For years, banks quietly tacked on additional fees when travelers used their credit cards outside their home country. The fees were hidden, incorporated into the exchange rates, so the markup was hard to detect. The courts have spoken. Now, it’s time to get some of that money back.
Thanks to a class action lawsuit, you may be eligible for refunds of foreign credit card transaction fees for purchases and ATM withdrawals made abroad (including online) between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006. If the charge hit your account as a foreign currency, it’s eligible. How much can you expect?
Actual refunds will depend upon final approval by the court, and on the number of valid claims filed. Final approval is scheduled for Nov. 7 in New York. Plaintiff’s attorney Bonny Sweeney of San Diego tells me the refunds could range from 1% to 3% of your total transactions — or possibly more. “It will depend on the number of claims, when you used the card, and which credit card you used because the fees were different at different times,” Sweeney explained by telephone.
To get the refund, you’ll need to visit ccfsettlement.com and enter your information. That means you’ll need to pull out old credit card statements. (How many of us actually keep our credit card statements for ten years?! My wife mocks me for keeping ours for five or six years… I guess this is come-uppance.)
The practice of charging additional fees continues, but banks issuing cards in the United States are currently required to state the additional charge explicitly, as a separate line item on your statement. It’s just out in the open.
Not all cards are the same, so if you travel internationally a bit, try to find a card that minimizes the surcharge. For example, CapitalOne apparently doesn’t tack on extra fees besides the 1% that Visa International imposes. Most credit union-issued cards don’t add their own fees, either. This information is all in the cardholder agreement’s fine print, so be sure to read that carefully when you travel.
A good lay of the land of the foreign currency transaction fee issue can be found here.
(image)
(via David Rowell)
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
The problem is … rounding up 6 years worth of old credit card statements. It’s an incredible amount of work, and that’s what the credit card companies are banking on.
And that’s the problem with class action suits. Nobody gets any real relief except for the plaintiff’s attorney, who makes a killing. The banks agreed to this proposal precisely because they knew they’d only have to give back a small percentage of the inappropriate fees they charged.
What really needs to be done: banks should not be allowed to tack a percent or two or three onto purchases made in foreign currency. This is just pure profit, and it is done at the expense of the consumer. There should be legislation regulating this onerous practice, but I wouldn’t expect much to happen. The banking lobby is pretty powerful.
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
You’re absolutely right, David. There should frankly have been a requirement to make the banks report the dollar amounts on your behalf. The fact that it’s up to YOU to do it is frankly absurd.
As far as banks rounding up another percent or two, I agree that this is purely a money grab. For now, the informed consumer at least has the option of voting with their feet. I use one card as my primary card for domestic purchases, and another card (which doesn’t round up beyond Visa’s conversion fee) for international purchases. It’s stupid that this is necessary, but it’s the game you have to play to avoid fees.
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:49 am
Fees charged by major credit cards:
1. Amex charges a flat 2% for foreign transactions.
2. Citibank MasterCard and Chase MasterCard all charge a 2% foreign transaction fee.
Cash advances are about 4%. This fee is in addition to the 2% foreign transaction fees.
Read your conditions carefully otherwise you can be very surprised after holiday.
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 pm
This is such a joke. Who’s time is worth so little that they’re going to slog through years of old statements just to get back a 1% to 3% charge? The credit cards have this info of course and could easily figure out who they owe money to, but that wasn’t in the settlement. The only people that will get this rebate are the lawyers.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:25 am
As far as getting your statement history all you have to do is call your credit card company and they will supply them free of charge. I have all ready received mine about a week after calling the two CC companies i used in this period my total was over 30,000 dollars. I am hoping for the 3% return which will + about $1000 dollars for myself
May 1st, 2007 at 9:29 am
you are doing what they are hoping for nothing. As far as getting your statement history all you have to do is call your credit card company and they will supply them free of charge. I am hoping for the 3% return which will + about $1000 dollars for myself you can burn yours but ill take it even at 1% i would get about 350 dollars it took me all of an hour to go through the statements and file the claim on line even at the worst $350 an hour is good money
May 1st, 2007 at 9:30 am
I was being charged 3% when i used mine for overseas purchases
May 1st, 2007 at 9:34 am
Like i said in my original post just call your credit card company and ask for the past statements for the past seven years and they will give them to you free of charge i have all ready requested mine and got them in about a week. took me 15 minutes to go through them easy to find because they have two lines instead of one in the listings my total was over $30,000 dollars