US card payments reached 187.7 billion transactions worth $11.50 trillion in 2024. Among credit card processing industry statistics, the sharpest shift sits on the credit side. Credit card payments increased to 67.1 billion in 2024, up 16.2 billion from 2021. That was the first measured three-year period since 2000 that credit card payments grew more than debit card payments, per the Federal Reserve’s payments study.
Cards’ share of noncash payments reached 79% by number in 2024 but 8% by value. Card processing earns its money on volume, a fact that shapes everything below, from network revenue to the fee a coffee shop pays. The sections below cover card volume, the networks, processor revenue, fees, and consumer card use through October 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Cards made up 79% of US noncash payments by number in 2024 but only 8% by value.
- US credit card payments rose by 16.2 billion from 2021 to reach 67.1 billion in 2024.
- Debit cards accounted for 64% of US card payments by number in 2024, down from 68% in 2021.
- Exempt debit transactions averaged a $0.51 interchange fee in 2024, against $0.23 for covered transactions, 2.2 times as much.
- Mastercard’s US debit gross dollar volume grew 1.3% in Q2 2026, while its US credit and charge volume grew 9.5%.
- US credit card balances rose by $21 billion to $1.26 trillion in Q2 2026.
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- US card payment value: $11.50 trillion in 2024.
- Visa processed transactions: 71.7 billion in the three months ended June 30, 2026.
- Mastercard gross dollar volume: $2.9 trillion in Q2 2026.
- Stripe total volume: $1.9 trillion in 2025.
- PayPal total payment volume: $486.4 billion in Q2 2026.
- JPMorgan Chase debit and credit card sales volume: $539.5 billion in 3Q26.
Credit Card Processing Industry Statistics by Payment Volume
- US card payments rose from 101.5 billion in 2015 to 187.7 billion in 2024.
- Card payment value grew from $5.52 trillion in 2015 to $11.50 trillion in 2024.
- The total number of US noncash payments rose to 236.6 billion in 2024, an increase of 31.9 billion from 2021.
- Total noncash payment value rose to $140.01 trillion in 2024, up $10.37 trillion from 2021.
- Cards’ share of noncash payments by number reached 79% in 2024, up from 77% in 2021 and 71% in 2015.
- The average card payment was $61 in 2024, compared with $54 in 2015.
- Card payments grew 6.0% a year by number and 6.8% a year by value from 2021 to 2024.
| Year | Card payments (billions) | Card payment value ($ trillions) | Average card payment ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 101.5 | 5.52 | 54 |
| 2018 | 131.2 | 7.07 | 54 |
| 2021 | 157.7 | 9.43 | 60 |
| 2024 | 187.7 | 11.50 | 61 |
Source: Federal Reserve Payments Study 2025 (2015 to 2024 data)
About This Data
Compiled from 18 sources: 5 Federal Reserve pages, 10 company earnings releases and filings, and 3 published merchant price lists. Sources were published between December 2025 and October 2026. Only primary data from regulators, central banks and the companies themselves qualified. Figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.
Credit Card vs Debit Card Payment Statistics
- Debit card payments reached 120.6 billion in 2024, up 13.8 billion from 2021, while credit card payments reached 67.1 billion.
- Debit payment growth slowed to 4.1% a year from 2021 to 2024, down from 7.2% a year from 2018 to 2021.
- General-purpose credit cards made up 96% of all credit card payments by number in 2024, up from 92% in 2015.
- Private-label credit card payments fell to 2.9 billion in 2024, down from a peak of 3.7 billion in 2018.
- Credit card payments were worth $6.51 trillion in 2024, against $4.99 trillion for debit cards.
- The average credit card payment was $97 in 2024, compared with $41 for a debit card payment.
- Debit cards accounted for 64% of all card payments by number in 2024, down from 68% in 2021.
View the data
Credit card payments grew by 16.2 billion over the three years to 2024, against 13.8 billion for debit. CoinLaw’s data-first reading of the Federal Reserve tables shows a shift that narrative coverage of debit-first consumers misses. Credit took the larger share of the added card payments.
Recent Developments
- October 13, 2026: JPMorgan Chase reported debit and credit card sales volume up 10% year over year, with a Card Services net charge-off rate of 2.91%.
- August 11, 2026: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that credit card balances rose by $21 billion and stood at $1.26 trillion.
- August 6, 2026: Fiserv reported second-quarter GAAP revenue of $5.29 billion, a decrease of 4%, with Merchant Solutions revenue down 1%.
- August 5, 2026: Block reported that Square GPV grew 13% year over year in the second quarter.
- July 30, 2026: Mastercard reported second-quarter net revenue of $9.3 billion, an increase of 14%, with gross dollar volume up 8% on a local currency basis.
- July 28, 2026: Visa reported fiscal third-quarter net revenue of $11.6 billion, an increase of 14%.
Visa and Mastercard Network Statistics
- The Visa payment network processed 71.7 billion transactions in the three months ended June 30, 2026, a 10% increase over the prior year.
- Visa payments volume for the three months ended June 30, 2026 increased 10% on a constant-dollar basis.
- Visa’s total cross-border volume increased 13% on a constant-dollar basis.
- Visa data processing revenue rose 17% to $6.0 billion, and service revenue was $4.9 billion.
- Mastercard gross dollar volume grew 8% on a local currency basis to $2.9 trillion in Q2 2026.
- Mastercard cross-border volume grew 12% and switched transactions grew 9%.
| Metric | Visa (three months ended June 30, 2026) | Mastercard (Q2 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Net revenue | $11.6 billion | $9.3 billion |
| Net revenue growth | 14% | 14% |
| Payments volume / gross dollar volume growth | 10% | 8% |
| Cross-border volume growth | 13% | 12% |
| Transaction growth | 10% | 9% |
Source: Visa fiscal third quarter 2026 earnings release, Mastercard second quarter 2026 earnings release (2026)
By the numbers: Visa’s fiscal third-quarter results included a $237 million litigation provision associated with the interchange multidistrict litigation case. Merchant fee disputes still cost Visa real money, even in a quarter when volume grew on both networks.
Mastercard Gross Dollar Volume by Region
- Worldwide Mastercard gross dollar volume was $2,881 billion in the three months ended June 30, 2026.
- Europe generated $1,025 billion of Mastercard GDV, ahead of the United States at $858 billion.
- Latin America GDV grew 13.9% on a local currency basis, against 5.5% in the United States.
- Mastercard counted 3,463 million cards across its credit, charge and debit programs.
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- Debit programs carried $1,550 billion of Mastercard GDV in the quarter, compared with $1,331 billion for credit and charge programs; Mastercard reports each figure rounded to whole billions, so the two regional credit and charge bars below add to $1,332 billion.
- US credit and charge GDV grew 9.5%, while US debit GDV grew 1.3%.
- Debit GDV in the Worldwide less United States segment reached $1,150 billion in the quarter.
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Payment Processor Revenue Statistics
- Visa net revenue was $11.6 billion in its fiscal third quarter, up 14%, or 13% on a constant-dollar basis.
- Mastercard net revenue grew 14%, or 12% on a currency-neutral basis.
- PayPal net revenues increased 5%, or 3% currency-neutral.
- Fiserv GAAP revenue decreased 4% in Q2 2026, with Financial Solutions down 8%.
- Global Payments adjusted net revenues were $3.16 billion, up approximately 4% on a normalized basis.
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How profitable is credit card processing?
Mastercard reported an operating margin of 60.2% in Q2 2026. Global Payments reported a 42.0% adjusted operating margin on a normalized basis. Fiserv’s Merchant Solutions segment posted a 30.0% adjusted operating margin, down from 34.6% a year earlier.
Merchant Acquirer and Processor Volume
- Businesses running on Stripe generated $1.9 trillion in total volume in 2025, up 34% from 2024.
- Adyen processed volume grew 24% year on year in H1 2026, and net revenue reached €1,302.9 million.
- PayPal total payment volume increased 10% to $486.4 billion in Q2 2026.
- PayPal payment transactions increased 8% to 6.8 billion.
- Square’s US GPV growth accelerated to 10% year over year, while international GPV grew 28%.
| Company | Volume measure | Period | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Total volume of businesses on Stripe | 2025 | $1.9 trillion |
| Adyen | Processed volume | H1 2026 | €803.8 billion |
| PayPal | Total payment volume | Q2 2026 | $486.4 billion |
| Square (Block) | Gross payment volume | Q2 2026 | $72,848 million |
Source: Stripe 2025 annual letter, Adyen H1 2026 results, PayPal and Block Q2 2026 results (2026)
Square GPV reached $72,848 million in Q2 2026, up from $61,209 million in Q1 2026.
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Debit Card Interchange Fee Statistics
- Under the Federal Reserve’s Regulation II, a covered debit issuer may not receive an interchange fee above $0.21 plus 0.05% of the transaction value, plus a $0.01 fraud-prevention adjustment.
- Covered debit card transactions averaged a $0.23 interchange fee in every year from 2013 to 2024.
- Exempt transactions averaged $0.51 in 2024, up from $0.43 in 2013.
- The covered-transaction average was $0.51 in the first three quarters of 2011, then fell to $0.24 in the fourth quarter of 2011.
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Why it matters: The Federal Reserve’s data show exempt debit transactions at $0.51 per transaction in 2024, while covered transactions stayed at $0.23, a ratio of 2.2 times. The gap shows how much the Regulation II cap holds down issuer fees, and how much more merchants pay on cards from issuers the cap does not reach.
Debit Interchange Fees by Card Network
- Discover debit transactions averaged a $0.83 interchange fee in 2024, all of them exempt.
- Visa debit transactions averaged $0.36, with exempt transactions at $0.60 and covered transactions at $0.22.
- Mastercard debit transactions averaged $0.43, with exempt transactions at $0.63 and covered transactions at $0.24.
- Single-message networks averaged $0.25 per transaction, against $0.37 for dual-message networks.
- On dual-message networks, the interchange fee equaled 0.79% of the average transaction value.
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Credit Card Processing Fees for Small Businesses
- Stripe lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful online transaction for domestic cards.
- Stripe adds 0.5% for manually entered cards and 1.5% for international cards.
- Stripe charges $0.10 per authorization for Tap to Pay on top of its in-person rate.
- Square applies one legacy plan rate to swiped, chip, contactless and Tap to Pay on iPhone payments.
- PayPal Checkout carries a rate 0.5 ppt above PayPal’s standard credit and debit card rate.
| Provider | Payment type | Published rate |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Online, domestic cards | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Stripe | In person, domestic cards | 2.7% + 5¢ |
| Square (legacy plans) | Swiped, chip or contactless | 2.6% + 15¢ |
| Square (legacy plans) | Manually entered | 3.5% + 15¢ |
| Square (legacy plans) | Online payments | 3.3% + 30¢ |
| PayPal | Standard credit and debit card payments | 2.99% + fixed fee |
| PayPal | PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + fixed fee |
Source: Stripe pricing, Square fees, PayPal merchant fees (October 2026)
What is the cheapest way to accept card payments?
No single provider is cheapest for every business, because the fixed cents per transaction weigh more on small tickets. Published in-person rates run from 2.6% + 15¢ on Square legacy plans to 2.7% + 5¢ on Stripe. Keyed-in and online payments cost more than in-person payments on the Stripe and Square lists, so the payment channel matters alongside the provider.
Bank Card Sales Volume Statistics
- JPMorgan Chase debit and credit card sales volume was $539.5 billion in 3Q26, up from $492.3 billion in 3Q25.
- Debit and credit card sales volume rose 10% year over year in Q3 2026.
- Nine-month sales volume reached $1,562.9 billion in 2026, against $1,428.2 billion in 2025.
- Card Services posted a net charge-off rate of 2.91% in Q3 2026.
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US Credit Card Debt Statistics
- Credit card balances rose by $21 billion in Q2 2026 and stood at $1.263 trillion.
- The flow of credit card balances into serious delinquency was 6.97% in Q2 2026, against 6.93% in Q2 2025.
- Total household debt decreased by $13 billion in Q2 2026, to $18.771 trillion.
- Aggregate limits on credit cards continued to rise, with a $85 billion uptick in the first quarter.
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How US Consumers Pay With Cards
- US consumers made an average of 47 payments per month, and 16 of them were by credit card.
- Debit and credit cards accounted for two-thirds of all payments made by US consumers.
- Cash was the third-most used payment instrument for the sixth year in a row, accounting for about 1 in 7 payments.
- The share of consumers who prefer credit cards in person rose 14 ppt from 2016.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Payments per month, all methods | 47 |
| Payments per month by credit card | 16 |
| Payments per month by debit card | 15 |
| Prefer credit cards in person (2026 Diary) | 38% |
| Prefer credit cards in person (2016) | 24% |
| Prefer debit in person | 40% |
Source: Federal Reserve Financial Services, 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (2026)
The takeaway: The 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice counts 16 credit card payments a month against 15 by debit card. The Diary’s tilt toward credit points the same way as the Federal Reserve’s network-level count, where credit card payments grew more than debit card payments from 2021 to 2024.
Conclusion
US card payments reached 187.7 billion transactions worth $11.50 trillion in 2024, and the growth has tilted toward credit. Fees on covered debit transactions stay held by the Regulation II cap, while fees on exempt debit transactions, which the cap does not reach, have risen since 2013.
The next markers are the Federal Reserve’s detailed releases on the 2024 study and the networks’ quarterly results. They will show whether credit keeps outgrowing debit and whether merchant fee litigation keeps weighing on network earnings.
