee increase in January 2026
From 2023 to 2024 alone, in fact, the average percentage multiplied by every Visa and Mastercard credit card purchase jumped from 2.26% to 2.35%.
The dollar figures demonstrate how dramatic the increases are:
Visa/MC total credit swipe fees in 2010 — $26 billion
Visa/MC total credit card swipe fees in 2025 — $118.8 billion (more than 350% increase from 2010)*
* Swipe fee numbers are from the Nilson Report with the most recent numbers from Issue 1303 published in March 2026 (available at 1303 — Nilson Report)
COMPETITION IS BETTER FOR EVERYONE
IT'S TIME TO PASS THE CREDIT CARD COMPETITION ACT