Comments on: Use a credit card internationally? The banks owe you a refund.

By: michael Dee

michael Dee — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:34:23 +0000

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

By: michael Dee

michael Dee — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:30:51 +0000

I was being charged 3% when i used mine for overseas purchases

By: michael Dee

michael Dee — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:29:03 +0000

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

By: michael Dee

michael Dee — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:25:15 +0000

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

By: Delujo

Delujo — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:46:07 +0000

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.

By: experienced credit card holder

experienced credit card holder — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:49:06 +0000

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.

By: Mark Ashley

Mark Ashley — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:22:49 +0000

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.

By: David Ourisman

David Ourisman — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:53:54 +0000

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.