How Do U.S. Card Fees Compare Internationally?

Compared to other countries and regions around the globe, there are distinct differences in the U.S. that contribute to this trend.

In Europe, for example, consumer credit cards are regulated so fees are capped at 0.30% per transaction.² China and Australia have similar regulations resulting in average credit card interchange rates of 0.45%³ and 0.50%⁴ respectively. In Canada, while no regulation is in place regarding credit card fees, Visa, Mastercard have agreed to limit their fees on average to 1.40%⁵. In the U.S., there are no fee constraints, voluntary card network agreements, or network routing competition on credit cards, making U.S. credit card interchange fees some of the highest in the world.

Sources:

1. Utilizing the Nilson Report and CMSPI methodology of isolating interchange fees from total merchant fees paid.
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32015R0751, Article 4
3. https://www.kansascityfed.org/documents/6660/PublicAuthorityInvolvementPaymentCardMarkets_VariousCountries_August2020Update.pdf
4. https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-retail-payments-regulation/conclusions-paper-202110/pdf/review-of-retail-payments-regulation-conclusions-paper-202110.pdf
5. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-09/visa-mastercard-amex-agree-to-trim-interchange-fees-in-canada