VISA/Mastercard Settlement

**ISUAgronomist** · 07-13-2012, 09:26 PM

Visa, MasterCard in $7.3 billion settlement over credit card fees - Bottom Line

Visa, MasterCard and the nation's biggest banks have agreed to pay $7.3 billion to millions of merchants to end a seven-year dispute over credit card “swipe” fees. The settlement includes at least $6.05 billion in payments to some 7 million merchants for past damages and a temporary reduction in fees valued at $1.2 billion.

Visa alone has agreed to pay $4.4 billion to settle the class action and related individual claims from merchants who alleged the card issuers violated the Sherman antitrust act by fixing the fees imposed to process credit card transactions.

The settlement agreement also would give merchants new rights to impose a surcharge on credit transactions, subject to a cap and other limitations. The rules governing such surcharges likely would be implemented in early 2013.

**Let's Go State** · 07-13-2012, 10:01 PM

Wow! How can they float that?

**crash_zone** · 07-13-2012, 11:37 PM

about time. Those fees should be a flat rate per transaction, not the % of transaction they are currently.

**brianhos** · 07-14-2012, 06:45 AM

Great, now merchants can do a credit card surcharge.

**mkadl** · 07-14-2012, 07:05 AM

1st question is-- what court or whatever gets to accept this? 2nd----Is this just an agreement between rwo lobbying groups? 3rd---This isn't a law is it?, it just a win win situation for both parties involved. Oh yeah buy AXP they have a huge moat. Someone correct me if I misunderstand this.

**bpmdu** · 07-14-2012, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by brianhos

Great, now merchants can do a credit card surcharge.

I think we'll be seeing a LOT more of this in the near future. IMO this wasn't great for the consumer as we'll be seeing higher cost for CC purchases.

**aeroclone** · 07-14-2012, 09:17 AM

Originally Posted by brianhos

Great, now merchants can do a credit card surcharge.

Yeah, boo this. Won't take long for this to spread like wildfire.

**Let's Go State** · 07-14-2012, 09:18 AM

I think competition in this are is about to step up.

**crash_zone** · 07-14-2012, 09:20 AM

Originally Posted by bpmdu

I think we'll be seeing a LOT more of this in the near future. IMO this wasn't great for the consumer as we'll be seeing higher cost for CC purchases.

It also wasn't great for the consumer to have visa and master card making huge profits on something that is relatively a low cost activity.

If you don't want to pay the fee, pay in cash.

**abcguyks** · 07-14-2012, 09:22 AM

I don't understand all of your whining. It costs merchants extra money to process credit transactions as opposed to cash sales. Until now, cash customers have been subsidizing credit consumers by paying for the cost of credit transaction fees that they are not using. This new way seems to place the costs equitably.

Nobody is forcing anyone to use credit cards. Credit cards are for the convenience of the purchaser. Any additional costs for that convenience should be born by the purchaser.

**bpmdu** · 07-14-2012, 09:47 AM

Originally Posted by abcguyks

Nobody is forcing anyone to use credit cards. Credit cards are for the convenience of the purchaser. Any additional costs for that convenience should be born by the purchaser.

No they're not. They're a vital portion of most retailers sales. Do you think most buyers out there are willing, or able, to walk in to a case good retailer with fistfuls of cash?
The increase in sales from not having to have cash on hand offsets any deficits the retailer would pay to process cards. Who is more apt to make impulse purchases a guy with a credit card or a guy with 100 $ in cash?

**baller21** · 07-14-2012, 10:02 AM

will this include debit cards?

**Hawkeye11en1** · 07-14-2012, 10:07 AM

I pay roughly $1500 a month just so people can use CCs.

**Hawkeye11en1** · 07-14-2012, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by bpmdu

No they're not. They're a vital portion of most retailers sales. Do you think most buyers out there are willing, or able, to walk in to a case good retailer with fistfuls of cash?
The increase in sales from not having to have cash on hand offsets any deficits the retailer would pay to process cards. Who is more apt to make impulse purchases a guy with a credit card or a guy with 100 $ in cash?

Do you know how easy it is for the consumer to dispute (and win) a CC transaction? Very easy. Not to mention the amount of closed/declined CCs running around. It's everywhere.

**jdoggivjc** · 07-14-2012, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by abcguyks

I don't understand all of your whining. It costs merchants extra money to process credit transactions as opposed to cash sales. Until now, cash customers have been subsidizing credit consumers by paying for the cost of credit transaction fees that they are not using. This new way seems to place the costs equitably.

Nobody is forcing anyone to use credit cards. Credit cards are for the convenience of the purchaser. Any additional costs for that convenience should be born by the purchaser.

But the vast majority of the consumer public DOESN'T KNOW that that is what occurs. Which means stores are going to play off the naivety of us consumers and keep prices high while adding the new credit card fee on top of it.