A week ago my wife and I received checks for $18.04 from the Foreign Currency Fee Litigation Settlement. At first I thought it was junk mail but then remembered filling out a form a few years back.
I couldn’t remember how they figured out the amount each person would receive from the settlement so I went to the Currency Conversion Fee Settlement website to find out a bit more about it.
Here is what the lawsuit was about according to ccfsettlemenet.com:
The lawsuit is about the price cardholders of Visa-, MasterCard-, or Diners Club-branded payment cards were charged to make transactions in a foreign currency, or with a foreign merchant, between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006. Plaintiffs challenge how the prices of credit and debit/ATM card foreign transactions were set and disclosed, including claims that Visa, MasterCard, their member banks, and Diners Club conspired to set and conceal fees, typically of 1-3% of foreign transactions, and that Visa and MasterCard inflated their base exchange rates before applying these fees. The Defendants include Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Bank of America, Bank One/First USA, Chase, Citibank, MBNA, HSBC/Household, and Washington Mutual/Providian. They deny the Plaintiffs’ claims and say they have done nothing wrong, improper, or unlawful.
The site also said how the refund amount was determined. There were two factors that affecteed the amount received:
- The refund option you selected
- the fact that a reduction of your refund amount was required based on the amount of available settlement funds to pay all valid claims
I am pretty sure that I spent more than $18 on fees over the years traveling but something is better than nothing!
There is a lot more info regarding how the fees were determined. If you want to read more about it, Click Here
