‘We Take Visa, Just Not That One’: New Deal Would Change Credit Card Rules

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‘We Take Visa, Just Not That One’: Are Credit Card Rules About to Change?
If approved by a court, a proposed settlement from Visa and Mastercard would, among other things, allow merchants to decline specific kinds of cards at checkout.
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Visa and Mastercard have proposed a new settlement of a long-running legal battle over credit card “swipe fees” that could upend how you pay (and earn rewards) at checkout — or not.
Previous attempts at settling this decades-long dispute have fizzled in court, and this new proposal also faces legal hurdles and has detractors on both sides of the issue.
Here’s how it might affect you.
What is this settlement about?
It’s a proposal from Visa and Mastercard — the two largest credit card payment networks. Merchants have long argued that Visa and Mastercard are gouging them on the fees they must pay the networks to process card transactions. Those processing fees are known as interchange fees or “swipe fees.”
Sounds like their problem. Why should I care?
Under the proposal, merchants would pay lower interchange fees for a period of time. But it would also loosen rules around credit card surcharges. Some merchants already implement surcharges (a fixed percentage of your bill) to offset interchange fees, but this propoal would let them potentially charge you different fees depending on the kind of credit card you’re using.
Assuming you’re able to use the card at all, that is. You could see changes there, too.
How would it affect what cards I can use?
At the moment, under long-standing network rules, if a merchant accepts Visa cards, it must accept all Visa cards. Same with Mastercard. It can’t decide to, say, take