Visa Fee Deal Tests If Retailers Will Really Deny Premium Cards

It’s about to get a lot more important to look at the fine print on your credit card.

As part of a settlement they reached with retailers to end more than 20 years of litigation, Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. agreed this week to loosen their “honor all cards” policies. The rules required merchants to accept all types of Visa or Mastercard credit cards if they accepted any from the two networks.

The proposed deal could soon pave the way for retailers across the US to stop accepting cards that are branded as “Visa Infinite” or “Mastercard World Elite,” saving ...