Mastercard and Visa agree to pay $197 million over ATM fee accusations

CHARLOTTE — Your credit card company could end up paying you for a change.

Mastercard and Visa agreed to settle a lawsuit and pay at least 175 million consumers a combined $197 million. Plaintiffs claim the companies overcharged ATM fees.

You could get part of the payout if you used Mastercard or Visa to take out cash from an ATM -- specifically one run by a bank -- and specifically since 2007.

“I’ll take it. I’ll definitely take it,” a consumer, Ebony Patterson-Settles, said.

The judge still needs to sign off on the deal.

Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke will make sure you know how to apply for the money if and when the time comes.

Even though they agree to settle, Mastercard and Visa have denied any wrongdoing. Mastercard told Stoogenke no comment. Visa didn’t respond in time for this report.

According to various news reports, another lawsuit for consumers who used ATMs not run by a bank is still going on and so is one from merchants, claiming the credit card companies overcharged them too.

“The big problem has been that Visa and Mastercard, in all aspects of their business, fix these prices and make them artificially high. The more courts step in and show them that that is not a good way to do business, the better off consumers will be,” the General Counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, Doug Kantor, said.

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