Credit-card hikes loom

The $30 billion settlement reached Tuesday between merchants and credit card giants Visa and Mastercard could make it more expensive to use premium credit cards.

The rate tables that were revealed as part of the settlement show that customers who use cards like Visa Infinite, Chase Sapphire Reserve and Mastercard World Elite will need to shell out more in swipe fees that merchants are charged by the credit-card companies.

A $100 restaurant transaction would result in $2.60 of swipe fees for a Visa Infinite card user as opposed to $2.10 for someone using a regular Visa rewards card, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.

Tuesday’s settlement will allow merchants to charge consumers more for using the elite cards, some of which already have annual fees of more than $500.