Mastercard compensation: you could be eligible for up to £70 payout

Did you know that you – and tens of millions others – are likely to be eligible to make a claim for a payout from Mastercard, simply by filling in an online form? You don’t even need to have owned a Mastercard to qualify.

A long-running legal claim against Mastercard has concluded, with a £200 million settlement finally agreed. Solicitor Gary Rycroft, an expert in consumer affairs, says: “It’s particularly relevant to Saga readers as the years that have been identified as the parameters for claiming are very much when people now aged 50-plus were most economically active, and so almost all potentially have a claim.”

What’s on this page?

1. Why is Mastercard paying compensation?
2. Who can claim?
3. How to claim
4. How much will you get?
5. Is it safe to claim?

Why is Mastercard paying compensation?

When you pay for something with a credit or debit card, the payment is processed by a middleman, such as Mastercard, which charges a fee to the retailer for handling the transaction. The legal claim against Mastercard alleged that Mastercard’s card processing fees were unlawfully high between 1992 and 2008. It argued that as a result of this, retailers had passed the costs on to all shoppers by increasing prices.

The claim started back in 2016, and was brought by a former Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, Walter Merricks. The claim was originally for £14bn in damages. After a long-running battle, in December 2024, a £200 million settlement was agreed by the two parties. Importantly, this was without any admission of liability by Mastercard.

After the settlement, Merricks said that this much lower amount reflected new information that came to light through the legal process that the fees he alleged were unlawfully high applied to only “a relatively small proportion” of transactions. The settlement was given written approval by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in May 2025.

Who can claim?

A huge number of people could share in the compensation – which more than likely includes you.

Rycroft, who pens the Ask a Lawyer column in The Telegraph and regularly appears as a TV expert, says: “Mastercard is something that permeates all our lives, whether you are consciously a customer with a card or simply paying a business that uses Mastercard. As a result, it’s a very wide group of people who have a potential claim.”

Who is eligible to make a Mastercard claim? 

• You must have lived in England, Wales or Northern Ireland for at least three months between June 1997 and June 2008. The starting date for those in Scotland is May 1992 (where the rules for time limits on claims are different). 
• You must have been 16 or over for all of those three months.  
• You must have bought goods or services from a company in the UK during that time (it’s almost certain that you’ll be able to self-certify this, rather than being asked to prove it).  
• You must have been living in the UK on 6 September 2016. 
• You must not have previously opted out of the legal case (if you did you’d probably know about it). 

That means, on this occasion, age is an advantage. People born after 22 March 1992 fall outside the rules and cannot claim. It’s also possible to claim for someone who has died, as long as they meet the criteria above and were alive on 6 September 2016.

You need to be their ‘personal / authorised representative’ (this could be that you’re the executor or administrator of their estate or their next of kin, if the person died without a will). But Rycroft warns: “Tread carefully claiming for someone that's died, because if that person's estate was liable for inheritance tax, then you’re going to have a 40% slice taken off it.” And you’ll potentially face administrative requirements for the estate.

Given the small amounts involved, it may hardly be worth your while in those circumstances. You can also claim for people who are ‘incapacitated’, by proving you are their authorised representative.

How to claim

For now, the best thing to do is register your interest at the Mastercard Consumer Claim website. If you do, you’ll be told when a form is available for you to fill in and how you should go about making a claim. When the claim form becomes available, you won’t need to submit any proof of using Mastercard, but you will need to provide your name, date of birth, post and email addresses, telephone number and bank details for where your share of the settlement can be paid.

If you’re claiming on behalf of someone who has died or is incapacitated, you will likely have the option to upload proof that you are the authorised or personal representative. The official website says further information will be posted in the ‘coming weeks’ and payouts are expected before the end of the year.

How much will you get?

The £200m will not be spent wholly on compensation: only around £100m has been ring-fenced for consumers. The amount each claimant gets will depend on how many people make a claim. If around 2.2 million claim, as experts estimate, each person will get £45, but if significantly fewer than expected (around 1.4 million) submit the form, they could get the maximum capped payout of £70.

If many more people claim, you may only get a few pounds. The remaining funds will be used to cover additional expenses including legal fees, further consumer payments (if takeup is higher than expected) and reimbursing the litigation funder. Any money left over will go to the charity The Access to Justice Foundation, which provides funding for free legal advice.

Is it safe to claim?

There seems to be no reason not to be part of this. But do be aware of unscrupulous firms and scammers who will try to make money off the back of it. Rycroft says: “It’s inevitable that claims companies – the kind that cold call or ask if you’ve had an accident that wasn’t your fault – will try and move into this sector.

“There's absolutely no reason at all to use one of those companies. The level of damages is very low anyway, so why would you split that with a claims firm who will simply fill in the form for you? Fill it in yourself or, if you need help, ask a friend or relative.”

Fraudsters may also use the news to try and con you. Bear in mind that you cannot claim yet, so be very wary of anyone that suggests otherwise. Always check the state of play at the official Mastercard consumer claim website before you do anything.

• Mastercard declined to comment.