Letters to the Editor | April 23, 2026

Former U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey argues that lawmakers in Delaware and Pennsylvania should not attempt to regulate the “swipe fees” charged by credit card companies. He highlights the supposed benefits of these fees and warns of negative consequences if banks are restricted from charging them.

Toomey omits a crucial detail: how much these fees actually cost consumers. That omission is telling. He insists the fees are beneficial, yet never discloses their size or impact.

In reality, banks typically charge merchants between about 1% and 2.5% of every transaction — and those costs are passed directly on to consumers through higher prices. Even more troubling, consumers have virtually no way to avoid these fees. In today’s economy, using a credit or debit card is often unavoidable, even for those who pay off their balances immediately to avoid interest. The result is a hidden surcharge embedded in nearly every purchase.

What’s more, the modest proposals under consideration in Delaware and Pennsylvania don’t even attempt to reduce total swipe fees. Instead, they aim only to stop banks from applying these fees to tips and state sales taxes — amounts merchants never actually keep. Even this limited reform has faced opposition.

Consumers deserve better than a system that quietly extracts a percentage from nearly every dollar they spend. If lawmakers are serious about protecting the public, they should not only support these targeted reforms but go further. It’s time to bring transparency and fairness to swipe fees — and to ensure they are set at a level that is reasonable for everyone.

Ellen A. Bryson, West Chester

After a 12-year stint in the U.S. Senate, during which he was near laser-focused on protecting and advancing the agenda of conservatives and abetting the 1%, Pat Toomey has now emerged as a friend of the struggling masses.

He undertakes this new role in an op-ed, in which he tries to convince us that proposed legislation to reduce “swipe” fees on credit cards would be injurious to both consumers and merchants. The proposed bills would eliminate fees on sales tax in Pennsylvania and tips in Delaware. These fees are paid by merchants to credit card companies as a ”convenience fee.” Of course, they are ultimately passed on and paid by consumers.

Toomey contends these proposals would require NASA-like changes to merchants’ computer systems and be exorbitantly expensive — that is, of course, complete nonsense.

Simple software changes could easily institute these savings, unlike Toomey’s red-herring prediction of mass confusion, and the probability that consumers would need to pay separately for tipping and tax, which is convoluted and misleading information.

As Toomey feigns empathy with those struggling with the current economic instability and runaway increases, it is credit card companies that stand to lose a minuscule portion of their obscene profits.

Even out of office, Toomey’s efforts to increase wealth disparity remain unchanged.

J. Savage, Philadelphia

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