Visa and Mastercard Settle ATM Fee Lawsuit for $167 Million

Visa and Mastercard will reportedly pay $167.5 million to settle a long-running ATM fee lawsuit.

That’s according to a report Friday (Dec. 19) from Reuters, citing court documents in a case that had accused the payment giants of conspiring to artificially boost ATM access fees.

According to the report, the agreement would potentially pay millions of ATM users who were charged an unreimbursed access fee to get cash from independent, non-bank ATMs. Under this agreement, Visa would pay roughly $88.8 million and Mastercard around $78.7 million to a fund for eligible customers with qualifying ATM transactions made since October 2007.

PYMNTS has contacted both companies for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The suit was filed in 2011, challenging industry rules by the two companies that allegedly prevented independent ATM operators from offering lower prices. Mastercard and Visa have denied any wrongdoing.

Last year, the companies agreed to pay $197.5 million to settle related claims from a different group of ATM users who claimed they were overcharged at bank-operated ATMs. A trio of banks — Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase — agreed to pay $66 million to settle claims against them in that case in 2021.

In the court filing plaintiffs attorneys called the settlement “an excellent result in light of the risks of continued prosecution” and said they plan to ask the court to award them up to 30% of the fund, or about $50 million, to cover their legal fees.

In related news, Visa in its 2026 outlook estimated that there is still around $11 trillion in cash in circulation around the world.

“Paper money is not going to disappear any time soon since there is just so much of it still around the globe,” Visa Group President Oliver Jenkyn said in the outlook. “And this will fuel innovation and growth in digital payments in many countries for years to come.

“However, the global cash curve is bending,” Jenkyn added, noting that “2026 will be the first year in history when half of the world’s total consumer payments are made with card credentials.”

That $11 trillion allows for a continuance of trends that PYMNTS Intelligence has monitored in the last several months, underscoring Visa’s outlook for credentials and digital options.

“Cash remains deeply woven into informal economies, small-value transactions and regions where banking access is limited or uneven, paving the way for digital channels,” PYMNTS wrote last week. “Even in advanced economies, consumers often turn to cash for budgeting, privacy or when digital options introduce friction.”