Marketers lose far more money to operational leakage than they’ll ever gain from a tenth of a percent settlement reduction
The proposed $38 billion Visa/Mastercard swipe-fee settlement, announced on November 10, 2025, has been making headlines — and any time swipe fees are in the news, marketers pay attention.
Here’s my honest takeaway: This settlement is being positioned as a big win for merchants, but in practice it won’t move the needle for most marketers. Even if the agreement is approved, the savings are expected to be modest. And while the settlement may introduce some flexibility around card acceptance rules, it doesn’t solve the real issue many companies face: marketers are operating with payment setups that aren’t fully optimized, which can lead to higher interchange costs and reduced profitability.
What The Settlement Proposes (at a high level)
If approved, the settlement includes:
- A 0.10% interchange reduction for five years
- A cap of 1.25% on standard consumer cards for eight years
- Potential flexibility around which card categories merchants accept (i.e premium rewards cards, commercial cards, or standard cards)
- Expanded surcharging rights in certain cases
Those changes sound meaningful. In reality, for most marketers, they won’t materially change what’s driving costs today.
Why The Settlement Doesn’t Solve The Problem
Interchange fees make up roughly 70% of the fees on a marketer’s statement. However, this can balloon to as much as 90% of the company’s total fees due to inefficiencies and avoidable charges that come back in from your payment processor.
The most common drivers of unnecessary expense are things like:
- Avoidable interchange downgrades
- Missing utility qualification on eligible transactions
- Not passing Level II and Level III data on commercial cards
- Paying third-party gateway fees
- Transaction handling issues (authorization, capture, settlement timing)
In other words, marketers are losing far more money to operational leakage than they’ll ever gain from a tenth of a percent settlement reduction.
The Real Savings: Leveraging Technology and Best Practices
If you want to materially reduce payment expense, focus on what’s proven to work today:
1) Proper interchange optimization: Many marketers assume they’re already optimized — but an audit can find avoidable downgrades that quietly inflate effective rates month after month. Payments optimization is not a one-time setup. It’s ongoing best practices, correct configuration, and making sure transactions are flowing the way the card brands intend.
2) Level II and Level III data on commercial cards: Commercial cards can be expensive, but they also offer one of the biggest opportunities for found revenue. Passing Level II and Level III data correctly is one of the most reliable ways to reduce interchange on eligible transactions — especially for larger deliveries and higher-ticket payments.
3) Eliminating unnecessary middlemen and redundant fees: This is a big one. Many marketers have too many vendors in the payment stack: a processor, a gateway, and often additional fees layered on top of both. That structure commonly creates:
- Third-party gateway fees
- Redundant monthly charges
- Tokenization and vault fees
- Extra per-transaction costs
Cutting out unnecessary middlemen can create immediate savings without changing anything about how customers pay.
4) Better reporting that shows where the cost actually is: Most businesses don’t have visibility into what is driving their payment expense at a granular level. With the right reporting, marketers can see cost by:
- Card type
- Customer segment
- Transaction method
- Interchange category
- Downgrades and exceptions
Recommendation For Marketers
Watch the settlement, but don’t rely on it.
If your goal is to reduce fees, you’ll get a far better return by focusing on fundamentals: optimization, commercial card data, and eliminating unnecessary costs in the payment flow.
We will continue to follow the proposed settlement closely and share updates as more details emerge. But regardless of what happens in court, marketers can take action today. The largest savings opportunities are already available and they come from leveraging the right payment technology and best practices to ensure transactions qualify for the lowest cost programs possible.
Jon Gilbert, Director of Business Development at Qualpay, oversees business development and sales efforts while working closely with partners to educate merchants on effective cash flow management practices. He can be reached at (207) 321-1150 or jon@qualpay.com.
