topic Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports in Credit in the News

Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Gollum — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 08:09:21 GMT

Article title: "Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports"

From the article: "Visa and Mastercard are nearing a settlement with merchants by lowering fees stores pay and giving them more power to reject certain credit cards..."

https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/visa-mastercard/2025/11/09/id/1233797/ (November 09, 2025)

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

TrapLine — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:37:14 GMT

Did I not read the Judge on the case said denied the proposed Visa and MasterCard settlement. I think so.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Gollum — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:38:06 GMT

@TrapLine wrote:
Did I not read the Judge on the case said denied the proposed Visa and MasterCard settlement. I think so.

I think it's a revised settlement, but the same judge.

From a different article:

"The settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, who rejected the $30 billion accord in June 2024."

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/10/visa-mastercard-reach-revised-swipe-fee-settlement-with-merchants-.html (November 10, 2025) Cookies required.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Patient957 — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:45:55 GMT

@William846Hoff wrote:
Hello!
Visa and Mastercard are close to reaching a settlement with merchants that would reduce the fees retailers pay for credit card transactions and give them more control over which cards they accept. This move could significantly impact payment processing costs and merchant flexibility, especially for small businesses. The settlement reflects growing pressure to reform interchange fees and improve transparency in the credit card industry.

Thanks, botty bot bot.

(Reminds me of the student in Back to School who gives the canned answer about the Vietnam war only to get berated by Professor Turguson (Sam Kinison). "I know that's the popular version...")

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

TrapLine — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 01:11:54 GMT

@Gollum

It appears I got my understanding of the settlement out of order. Glad all of you got it hashed out. Get it now.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

crystal626 — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 05:38:36 GMT

Well this would be the end of a huge part of my credit card portfolio as a lot of businesses would opt out of taking rewards cards.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

USMCOne — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 10:24:59 GMT

Its a joke. This won't be implmented. The vast majority of Americans use some form of rewards cards not a few not a small percentage. More then half use them like only 40 something percent do not and out that do have them its above 80% that use it reguarly.

I simply wouldn't shop at those places that rejected a card I had. Easy peasy. Always a impact when something happens and thats about all that will happen. Say Target decided not to accept Reward Credit Cards and Walmart said you can use them. Target sales would evaporate. The pain of not accpeting them would and will be greater then accepting them.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

MarkintheHV — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 01:57:59 GMT

@TrapLine wrote:
@Gollum

It appears I got my understanding of the settlement out of order. Glad all of you got it hashed out. Get it now.

I dont have a non rewards credit card, but, I dont think many merchants will stop taking rewards credit cards. Imagine the business loss...I for one would not patronize an establishment that refused my Visa Infinite, but, take the persons Visa behind me.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

NoHardLimits — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 18:53:18 GMT

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information regarding the three categories of credit cards: commercial, premium, and consumer. I've read articles which lump Visa Signature, Visa Infinite, World Mastercard, and World Elite Mastercard into the premium category. I've also read articles which seem to say that premium is only made up of the highest fee travel cards like Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite. And, some articles are saying any "rewards cards" are considered premium.

The most telling developments come from seeing who has come out as in favor of, or opposed to, the settlement. The Electronics Payments Coalition (which includes Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, and Citibank) support the settlement. The National Retail Federation and the Merchants Payments Coalition oppose the settlement.

For me personally, I only have rewards cards and they might all be included in the premium category. If a merchant blocks all of my Visas and Mastercards, they had better take Amex or Discover or my business will go elsewhere as I don't like to carry cash.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

TrapLine — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:56:42 GMT

Com'mon MyFicoers ... get in the spirit of things!

We can return to the 1970s and use a credit card only to charge a purchase and revolve with a monthly minimum pay of 10%. No rewards or benefits. Knukcle Busters with Carbon copys for maximum security. Think of it as the basic classical card.

Aw, the telphone (land line store phone) call in for approvals. Bank of America in 1973 used $25 or $50 for the call in break point. You only had to look at the expiration date on the card where if you had an asterik it was $50 or otherwise the minimum was $25 for the call in.

Remember how merchants moved from cash to lower theft with ease of not making change along with no checks ... but now that is ok. Hmm ... I must have missed something! Security improved and no employee theft ... great!

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

crystal626 — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:10:24 GMT

@USMCOne wrote:
Its a joke. This won't be implmented. The vast majority of Americans use some form of rewards cards not a few not a small percentage. More then half use them like only 40 something percent do not and out that do have them its above 80% that use it reguarly.

I simply wouldn't shop at those places that rejected a card I had. Easy peasy. Always a impact when something happens and thats about all that will happen. Say Target decided not to accept Reward Credit Cards and Walmart said you can use them. Target sales would evaporate. The pain of not accpeting them would and will be greater then accepting them.

There are already a bunch of businesses choosing to lose business by charging credit card fees so I fear you are wrong.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Tdatb64 — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:54:22 GMT

It's not that they would stop taking rewards cards altogether, just that they could refuse premium rewards cards that come with higher swipe fees (in order to pay for those premium rewards). So, Sapphire, Venture X, things of that nature. You'd still be fine with your Freedom Unlimited or your Quicksilver. I don't know if "category cards" (that give higher cashback/rewards points for certain spend, ) actually charge higher swipe fees in those categories but, if they do, it might lead to the end of that, as well, as grocery stores, restaraunts, and gas stations stop taking 3%-back cards.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

USMCOne — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 02:10:19 GMT

Thats fine that they don't like I said they do not have to have my business. Take Target for instance. Walmart is killing them on people choosing for some various reasons not to shop there anymore. There choice to go that route people's choice not to partake. The end result is Target is shrinking, losing money and laying off workers. Once the head gets out of the kiester then business returns. Same with Cracker Barrel.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

crystal626 — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 02:55:37 GMT

@Tdatb64 wrote:
It's not that they would stop taking rewards cards altogether, just that they could refuse premium rewards cards that come with higher swipe fees (in order to pay for those premium rewards). So, Sapphire, Venture X, things of that nature. You'd still be fine with your Freedom Unlimited or your Quicksilver. I don't know if "category cards" (that give higher cashback/rewards points for certain spend, ) actually charge higher swipe fees in those categories but, if they do, it might lead to the end of that, as well, as grocery stores, restaraunts, and gas stations stop taking 3%-back cards.

Premium rewards is almost certainly going to mean any card that's not a basic VISA or MasterCard as those base level cards have the lowest fees.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Zoostation1 — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 05:25:01 GMT

@crystal626 I'm not playing that game with any of the places I frequent. I tend to support local restaurants and bars, but I'm not willing to deal with taking one MC or Visa but not another etc. If places I frequent start not accepting certain cards only I'm going go to stop going there and as much as I hate to do it I won't go back. In some ways I feel like all of the potential settlement options just lead to large companies getting a better deal than they do now, but without long term benefit to smaller retailers that will lose more business than they save in fees if they stop taking certain cards.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

TrapLine — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:17:00 GMT

@crystal626

In my local geographic area the Chambers of Commerce put their heads together and worked with the merchants of all sizes to implement a 3.99% surcharge. Cash or paper checks are fine.

Glad employee time, theft and fraud is not a concern. There are now challenges because it is not realistic to boycott all the merchants. We lost so many due to the shut downs of retail, choices are quite limted!

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Ascanius — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 14:45:14 GMT

I live in a smaller metro and there are simply not a lot of great options. If a handful of restaurants opted to ban rewards cards, I probably wouldn't be able to "vote with my wallet" because that would mean either getting significantly worse food or eating at the same places over and over.

Not to be alarmist, but this strikes me as a serious departure from a core value of credit card networks: if you see the logo on the sign, you can trust that your payment will be accepted there. What is the point of a payment network if merchants can opt out?

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

Zoostation1 — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 03:11:33 GMT

3.99% is basically giving customers the middle finger since they're likely making a profit on the surcharge at that point (I doubt they're paying that high of a percentage).

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

crystal626 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 01:32:08 GMT

@TrapLine wrote:
@crystal626

In my local geographic area the Chambers of Commerce put their heads together and worked with the merchants of all sizes to implement a 3.99% surcharge. Cash or paper checks are fine.

Glad employee time, theft and fraud is not a concern. There are now challenges because it is not realistic to boycott all the merchants. We lost so many due to the shut downs of retail, choices are quite limted!

That's so ridiculous. They're not supposed to be charging fees on debit cards. That's WAY beyond what debit card fees cost them.

Re: Visa and Mastercard Near Settlement with Merchants, Would Lower Fees, WSJ Reports

crystal626 — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 01:33:20 GMT

@Ascanius wrote:
I live in a smaller metro and there are simply not a lot of great options. If a handful of restaurants opted to ban rewards cards, I probably wouldn't be able to "vote with my wallet" because that would mean either getting significantly worse food or eating at the same places over and over.

Not to be alarmist, but this strikes me as a serious departure from a core value of credit card networks: if you see the logo on the sign, you can trust that your payment will be accepted there. What is the point of a payment network if merchants can opt out?

Same situation here. We already eat at the same handful of places because there's nothing else within a 10 minute drive so if they all institute fees we will either have to suck it up and pay them or just not eat out anymore.