Payment Card Settlement Payout Date: First and Second Distributions

The first payments from the Visa and Mastercard payment card settlement began going out in February 2026, and as of early June 2026 roughly $414 million has reached about 598,000 merchants on a rolling basis. These are partial payments. At least one more distribution is expected, and a large portion of the $5.54 billion fund is being held back until related appeals are resolved.¹²

When the First Payments Went Out

Class counsel filed a motion on August 20, 2025 asking the court to authorize a partial distribution. Judge Brian Cogan approved it on October 30, 2025, and checks and electronic payments started flowing in February 2026, roughly a year after the claims filing window closed.²

That first round was deliberately narrow. To be included, a claim had to be filed on time, backed by sufficient documentation, free of pending disputes or audits, and worth at least $5.00. Anything smaller or unresolved was held for a later round.²

Every payment issued so far is partial. Once all claims are processed and outstanding legal issues close, each merchant will get a top-up equal to the difference between what they already received and their final pro rata share.²

The Pending Second Distribution

On May 26, 2026, plaintiffs’ counsel asked Judge Cogan to approve a second partial distribution of at least $182 million to roughly 84,000 additional merchants. That motion is pending.¹

The second round is aimed at merchants who were held out of the first for fixable reasons. About 75,000 of them had data mismatches between their claims and the interchange fee records, and those cleared claims account for roughly $125 million of the request. Another 8,400 or so had tax identification number problems, and their share works out to about $56.2 million.¹

To help move disputes along, on June 8, 2026 Judge Cogan reappointed James Orenstein as special master for a new two-year term.¹

Why Most of the Fund Is Still on Hold

Nearly $5 billion remained in the fund after the first partial distribution, and roughly $3.35 billion of that is reserved because of two separate lawsuits that could change who counts as a class member.²¹

One case involves a California salon owner and other merchants who processed payments through Block’s Square product. The question is whether those merchants actually paid interchange fees or whether Block paid the fees and passed the cost along. The other involves gasoline retailers who argue their fuel suppliers, not the retailers themselves, paid the interchange fees.¹

Visa and Mastercard won both cases in the district court, and the Second Circuit ruled in the networks’ favor in May 2026. The plaintiffs in both cases are seeking en banc review and could still petition the Supreme Court, so the reserved $3.35 billion will stay parked until those outcomes are set.¹

How to Check Your Payment Status

Log into the Merchant Portal at paymentcardsettlement.com and open the Account Summary page. Three fields tell you where you stand: Authorization Status, Claim Status, and Payment Status.³

The Payment Status labels have specific meanings. “Paid” means the payment has been issued. “Ready for Payment” means the claim was approved and you needed to pick how you wanted to be paid. “Election Made” means a payment method was chosen or the default kicked in. A blank Payment Status means the claim wasn’t in the first distribution, usually because of disputed fees, missing documentation, or ongoing review.²

Questions can go to the settlement’s phone line at 1-800-625-6440.³

How Much Merchants Are Getting

Your award is based on the actual or estimated interchange fees you paid on Visa and Mastercard transactions between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019. The total value of all valid claims is greater than the $5.54 billion fund, so every award is scaled down proportionally.²

No fixed per-claimant range has been published, because the final numbers depend on the count of valid claims, administrative costs, taxes on the fund, and attorney fees and expenses. As a rough illustration of the math: if the fund were $5 billion and valid claims totaled $125 billion, each claimant would receive about four cents for every dollar of interchange fees claimed.⁴

Who Was Eligible and Whether You Can Still File

The class covered any person, business, or entity that accepted Visa-branded or Mastercard-branded credit or debit cards in the United States between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019. Excluded were the U.S. government, the defendants and their directors, officers, and family members, financial institutions that issued or acquired Visa or Mastercard transactions, and certain plaintiffs who had previously settled their own individual lawsuits.²

The claim filing deadline was February 4, 2025, after two earlier extensions from May 31, 2024 and August 30, 2024. New claims are no longer being accepted.⁵ The opt-out deadline passed on July 23, 2019, so merchants who did not exclude themselves by that date are bound by the settlement whether they filed a claim or not.²

The $38 Billion Settlement Is a Different Case

News coverage sometimes blurs two separate matters. The $5.54 billion damages fund discussed above pays money for past interchange fees. A separate case, Barry’s Cut Rate Stores, Inc. v. Visa, Inc., seeks changes to Visa’s and Mastercard’s network rules on surcharging, discounting, and honor-all-cards. Judge Cogan granted preliminary approval to a revised $38 billion version of that rules-focused settlement on June 9, 2026.⁶ Participation in the damages settlement doesn’t cut merchants out of that separate case; the damages release explicitly preserves those rights.²

1
Payments Dive. Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M
2
Payment Card Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
3
Payment Card Settlement. Payment Card Settlement Home Page
4
Gravity Payments. What You Should Know About the Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement
5
Pennsylvania Petroleum Association. Visa Mastercard Settlement Claims Extended Through February 4, 2025
6
Reuters. US Judge OKs Visa Mastercard $38 Billion Swipe Fee Settlement