Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Big Banks See Profit Surge from Credit Card Swipe Fees as Fuel Prices Rise
“Big banks and card networks are seeing a windfall as fuel prices rise,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “It doesn’t cost them any more to process gas purchases at $4 a gallon than it did at $2, but they are collecting more on every gallon and profiteering on the backs of American motorists. Swipe fees drive up the price of gas in the family car, but do the same for the diesel that fuels tractor-trailers, ultimately adding to the price of every product delivered over our nation’s highways. This is part of the swipe fee ripoff condemned by President Trump, and it’s time for Congress to follow his lead by bringing competition to these price-fixed fees.”
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Convenience Store News: Credit & Debit Card Swipe Fees Neared $200B in 2025
Swipe fees charged by big banks and card networks to process credit and debit card transactions totaled $198.25 billion in 2025, up 5.9% from the previous year. Visa and Mastercard credit card swipe fees again made up the majority of 2025 swipe fees at $118.8 billion, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Bloomberg: US Moves to Block Illinois Swipe Fee Law During Banks’ Appeal
“It looks like the OCC is trying to overturn a federal district court ruling that they lost on,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at convenience store group NACS and a member of the Merchants Payments Coalition’s executive committee. “It’s a pretty outrageous power grab, as far as I can see.”
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Capitol Account: OCC Chief Looks to Bolster Banks in Interchange Case
“It appears to be an outrageous power grab,” says Doug Kantor, (MPC Executive Committee member and) general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, which backs the interchange limits.
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Doing Business in Bentonville: Is Legislation the Answer for Record Swipe Fee Costs?
As the Merchants Payments Coalition reports that these fees hit a staggering record of $198.25 billion in 2025, a nearly 6% increase from the previous year, the retail industry is looking toward Washington for a solution. At the heart of this movement is the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), a bipartisan legislative effort reintroduced in January 2026 with significant political momentum.
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MPC Hill Blast: Who Swiped the Peeps?
Everyone loves Peeps at Easter. You can even make dioramas out of them. But, once again this year, credit card swipe fees took a lot of the fun out of Peeps. The average family was hammered with $4.62 in swipe fees on Easter spending alone. That is three packs of eight Peeps — swiped right out from under our noses.
READ MORE +MPC Hill Blast: Fuel Price/Swipe Fee Tracker
Credit card swipe fees currently amount to 9.8 cents on the average gallon of gas and 13.3 cents on the average gallon of diesel, costing American consumers $58.2 million per day.
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Progressive Grocer: Record Swipe Fees Hit Holiday Shoppers Hard in 2026
According to the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), credit card fees are eating up a sizable chunk of the holiday spending share. MPC said that so-called “swipe fees” will add up to nearly $600 million in costs across the holiday, with individual shoppers absorbing roughly $4.62 in fees alone.
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AInvest: Small Businesses Shift Credit Card Fees to Customers—But Could a $17B Bill Kill the Squeeze?
The cumulative cost is staggering. The Merchants Payments Coalition estimates that these swipe fees cost the average American family nearly $1,200 annually. To put that in perspective, that's enough to buy a Barbie doll or a Lego set every month. It's the financial equivalent of a small, steady tax on every purchase made with a credit card.
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Politico Morning Money: Taking stock
In a novel bit of policy messaging, the Merchants Payments Coalition — which backs retailers in the years-long battle over card fees charged by banks and payments companies — has launched a new tracker linking the surge in gas prices to swipe fees.
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