Earlier this month, a long-running legal wrangle finally went the way of UK consumers when Mastercard agreed to hand over one hundred million pounds to shoppers. The money comes from a two-hundred-million-pound out-of-court settlement of the class action launched nearly ten years ago by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks.

Half the pot will cover legal costs, and the rest will be shared among ordinary people who, according to Money Saving Expert, paid a bit extra every time they shopped because of the fees Mastercard charged retailers.

The good news is that you do not need to have ever flashed a Mastercard. The claim is built on the idea that shops quietly passed those processing fees on to everyone through higher prices, so if you bought anything at all in the qualifying years, y

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