BY MARCI GAGNON

The newly proposed $ 38 billion Visa / Mastercard swipe-fee settlement, announced on November 10, 2025, is making significant headlines. For many businesses, this settlement represents a valuable opportunity to slow the rising costs associated with accepting credit cards. Although the agreement has not yet been approved, the proposed settlement offers genuine advantages for marketers, along with new challenges for customer experience that will require careful planning.

What Marketers Stand to Gain:

• Small but meaningful fee reductions: Interchange fees will decrease by 0.1 percentage point for five years. While this change may not be transformative, the savings can accumulate considerably over time. The settlement does not specify whether this reduction applies to all interchange categories or only to certain types of merchants.

• Predictable pricing on standard consumer cards: Standard cards will have a cap of 1.25 % for eight years, providing businesses a rare layer of cost stability.

• Flexibility to accept or reject specific card categories: For the first time, merchants could choose whether to accept premium rewards cards, commercial cards, or standard cards. This breaks the long-standing " honor-all-cards " rule that forced acceptance of every card type, including the most expensive ones.

• Expanded surcharging rights: Businesses could apply up to a 3 % surcharge on certain card types to offset higher fees. It is unclear whether this would extend to states that currently do not permit surcharging.

While these are positive steps forward, it should be noted that this deal does not limit other types of network fees( e. g., " network " or " routing " fees) in the same way; critics argue Visa and Mastercard could raise those fees in the future.

The Customer Experience Challenge: Should this settlement pass, businesses must be cautious with customers, as these new benefits come with a delicate customer experience balancing act. Marketers should expect:

• Pushback on surcharges: Shoppers often interpret surcharges as a penalty, even when they simply reflect the costs of processing.

• Awkward customer service interactions: If a marketer stops

accepting premium rewards cards or adds fees to them, staff should expect to receive questions, frustration, and an increase in customer service calls.

• Shifts in card behavior: Consumers love their rewards. Restricting premium cards may change spending patterns or influence where they choose to do business.

If this proposal passes, marketers will have more cost control tools, but using them without harming customer goodwill will require clear signage, consistent messaging, and well-trained staff.

WHAT IT MEANS IN PRACTICE

Marketers can expect modest savings and, more importantly, flexibility. Under the proposed settlement, businesses can decline high-cost rewards cards or steer customers toward lower-cost options. But you ' ll need to manage the customer experience implications carefully.

Consumers choose credit cards for rewards, not efficiency. Anything that interferes with those habits risks frustration or slower payments, potentially extending card-on-file payments for loyal customers to 30 days or more as they transition to different payment methods. Surcharges often feel punitive, and being told " that card costs extra " or " we don ' t take that card " can irritate loyal customers and even prompt them to switch to competitors. Businesses will have more cost-management tools than ever, but using them without damaging loyalty will require a delicate balance.

WILL THE SETTLEMENT ACTUALLY STICK?

Approval is not guaranteed. A previous settlement was rejected, and major merchant groups say this version still doesn ' t go far enough. The merchants ' objections filed last month focus broadly on the limited timeframe of the eight-year fee caps and that the settlement does not require additional changes to reduce fees across all merchants.

Meanwhile, Visa and Mastercard are pushing for approval, arguing in their filing that big box retailers face challenges proving their antitrust claims should the case go to trial and

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18 FEBRUARY 2026 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www. fueloilnews. com