Important New$ for International Travelers

G

Gone To Texas

500+ Posts
I got a piece of mail yesterday from US District Court. Apparently a recent class-action lawsuit settled for $336 million against Visa, MC, and Diner's Club for "foreign currency transaction" fees charged between 1 Feb 1996 and 9 Nov 2006. I guess they "conspired to set and conceal" these fees. This pleases me greatly because I've been bitching about these fees ever since I read it in one of my credit card agreement revisions a few years ago. I even canceled one card because of it, but soon all my cards were charging me.

So, if you held any of these types of credit cards and traveled abroad between those dates, you can claim your portion of the settlement in one of 3 ways:

1. "Easy" refund of $25
2. Estimate the number of days spent abroad over the past 10 years and the settlement team will rebate you some amount (not sure how they will figure this out)
3. Itemize the fees you incurred between the dates listed above (tedious but potentially lucrative I suppose).

If you don't get a mailer you can claim your rebate online:The Link

I'm applying my rebate to my next trip abroad... the ******** still charge me 3% for all transactions in other currencies, but I guess they're transparent about it now so it's legal. Still sucks though.
 
I got one as well, I spent almost 2.5 years abroad plus other trips on vacation. I wonder how they would estimate option 2.
 
My wife and I both got them, we threw them out.
frown.gif
 
I went with option #2. I have no idea how much I'm going to get. I spent around 100 days out of the country over that period.
 
I spent 75 days out of the country - option #2. It will be interesting to see how they calculate the refund.
 
Option #2 is interesting, given that we could file as having been out of the country for hundreds of days. Maybe 250 or so. But spent very little, because those trips were business related and/or all-inclusive type trips paid in advance. Or Europe trip purchases were made with actual currency, etc. Seems odd to be able to claim 250 days (let's assume 50 dollars a day). That's 125 dollars in refunds (at a 1% refund rate). If we assume 200 dollars a day, that's 500 dollars in refunds. And so on and so forth.

Option #3 is better than the flat 25 bucks, but totaling the actual transaction fees during that time is disappointing.
 
My wife got this form yesterday. I have not as of yet received it.

I filed a claim online through the provided link.

Between those dates I was out of the country for 127 days. (All pleasure/school/church) I only used a credit card during my semester in London. But, they asked for the amount of days and not an estimated amount spent or a specific time period.

I spent roughly $8000 while in London on trips, books, eating, etc. So, I have no problem with the "dishonesty" of claiming my full amount of abroad days.

I too wonder how they will calculate this. I haven't had that credit card in 9 years.
 
I just got it too. In the last ten years I have spent at least a year or two abroad. I guess I will do option #2. I don't have receipts though....are they needed for option #2? How do you prove you were out of the country for X amount of months?

I have to read up on this.
 
Just got it. I had no idea how many days I had spend out side the US, so I went to my digital photo album.

After a few minutes of searching, I realized I've been out for more than 250 days. SO... I'm going with option 2. They better give me more than $25.

Work trips and vacations really add up!
 
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