Two Visa and Mastercard settlements, and only one is paying you

There are two Visa and Mastercard settlements running at the same time, and they are constantly mistaken for each other. One is paying merchants money right now. The other changes nothing yet and may not take effect until the end of the decade. If you accepted cards between 2004 and 2019, the difference is worth real money to you.

Settlement one: the money. It is paying out now.

This is the $5.5 billion damages settlement, agreed in 2018 and given final approval in 2019 after a long appeal history. It covers all businesses in the United States that accepted Visa or Mastercard branded cards at any time between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019.

It is in distribution. The court approved a second partial distribution on June 15, 2026, and payments went out on a rolling basis through September 2026, worth at least $182 million across roughly 84,000 claimants. About $414 million had been paid before that round.

The official claims site is paymentcardsettlement.com. It is free to check. You do not need anyone's help to file, and nobody should be charging you a percentage to do it for you.

Settlement two: the rules. It changes nothing yet.

This is the 2026 forward-looking settlement, and it is the one in the news. Judge Brian Cogan granted it preliminary approval on June 9, 2026. Class counsel moved for final approval on July 15.

On September 10, a coalition of 978 merchants and trade groups filed objections asking the court to reject it. Walmart has objected through counsel. The National Association of Convenience Stores has said it will appeal to the Second Circuit if final approval is granted.

If it does survive, here is the schedule. Rule changes follow within roughly 60 to 90 days of the approval date. The interchange reductions cannot begin until at least four months after approval, and must line up with the April or October release cycles when the networks normally adjust interchange. Final approval is expected late 2026 into 2027. One analysis puts full implementation at 2029 once appeals are exhausted.

What it would eventually do

• Reduce the system-wide volume-weighted average effective credit interchange rate by about 10 basis points for five years, measured against the twelve months ending March 31, 2025.
• Freeze posted commercial, premium consumer and standard consumer rates at March 31, 2025 levels for five years.
• Cap standard consumer credit at 1.25% for eight years.
• End the honor all cards rule, letting a merchant decline some higher-cost premium and commercial credit cards.
• Reduce the surcharge cap on Visa and Mastercard credit cards to 1%.

What we'd suggest doing

On settlement one: check whether you are owed anything. Five minutes on the official site, no cost, and it is unrelated to anything else.

On settlement two: change nothing on the strength of it. It binds nobody until final judgment is entered, and anyone telling you to restructure your pricing now because of it is ahead of the facts. We covered the surcharge cap implications separately, and the short version is that a discount is not a surcharge and is unaffected either way.

Both of these are United States only. Canadian interchange runs on its own settlements and the Code of Conduct.

Update, October 22, 2026: the final approval hearing on the forward-looking settlement is November 16, 2026. See our update.