Shumita Basu
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When you make a purchase with a credit card, you wouldn't think that the price could be different based on which card you use, or that a business might tell you that they only take a certain kind of Visa or MasterCard, for example.
But a proposed settlement this week, potentially ending a 20-year-long legal battle, could in fact lead to those very circumstances.
And the biggest impact could be felt by those with high rewards cards.
It all has to do with swipe fees, those little costs that businesses pay when you use a credit card.
Josiana Joshua is a corporate finance reporter for Bloomberg News.
The honor all cards rule dictates that merchants are required to accept all types of Visa or MasterCard if they accept any cards from either company.
Back in 2005, retailers filed a class action lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard.
Merchants claimed that card issuers' fees and acceptance terms were anti-competitive in the marketplace.
Now, this is where the high rewards cards come into it.
As consumers increasingly seek out cards with higher annual fees and bigger rewards for things like hotels and airlines, businesses have had to pay higher swipe fees to help fund those fancy points and rewards.
The fees themselves are small, but they add up.
Altogether, businesses paid more than $100 billion last year in these swipe fees.
If the settlement does get approved, it could create some headaches for customers trying to use high-rewards cards.
In the short term, not a lot is expected to change.
A whopping 90 percent of credit card spending is on rewards cards.
So many analysts say it would be harmful to retailers to choose to start rejecting them.
Long term, what this might end up looking like if this proposed settlement goes through is some businesses may choose to tack on an extra fee to process rewards cards to help cover the cost.
A court approved outcome is still months away.
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