What the Latest Visa/Mastercard Settlement Means for Dealerships
Heads up to all dealership leaders: there’s a significant shift brewing in the card-processing world that could impact how you handle credit-card fees, surcharging and payment acceptance across sales, service and parts. It’s not massive overnight savings. But it does open the door to changes many dealers haven’t yet explored.
What Happened
Back in 2005, major retailers and merchant groups sued Visa, Mastercard and the issuing banks in the U.S., alleging the networks set interchange (“swipe”) fees too high and enforced rules that prevented merchants from steering customers to lower-cost payment methods.
Fast-forward nearly 20 years: a settlement with merchants has now been announced that will:
Reduce average interchange fees (though modestly).
Loosen certain network rules around surcharging, steering or differential pricing.
Give merchants a bit more flexibility at checkout to manage cost or choose which card types to accept (or decline).
In short: the card-networks have agreed to certain concessions, not full overhaul, that may benefit merchants. For dealerships, this means your payments infrastructure and acceptance policy could become a lever-not just a cost burden.
Why This Matters at the Dealership Level
Here’s how the implications map into the dealership world (sales, F&I, service, parts):
High-ticket transactions = high exposure. When you accept premium rewards cards (consumer, commercial) for vehicle deposits, pay-offs, big service jobs or parts orders, you’re paying higher merchant costs. If you can segment card types and tailor acceptance or fees, you improve margin.
Surcharging and dual-pricing become more viable. If the networks allow more flexibility, you may be able to safely steer customers to lower-cost payment methods (debit, ACH, cash) or reflect cost differences from certain card types - something that many dealerships already silently absorb.
Card-type strategy becomes competitive advantage. If you can smartly manage which cards you accept or impose differentiated pricing (transparent to customers), you can turn processing cost into strategic advantage instead of blind loss.
But experience risk remains. Declining a card or charging more for a premium card isn’t free of risk, especially when you’re delivering a vehicle or closing an F&I deal. The trade-off: margin vs. experience.
Timing and readiness matter. The settlement is not fully in effect yet, or may still require court approval. If you wait until the change is mandated, you’re reactive. If you start exploring now, you lead.
Key Questions For Your Payments/Processing Partners
Given this shift, here are questions you should raise in your upcoming processor/merchant-acquirer meeting (for your brand, your service lanes, your parts counter, your sales office):
Can you break out card-cost for us by category (standard consumer credit, premium rewards credit, commercial cards, debit, ACH) for our volumes?
Given the settlement-changes, what acceptance policy flexibility will we have (declining certain card types, selective surcharging, dual-pricing)? What system upgrades or contract changes will be required?
What’s our real cost per transaction today vs what it could be if we implement selective acceptance or steering?
What are the compliance risks (network rules, state laws) if we change acceptance or surcharge policy?
Do our current contracts allow mid-term changes in acceptance policy or routing/pricing logic? Are there exit or amendment costs?
How will we monitor and report card-type mix (premium vs standard), surcharge yield, customer payment behavior shifts and CSI/experience impact?
What’s our fallback plan- if we decline certain cards or raise price for them - so we don’t damage customer relationships or lose business?
Bottom Line for Dealers
This isn’t a sweeping overhaul that immediately drops your card cost by percentage-points. But it is a handle we didn’t have before: more choice, more segmentation, more potential to convert cost into strategic advantage.
For dealerships running multiple departments (Sales, Service, Parts, F&I) the smart move isn’t to wait. It’s to inventory your current acceptance/status, run scenarios (what if we steer more ACH/debit? what if we decline premium cards above $X?), and build a policy that fits your margin-profile and customer experience goals.
In short: get ahead of the change rather than letting it catch you off guard.