Payment UpdateWeek of Oct 5
A tenth of a point off swipe fees, on paper. What the Visa and Mastercard settlement does for a New York restaurant
TL;DR
The settlement trims posted credit interchange by 0.1 percentage point for five years and caps standard consumer cards at 1.25% for eight. Walmart and about a thousand merchants objected by the September 15 deadline. The final approval hearing is November 16. Whether the cut ever reaches your statement depends on how your processor prices you.
What happened
Visa and Mastercard's settlement with US merchants, the end of a legal fight that has run for two decades, got preliminary approval from Judge Brian Cogan in June 2026. The terms: posted credit interchange rates come down by 0.1 percentage point for five years, standard consumer credit cards are capped at 1.25% for eight years, and merchants get more room to decide which card categories to accept. PYMNTS put the estimated value at about $200 billion over eight years.
By the September 15 objection deadline, Walmart and roughly a thousand other merchants had filed against it, calling the relief temporary and meager. Walmart, Circle K and the National Association of Convenience Stores also asked to opt out of the settlement class. The final approval hearing is set for November 16, 2026.
For scale, US merchants paid $198.25 billion in swipe fees in 2025.
What it means for you
Take a pizzeria doing $1 million a year in cards. A tenth of a point is $1,000 a year, if it reaches you.
Interchange is one layer of your rate. A network cut lands on the posted interchange table first, then on your processor's cost, then, maybe, on your statement. On an interchange-plus plan, where you pay interchange plus a fixed markup, the cut passes through automatically. On a flat-rate plan, where you pay one blended percentage, nothing changes until the processor decides to lower the blended rate.
What to do
Find out which plan you are on. It is on the statement, or one question to your rep. If it is interchange plus, the cut will show up on its own when the networks publish the new tables. If it is flat rate, put the question in writing now: when interchange drops, what happens to my rate? Get the answer on record before the November hearing.
Then look at the card mix. The settlement also loosens the rules on which card types a merchant must accept. Ask your processor what that changes for a shop your size before you change anything at the register.
Questions owners ask
Is this in effect yet?
No. Preliminary approval was in June. The final approval hearing is November 16, and objectors are still pressing.
Will my rate drop automatically?
On interchange plus, yes, once the networks publish the change. On flat rate, only if the processor passes it on.
Does the cut cover debit?
The 0.1 point reduction is on credit interchange. Debit is governed separately.
Sources
