Debit or credit? Swipe the latter and you may see a "checkout fee" tacked on to your bill.

CNN Money reports Visa, MasterCard and nine major banks that issue their cards will reduce "swipe fees" for merchants over the next eight months, meaning retailers can now pass them on to the consumer. The settlement stems from charges that these companies were fixing their processing fees.

The checkout fee does not apply to debit cards and merchants cannot charge over the processing amount, which CNN estimates to be around 1.5 to 3 percent of the total purchase.

Wal-Mart said in a statement that the fee would cost consumers "tens of billions of dollars each year." While retailers can choose not to implement the fee, they'll end up having to pay the difference themselves.

"There is strong concern that the proposed settlement agreement will not achieve the litigation’s most critical goal – to fundamentally change a broken marketplace in which swipe fees are set," said Dawn Sweeney, president of the National Restaurant Association in a statement issued last week. "Without meaningful reform, there is concern that restaurateurs – many of who are small businesses – will continue to be negatively impacted by the unfair, non-transparent system that exists today."

The consumer checkout fee remains illegal in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

Read more: CNN Money