Report on Debit Card Usage in United States – Total Transactions, Frauds, Fees and All Details

The United States of America has published a report on debit card usage. In the report, you can get details of total transactions, frauds, fees, costs and all details. The report released in December 2025 highlights the usage of cards in 2023. Important points related to the debit cards are given below.

Card Use

In 2023, payment card networks in the United States processed 100.7 billion debit and general-use prepaid card transactions valued at $4.7 trillion. Total debit card transaction volume and value both grew at an average rate of 4.6 percent per year from 2021 to 2023. This growth was significantly slower than the average annual growth recorded from 2009 to 2021, which was 7.8 percent by volume and 9.5 percent by value.

Dual-message networks, which traditionally processed mainly signature-authenticated transactions, accounted for 71.4 percent of total transaction volume and 72.9 percent of total transaction value in 2023. Single-message networks, which traditionally processed PIN-authenticated transactions, accounted for the remaining share. Since 2009, the share of dual-message transactions has increased steadily by 9.0 percentage points.

From 2021 to 2023, annual growth in dual-message transactions was higher than that of single-message transactions, at 7.0 percent by volume and 6.4 percent by value. During the same period, single-message transaction value showed very little growth, while transaction volume declined over the two years. This decline was driven by the first-ever annual fall in single-message transaction volume of 2.2 percent between 2021 and 2022.

Card-not-present (CNP) transactions reached 34.4 percent of total transaction volume and nearly half of total transaction value in 2023. CNP transactions have consistently grown faster than card-present (CP) transactions since 2009. Between 2021 and 2023, CNP transaction volume grew at an annual rate of 8.2 percent, compared to 2.8 percent growth for CP transactions. However, this growth was much slower than the rapid expansion seen during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 to 2021, when CNP transactions grew at 26.5 percent per year, and slower than the 17.8 percent annual growth recorded from 2009 to 2019.

In 2023, the average value of a CNP transaction remained higher than that of a CP transaction, at $63.96 compared to $36.99. Over time, however, the average value of CNP transactions has declined as e-commerce has expanded to include lower-value purchases. In 2023, the average CNP transaction value was 1.7 times that of CP transactions, down from 2.3 times in 2009.

From 2021 to 2023, annual transaction volume growth for transactions subject to Regulation II interchange fee standards, known as covered transactions, was slightly higher at 4.8 percent compared to 4.2 percent growth for transactions exempt from these standards.

From 2021 to 2023, prepaid card transactions continued to grow faster than non-prepaid card transactions. Prepaid card transaction volume grew at an annual rate of 11.5 percent, while transaction value grew by 7.0 percent. In comparison, non-prepaid card transactions grew at a much slower pace, with volume increasing by 2.7 percent per year and value by 3.3 percent per year. In fact, prepaid card transactions became the fastest-growing category for the first time since 2015, recording a growth of 19.7 percent from 2022 to 2023 and surpassing card-not-present transactions.

Interchange Fees, Network Fees, and Incentives

In 2023, interchange fees across all debit and general-use prepaid card transactions amounted to $34.12 billion. This represented an average annual increase of 3.9 percent since 2021. For transactions covered under Regulation II, the average interchange fee level has remained largely unchanged since the regulation came into effect in the fourth quarter of 2011. In 2023, the average interchange fee for covered transactions processed over single-message networks was $0.24, while the average fee for those processed over dual-message networks was $0.22.

For transactions exempt from Regulation II, the average interchange fee stood at $0.52 in 2023. This average gradually increased from $0.43 after the regulation took effect to $0.52 in 2021 and remained stable through 2023. For exempt transactions processed over dual-message networks, the average interchange fee declined slightly from $0.64 in 2021 to $0.62 in 2023, reversing the earlier upward trend seen since 2011. In contrast, exempt transactions processed over single-message networks saw interchange fees fall from $0.31 in 2011 to $0.25 in 2017, before gradually increasing again to $0.27 in 2023.

Network fees paid by all parties rose to $12.95 billion in 2023, up from $11.49 billion in 2021. The average network fee per transaction increased to $0.129 in 2023, compared with $0.125 in 2021 and $0.098 in 2011. However, when measured as a percentage of the average transaction value, the network fee remained largely unchanged at 0.28 percent in 2023, similar to levels seen since Regulation II was introduced.

In 2023, acquirers and merchants paid 64.9 percent of total network fees, an increase from 63.9 percent in 2021, while issuers paid the remaining share. This reflects a long-term trend in which the share of network fees borne by acquirers and merchants has steadily increased, rising from 44.3 percent in 2009.

Fraud Losses

In 2023, across all transactions for covered issuers, fraud losses borne by all parties amounted to 17.6 basis points of transaction value, which is equal to $17.63 per $10,000 in transactions. This shows a steady rise in fraud losses over time, increasing from 7.8 basis points in 2011.

During 2023, merchants absorbed the largest share of losses from fraudulent transactions reported by covered issuers. Merchants bore 49.9 percent of total fraud losses, up from 46.9 percent in 2021 and 38.3 percent in 2011. In contrast, issuers absorbed 28.3 percent of fraud losses in 2023, a decline from 33.4 percent in 2021 and 59.8 percent in 2011. Cardholders, who bear the remaining portion of fraud losses, saw their share rise sharply from less than 1.8 percent in 2011 to 21.8 percent in 2023.

Across all transaction categories in 2023, prepaid card transactions recorded the highest fraud losses as a share of transaction value and also the highest rate of fraudulent transactions. Fraud losses for prepaid transactions stood at 312.6 basis points, with fraudulent transactions accounting for 1.12 percent of total prepaid transactions. Dual-message transactions recorded the second-highest fraud levels, with losses of 17.9 basis points and a fraud incidence of 0.12 percent. Single-message transactions continued to have the lowest fraud levels, at 6.7 basis points and a fraud rate of 0.03 percent, a trend that has remained consistent since 2011.

Issuer Costs

In terms of issuer costs, the average per-transaction cost for authorization, clearing, and settlement, excluding issuer fraud losses, was $0.041 in 2023. This is roughly half of the cost recorded in 2009 and slightly higher than the $0.039 recorded in 2021.

In 2023, the base interchange fee cap under Regulation II, excluding the fraud-prevention adjustment, which is calculated as $0.21 plus 5 basis points of the transaction value, exceeded the average per-transaction authorization, clearing, and settlement costs, including issuer fraud losses, for 80.1 percent of covered issuers and for 99.2 percent of covered transactions.