The deadline to file a claim in the Visa and Mastercard interchange fee settlement has passed. The court-approved claim filing deadline was February 4, 2025, and no new claims are being accepted. If you already submitted a claim, your payment is still being processed. Here’s what you need to know about where things stand and what to expect.
What This Settlement Is About
This class action settlement resolved claims that Visa, Mastercard, and several major banks conspired to fix interchange fees, the processing fees merchants pay every time a customer swipes a credit card. The settlement created a $5.54 billion fund to compensate merchants who accepted Visa or Mastercard credit cards during the class period. The case received final approval from the district court in December 2019, survived an appeal to the Second Circuit in March 2023, and opened a claims process that ran through early 2025.
The settlement applied to businesses, not individual consumers. If you were a merchant or business owner who accepted Visa or Mastercard credit cards during the qualifying period, you were part of the settlement class unless you specifically opted out before the July 2019 exclusion deadline.
The Filing Deadline Has Passed
The final deadline to submit a claim was February 4, 2025. The official settlement website, paymentcardsettlement.com, is no longer accepting new claim forms. If you missed this deadline, there is no current mechanism to file a late claim. Settlement deadlines in class action cases are strictly enforced by the court, and extensions are extremely rare once the window closes.
If you believe you had a valid claim and missed the deadline, you can monitor the settlement website for any updates, but you should not expect an opportunity to file at this point.
If You Already Filed a Claim
For merchants who submitted claims before the deadline, the process is still ongoing. The settlement administrator is reviewing claims and has begun issuing partial initial payments to some eligible claimants. These early payments represent only a portion of the total award each eligible merchant will eventually receive. Additional payments will follow once all outstanding legal issues are resolved and the full claim review is completed.
The total interchange fees paid by all class members during the qualifying period far exceeds the $5.54 billion settlement fund. Because of this gap, payments are calculated as a percentage of the interchange fees each merchant paid. The exact percentage depends on several factors: how many eligible claims were submitted, the total interchange fees associated with those claims, and the remaining legal costs. The settlement administrator has not yet published the final per-claim percentages, so there is no way to calculate your exact payout right now.
How Payouts Are Calculated
Your share of the settlement is proportional to how much you paid in interchange fees during the class period. A merchant who processed $2 million in credit card transactions paid significantly more in interchange fees than a small shop processing $50,000, so the larger merchant would receive a correspondingly larger payment. Everyone’s payout is scaled by the same percentage, which will be determined once all claims are tallied and reviewed.
Because the settlement fund covers only a fraction of the total interchange fees at issue, individual payouts will be considerably smaller than the full amount any merchant paid in fees. For small businesses, the payment may amount to a few hundred dollars or less. Larger merchants with high transaction volumes could receive substantially more, but no one is being made whole for the full cost of interchange fees they paid over the years.
Watch Out for Third-Party Filing Services
Throughout the claims period, numerous third-party companies contacted merchants offering to file claims on their behalf, typically in exchange for a percentage of the payout (often 25% to 35%). Filing through the official website was always free. If you used a third-party filer, a portion of your settlement payment will go to that company per whatever agreement you signed.
Now that the deadline has passed, be cautious of any company contacting you and claiming it can still file on your behalf or recover additional money. The official settlement website is the only legitimate source for updates. If you receive unsolicited calls, emails, or letters asking for payment or personal financial information related to this settlement, treat them as potential scams. The settlement administrator will never ask you to pay a fee to receive your payment.
Where to Check Your Claim Status
The official settlement website, paymentcardsettlement.com, remains active for claimants to check the status of their submissions. If you filed a claim and have not yet received any payment or correspondence, the site is the best place to look for updates on the distribution timeline. The settlement administrator also sends notifications by mail or email to claimants when payments are ready.
Keep your contact information current with the settlement administrator. If your business has moved, changed ownership, or closed since you filed, updating your details ensures your payment reaches you when it is issued.