Americans’ love affair with credit cards shows no signs of cooling anytime soon. The proof is in the numbers:

• In our nation of 332 million people, more than 564 million credit cards circulate.

• Americans purchased more than $8 trillion in goods and services with credit cards in 2021, a 25 percent jump over 2020.

• Americans’ total credit card balance was $986 billion in the first quarter of 2023, the highest amount owed since tracking began in 1999.

Those data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also underscore the need for all credit card transactions to be processed fairly and cost-efficiently for consumers and businesses alike. Such is clearly not the case under the current credit card duopoly of Visa and Mastercard.

With effectively no competition, the two credit card giants have had free rein to increase their processing costs or swipe fees willy nilly over the years. Those fees have more than doubled over the past decade to a whopping $160.7 billion 2022 and now rank as the second highest cost for businesses after labor. As a result, those fees paid for the convenience of credit card use drove up consumer prices by $1,000 last year for the average family, according to the National Retail Federation.

Enter U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and a group of Democrat and Republican senators who have proposed a remedy for this massive consumer rip-off. It takes the form of the Credit Card Competition Act, introduced in the upper chamber of Congress earlier this month. A companion bill also was introduced in the U.S. House.

The bill Vance is co-sponsoring would require the Federal Reserve to issue regulations to ensure large banks must have at least two unaffiliated networks on which electronic credit transactions may be processed; at least one of which must be outside the two largest networks of Visa and Mastercard. Banks with assets of $100 billion would be excluded.

Ohio’s junior senator is adamant about crushing the Visa-Mastercard oligopoly.

“We want competition, because we want to enhance the operation of the free market in this industry,” Vance rightly argued.

The high swipe fees in place today — seven times higher than those in the European Union — leave merchants no other choice than to raise prices proportionally on their goods and services to eke out a tiny profit. Meanwhile Visa last year yielded a whopping profit margin of 50 percent while Mastercard’s hit almost 45 percent.

The CCCA bill, whose main sponsor is Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., seeks to enhance competition by opening the industry to new credit card processors, such as current debit-only networks. They, in turn, could compete with the two giants by offering lower fees to attract customers.

Those who doubt the potential benefits of the act need only analyze the results of the (Dick) Durbin Amendment to the landmark 2014 Dodd-Frank Act. Under that law, regulated banks are limited to charging no more than 0.05 percent — 21 cents (22 cents if fraud is suspected) per debit-card transaction. Lower fees, heightened security and less impact on merchants have resulted.

Despite the many sound reasons to swiftly move the CCCA through Congress, organized opposition from the major credit card networks and large banks aims to thwart the reforms, as they did successfully in 2022 when similar legislation was introduced. Many in the banking industry crow the bill would hurt credit card reward programs. Truth be told, however, the popularity of rewards programs has been a major driver of those skyrocketing processing fees. And the rewards that are offered seldom trickle down to lower-income card holders.

Still, Vance acknowledges the legislation “has a particularly tough road to hoe. Not just with Republicans.” Given that realistic assessment, it is key for groups and individuals concerned about fairness for consumers and merchants to urge their federal lawmakers to support the act.

Already, many have done so. Those endorsing the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 include the National Retail Federation, Energy Marketers of America, National Association of Convenience Stores, American Beverage Licensees, National Grocers Association, National Restaurant Association, National Association of Theater Owners and more than 200 state and regional business associations.

We salute Vance for waging the good fight against almighty banking interests and strongly encourage his peers to do the same toward adopting the bill and bringing maximum fairness to those convenient credit card transactions Americans so fancy.