Refund of credit card foreign transaction fee?

I got that in the mail today too...I would like to know also if anyone has gotten this notification?

I got this too. I'm wondering if it's worth figuring out (and documenting) how much I've spent in the last 10 years. 2-4 international trips a year and lots o' shopping has to add up to something. Or just go for the $25. It's free money.

I just got it, too, and tried to do some on-line searching to see if this is legitimate. All I found were the same website given in the letter. The first two forms don't ask for credit card information, so that's good. I'd be grateful to hear any more information about this. Seems too good to be true!

Count me as another who got this packet today.

I'll be monitoring this thread to see what other fodorites intend to do!

We got this letter today also. We have been out of the USA a total of 38 days. My husband filled out the form online and just had to put in the number of days and whether it was leisure, business, etc. I guess we will see what we get.

I just received a document in the mail from the US District Court Settlement Administrator, with attached refund forms. There are three options for receiving a refund:

1) Request an EASY REFUND of $25.00 (recommended if you travelled outside the US for less than one week during the period of 1996 to 2006).

2) Request a TOTAL ESTIMATION REFUND (recommended if you travelled more than one week and had more than $2500 in foreign transactions).

3) Request an ANNUAL ESTIMATED refund (recommended if you had extensive foreign travel & transactions and are willing to provide year-by-year information). Refunds will be a maximum of 1% to 3%.

Deadline for applying is May 30, 2008.

Somehow I missed the mailing in the spring, so I'm glad the court followed up with an official mailing. Luckily I still have all my credit card bills from 10 years ago, so I'm going for Option 3.

Robyn

I have not seen this specific mailing, in general I object to these kind of settlements and choose to abstain on principle.

These include shareholder lawsuits about stock price going down, things like that.

My objection is the $$ lawyer fees. I'm suspicious that lawyers initiate these actions in the name of the public good when they know well and good no one individual complainant will get more than pocket change and they'll get a silver pocket lining for themselves.

J62 -

The lawyers will request 27.5% of the estimated $313,000,000 in the settlement. They will also request reimbursement of their expenses, not to exceed $5,000,000. Total comes to over $86,000,00!

Robyn

ok, so maybe silver isn't the right metal for the lining. Platinum perhaps?

So if I spent $10,000 over to years, a 1% refund amounts to $100. Fortunately I keep line-by-line spreadsheet of all my charges so this would be easy to calculate.

I have in my hand a (winning?) lottery ticket for Tue 12/4 Mega-millions. Winning jackpot is just $82,000,000. Still falls short of the lawyer's take, even before taxes.

See my post in the lounge for more info.

J62: Man, that's a hard to choice to pick who's worse -- lawyers or CC companies.

I'm calling it a draw and putting in for my money.

I also received the mailing - probably because I've had an account with one of the memtioned companies for several years and have used it overseas.

Sure the lawyers are going to get their money but I may as well take advantage of the opportunity to get a little too.

I think that I can locate the records. If so, I'm going for the detailed claim. IF, repeat, IF we can get the 3%, it will be worth the trouble.

I also received the court notice. It appears legitimate, but then the good fakes always do. I will try to verify this, but looks like the easy way is to take the $25.00 and be glad to get anything. Too bad for us in the US we couldn't get 25 Euros!

J62: No offense, but the lawyers are going to get their money either way regardless of your principles. You might as well get your share no matter how small it is.

Add me to the list of people receiving this mailing and questioning the validity.

Validity of what?

Here's some info:

http://tinyurl.com/ywldub

Imagine if you unilaterally decided to violate the contract you have with your credit card (CC) company, and withheld 1% of the payments you made to. say, restaurants. I think you would agree your CC would have every right to seek that money back.

The situation is, however, reversed. The CC companies, as determined by the court, conspired together to unilaterally add a charge of 1% of the money you spent overseas, and then violated the contract by not informing you of that charge. Some people would say, to the same extent that the CC companies have a right to get back the money you withheld from them, YOU have the right to get back the money they took from you.

How much, according to the court, was stolen from CC users? About $336 million. Some people would say the theft of $336 million is nothing to worry about. Others would say that a theft of such a magnitude should result in some punishment to the thieves. The court said that the only punishment would be to return the stolen money. This mail-out is simply to ensure that all the victims of this robbery are aware that they can get their money back.

Back in February, I submitted my claim for all foreign CC transactions (being anal-retentive DOES help, on occasion), and, like the rest of you here, have been informed of this settlement. Since the alternatives to this lawsuit would have been (1) allowing the CC companies to steal $336 million with no consequences to them or (2) my taking on these companies by myself; I'm glad this lawsuit has allowed justice to (partially) prevail.

I recognize some people think that corporations stealing $336 million is less morally objectional than lawyers getting $82 million for stopping the theft, but understand why others may disagree.

Lots of very good discussion with many different perspectives.

I've run the #'s (yes, being anal retentive does certainly help)

~$25,000 in foreign cc expenditures over the last 10yrs. At 1% that = $250. Unfortunately (for my bank account), all but ~10% was company reimbursed expenses, which means I do not have a personal entitlement to the $225, which leaves me with the magic $25 sum.

We got 2 packets - I guess because we have used two different credit cards on 8 trips to Europe between 1996 and 2006.

I simply can't be bothered to reconstruct what we spent (I am not anal retentive) but wonder if I respond to both mailings if we will end up with $50.

Worth a try, I guess. It will pay for one day's breakfast in Paris on our upcoming trip!

My husband and I both received this mailing yesterday. I do have records for at least 4 trips whereas he has none. I'll have to look at more closely to see if the extra effort is worth it.

Yes, I got the packet too, and yes I will be going for the 25 dollar refund, too much work to figure out all the other

Well thanks for all the feedback. I've already requested statements from my CC bank, so if/when I get them adding up the foreign transactions won't be too much trouble if I can recoup several hundred dollars.

We also received the notice and filed it in the round file, until I noticed this topic.

The problem is that the banks, including Bank of America, are still charging excessive ATM and foreign exchange fees.

I received the mailing yesterday, I was going to check at it online, but glad that you all received it. It is too much a hassel for me to calculate the expenses over the past 10 year, I may just do the $25. What if I threw the mail in a trash can?

A massive mailing from "IRS" earlier this year, however, was a scam.

I too received this yesterday. Unfortunately we shredded all of our 2006 and prior CC statements this past summer... we definitely probably spent $20,000 or more overseas during that time period but don't have definitive proof.

Does anyone know if most CC companies charge a fee to send you all your old statements?

Also, we were using cards that only charged the 1% fee (not the 2-3% mark-up charged by MBNA, Bank or America, Chase, etc). Does this settlement cover both fees, just the 1%, just the 2-3% mark-up, ???

I got all the ones I needed from Citibank for free.

Why didn't I get one of those packets? I have PAYED THOUSANDS in foreign transaction fees in that time period.

The Great and Powerful Thingorjus

Thanks NeoPatrick. I was hoping you would see my questions because you always have precise answers

I believe most of our fees were probably on MBNA cards, now owned by Bank of America. I guess I get to call them too and request statements.

It's a good thing I have until May to send everything in - this is going to take some time!

I use capital one when travelling. . no fees and best conversion rate for the day for transactions.

AMEX corporate also does no fees.

Yeah, I got one too. Looks legit- it doesn't ask for any personal info at all for the first two options. It's interesting that on the CC statement I got after returning from Ireland this year the "foreign transaction fee" is now itemized for each transaction. I never noticed that before.

It became law in April 2006 that the foreign trans fees had to be displayed separately on the statements, and detailed in the disclosures.

According to the on-line form, your bank is required to send you all of the CC information you request, but first you have to list the credit card and the last 4 digits of your SS number associated with each credit card. Before I do that, I want to double check to see if everything is legitimate, even though it is worth a little more than a Starbuck's for last year alone.

I had not heard about this refund. We have taken many trips during this time period and use credit cards almost exclusively to pay for expenditures in Europe. Do you have to receive the information from the specific credit card issuer to qualify or is there a general site from which one can request reimbursement? Thanks for the information.

Take care,
Robyn France

You don't have to add up all your charges if you take Option #2. We added up all the days we'd been out of the country during the eligible dates, and my husband had 69 and I had 59, so that should get us quite a bit more than $25.

Option 3 is the only one that requires you to add up all your spending. Option 2 will give you the "typical" amount for the days you were out of the country.

We received our (three) letter yesterday from the U.S. District Court for three separate credit cards, but haven't had a chance to thoroughly read the contents (just skimmed through).

This suit and the verdict was covered by the press--there is nothing fraudulent about the mailing. The cc companies were charging a foreign transaction fee and not notifying patrons of it (all of this was well-explained in the posting by Paul Rabe). One's personal bias about whether lawyers should or shouldn't get a contingency based fee seems a completely separate issue. As a result of their efforts, however, all cc companies do now post the amount of the foreign transaction fee charged--and as pointed out by Paul Rabe, the cc companies were deceiving their customers to a mighty hefty tune.

If one has kept one's cc bills from each year, doing the third option only requires
going through them and taking the charges done overseas. Not particularly time-consuming or taxing unless one was travelling abroad every month or so. We did about two trips or one long trip just about every one of those ten years--tallying up the charges has taken about 20-30 minutes. No big deal.

I haven't heard anything about a lawsuit for us Visa customers so am jealous!

Yes, it is an obscenely huge fee that the law firms collect in a class action suit (when they win). But without the law suits would corporations contact us and say? "Oh, by the way, we cheated you for years and now that we have developed a corporate conscience we want to give you a small refund."
That will happen about the same time that the "Enrons" tell us that they manipulated the market to create an artificial energy shortage while the federal governement eliminated some price controls. We are getting a huge refund, right?
Until being exposed a few years ago the IRS did not advise taxpayers when they overpaid. You would only get a notice when you underpaid. This was not a class action lawsuit but exposure and pressure in a different form.

If we submitted our claim already (I did it this summer) do you have to resubmit? Anyone know? I haven't seen the new paperwork.

I got it too.
let's see, how shall I spend my $25.00 big ones?

ucsbalum, there are two of these threads running, so I keep forgetting what is posted on each, but I mentioned that the letter I got a couple days ago showed the amount I had filled in before on the claim and specifically stated if I want to stick with the Option 3, then I didn't need to do anything else. On the other hand, I haven't received such a letter for my partner, which was filed at the same time.

Hi A,

I first applied for a refund in August.

Yesterday I got a notice from the settlement attorney listing 3 options:

1. Don't send in any confimring information and take $25 now.

2. Make an estimate of how many days you were in foreign countries and let the settlement attorneys calculate, on the basis of an average cost per day, how much you should get.

They might have your credit records inspected, if they still exist.

3. File for the exact amount you think that you are owed. You should have records.

If you don't your claim can be disallowed.

Unless you have very complete records, I suggest using no. 2.

PS,

According to the info sent with the application form, it is expected that most members of the class will get about $25.

The attorneys are asking for about $90,000,000.

I just filled it out online, choosing option #2. I checked my passport, and figured conservitavely 240 days. Now let's see what I actually get.

My husband and I both got the notice. If you chose option 2 you don't have to make the estimate. We had over 300 days each for the 10 ear period so I chanced it rather tan settling for the $25.00 It's "found money" either way.

If I'm reading correctly, option 2 will only pay you 1% of an estimated amount which is not disclosed. Option 3, however, states that it will pay 1-3% and I'm assuming that depends on what your bank charged e.g. Citibank charges 3%. It took a little doing to figure out which months in each year that I traveled, but thankfully my pictures are well organized and dated and so I was able to look at those to determine the months. It was easy then to request the statements from Citibank and add up all the foreign transactions. It only took me two days to get twelve statements.

I too questioned the validity of this too, but after talking to my credit card company found out it was legit.

I spent about an hour and submitted option #3 and will use whatever we get towards our next trip!

So you give them the estimated number of days, don't have to document that number or show actual credit card transactions?

That is option #2?

And they will calculate the amount based on some average per diem and then give you 1%?

Yep. That's the way I read it.

I got my notice from the US District Court in Philadelphia today. It seems generic since it mentions a card I have never had. Could this be a sting? And for what?

The word STING certainly does come to mind considering the vague questions asked on the questionaire.
Anyone can say that it's legit but where is the proof? Is there a real contact number or something else from the court to verify the suite?

Arfie, I always think I'm more than a bit cautious, but have you seen these forms? Are you serious?

Arfie, the form comes with a reference number on it. When you get to the web site you enter your reference number. No where are you asked for anything more personal like SS #, bank number, etc. What could the scam possibly be?

cdhrdh, we are Visa customers and we have received the mailings and have filed our numbers for Option 3.

Answers to many of the posted questions can be found at www.ccfsettlement.com.

I have this sitting on my table too and was wondering exactly what to do with it.

I can't be bothered to tally up what I spent abroad over the past 10 years even though I suspect it was mostly likely more than $2500 (although not in credit card transactions).

Upon being satisfied with its legitimacy, I'll probably go for the $25 option.

I'm glad to see this thread, because I got the same mailing and wondered what it was all about. I'm probably going to go with Option 2 based on the comments here.

Can anyone say whether a Visa/MC card issued by a non-US bank is eligible? I lived overseas 1987-2001, so all my spends and ATMs on Citibank and HSBC cards in Hong Kong, and on ANZ and Westpac in Australia, could qualify, in which case I might do well here.

Thanks,
Steve

ttt

For those with any doubts, here is a link to the judge's order giving preliminary approval to the settlement:

http://ccfsettlement.com/documents/memo-and-order-110806.pdf

I got one of these mailings and I am so glad that others here were able to understand and figure it out. I am also glad that I can do this online.

Jen

Another reason why I appreciate fodorites (love is a bit too strong). As soon as I read the mailing, I got two, I knew to turn here for background.

Healthy mistrust of a gift horse is a good thing.

My husband and I both received our letters last week. I know we have spent a decent amount of money overseas, as we travel overseas approx. 2 times per year, but we didn't want to bother with the actual numbers spent (we've switched credit cards a few times and shred all documents over a year old) so we went with option 2. It took no time at all and if I get any money it will be a bonus. I guess now we just wait and see!

Tracy

Can anyone say whether a Visa/MC card issued by a non-US bank is eligible?

According to the website, the Visa/MC/DC must have been issued in the US:

as to the settlement damages class, all Persons who or which were holders of United States-issued MasterCard- or Visa-branded Credit or Debit Cards or United States-issued Diners Club-branded Credit Cards and made a Foreign Transaction from February 1, 1996 to the date of Preliminary Approval

My husband received a letter, but I did not. Nearly all of the foreign charges we've made have been on my cc account. Three questions, if anyone can help:

1. My card is a Capital One Visa. Has Capital One never charged the extra fee - would that explain why I did not get a letter?

2. How about bank fees for foreign cash withdrawls on a Visa ATM card - those fees have nothing to do with this lawsuit, right?

3. My husband's letter did not identify which credit card he got the letter for. He has had a lot of credit cards over the ten years. Did we just miss that identification or do we have to figure it out?

Thanks

I've had a Capitol One card a long time and I don't believe they have ever had a foreign transaction fee. I don't know if that's the reason you didn't get one -- the letter says VISA debit cards are also part of the lawsuit. I just got mine a couple days ago, later than many other folks. The letter is a form letter, it doesn't say why you got one.

I have had several VISA cards, I suppose that is why, although my latest one (AAA Visa) actually didn't raise their foreign transaction fee until 2007, I believe. However, it always did have a one pct foreign transaction fee, so I guess that is enough. I did have a First USA Visa probably at the beginning of that relevant period, I don't remember. However, I don't think most cards got into that idea of making money off that until after 2000, at least, when a lot of them raised the fees to 3 pct. I know First was one of them.

If you read the form, it doesn't say anywhere that you have to say what cards you have to fill out the forms. At least you don't for options 1 and 2. I don't know how they got names, I guess from all the companies, but it really doesn't matter if you are eligible. The way they are dividing up the money, you can get the min. $25 even if you never used it abroad.

If you only had a Capitol One Visa, I'd forget it. Also, if you have a debit card with a VISA and they did charge you 3 pct BEFORE Nov. 2006, maybe you could fill one out online and submit it. My bank raised my ATM fees to 3 pct for that, also, due to Visa, but they didn't do that until 2007.

After trying to reconstruct my records, I finally decided that the 2nd option was the best based on the number days spent outside the US.

Much to my surprise, I learned that charge card bills were not kept in my house! At one point I used AAA Visa and Bank of America Visa. For cash, I had 3 separate accounts, one of which was closed out a few years ago.

Lacking complete data, I decided that the estimated time overseas was the most painless way to go.

Even with the information I had on hand, 1% of the total was $200.00.

I guess we shall see what we shall see.

The way they are dividing up the money, you can get the min. $25 even if you never used it abroad.

The only people who may submit a claim are people who actually made foreign transactions on a Visa/MC/DC branded card.

You are not a member of the class, and therefore aren't eligible to submit a claim, if you did not have any foreign transactions during the relevant time period. (Not all foreign transactions require foreign travel, but could be purchases/debits made in foreign currency.)

Of course, I'm sure that won't stop people from submitting false claims, but it would be illegal to do so if you aren't a member of the class.

kareng,

I can't answer all of your questions, but I don't think that the letters are tied to one particular card (or cards), as neither of our letters specified which cards either. I think that just about everyone who has ever traveled abroad is receiving these letters.

The letter did state something about debit cards, which we use often, so I'm assuming a bank card would also count.

If you didn't get a letter, hang tight...it may still come to you. A friend of ours, who has only been overseas once, received his letter about 2 weeks before we did.

Tracy

Thanks for the help. We are a family of five and have taken four three-to-four-week trips overseas during the time period of the lawsuit. Even though we travel on the budget side, with five of us it adds up! I'll keep looking for my letter.

We got one of these also - in my husband's name. I've traveled much more than he has. We have cards for the same accounts in each our names.

I'm wondering if I will be able to use Option 2 since the letter is not addressed to me.

The form I got said you were a member of the settlement subjunctive class even if you had never used your card abroad, but I guess you cannot file a claim for damages if you did not use that card abroad. YOu can do other things, but why (like object).

They have a website, and allow you to fill out a form even if you did not get the thing in the mail with a refund ID number. There is an option to do that, so if you know you used your cards abroad and never get a letter, I would go online and do that, sure. I'd wait a while to do that, though, to make sure you don't get a letter. There is plenty of time to file for a refund.

http://www.ccfsettlement.com/faqs/#idQ27

Yes, you might want to wait a little while. I just got mine late last week. I'm going with Option 2.

We got one of these also in DH's name and we plan to go w/ option 2. So, I guess if I understand correctly, we can fill it out for DH because it was sent to him, and then I can submit my days abroad online. Is this right?

According to the FAQ, only the primary account holder may submit a claim, and each person may submit only one claim. So two people can't submit a claim for one card, even if both of their names are on the card.

Not everyone who received the notice is necessarily eligible to submit a claim. The notices went out to anyone who might possibly be part of the class, or at least that was the intention.

RSTravelers, if you look at the claim form you will see a Refund ID number. You need that number to file a claim. Therefore, if you did not receive a letter in your name then I don't think you can't submit a claim.

My husband and I each got one, even though we share a bank account and credit cards. Not sure why or how they choose who gets them, but we each submitted our own claim.

Tracy

My letter referred to the use of an ATM or debit card too-did anyone else see that in addition to the actual use of the VISA card?

Yes. In the "fine print" it says:

"The lawsuit is about the prices that cardholders of Visa and MasterCard credit and debit/ATM cards, and Diners Club credit cards (including charge cards) were charged to make transactions denominated in a foreign currency or with a foreign merchant, including purchases, cash advances, cash withdrawals, and internet transactions. The Visa cards include Visa-Interlink-and Plus branded credit and debit/ATM cards; the MasterCard cards include MasterCard, Cirrus, and Maestro branded credit and debit/ATM cards."

Once you receive the letter it gives you a number assigned to your name. You can then go online and complete:

1. If you'd like option 1 - $25.

2. Fill in the number of days you feel you were out of the country (option 2).

3. State that you'll be documenting your actual expenses using Option 3.

I did NOT have to give any credit card or social security #'s.

Good luck.

The website clearly says you can submit a claim online without that refund ID. It has a whole section for those who don't have a refund ID in a letter, and they have online forms, which wouldn't be necessary if you could only submit it from one you got in the mail. There is a link entitled "I do not have a Refund ID" on this page
https://www.ccfsettlement.com/claim/

I think you have to give your SSN or credit card number if you do it that way.

I'm filing for the easy refund. I was only out of the country once in that time. My fees can't have totaled more than $25.00.

This must be the result of that class action suit over the fees.

Has anyone actually received any refund yet? Some of the posts here mention having sent in the forms several months ago.

Does anyone have any idea what kinds of "estimates" they are using in Option #2? Do you think they are figuring that "most" people spend an average of $100 a day, $500 a day, something else?

Most of my spending was on a Capital One Visa. Since #3 is the only one that asks for the Card/Account Number does it seem like that would NOT be a good option for me. I averaged about 180 days in Europe during the time period but probably three quarters of my spending was on the Captial One Visa. So do you think option 2 would be better for me.

Thanks all you experts.

The actual refunds are many months away, since people have until May 2008 to file a claim. They won't know how to figure the Option 2 $ 3 refunds until then.

Isabel---if you were not charged foreign transaction fees on your Capital One VISA it would not be honest to claim them. Capital One is not one of the defendant banks in this lawsuit.

If you can figure out your actual expenses on eligible cards, you could file under Option 3 for those.

Hi, angela,

interesting thread. I'm not aware of anything similar re C/cards in the UK, but we have had a pretty big bank charges scandal recently.

that was taken up by a lot of people separately, mostly acting fot themselves - no class action. Though there were some firms advertising their services, you could also down load free draft letters off the web from various consumer organisations.

As a lawyer, I'm not sure that I approve of that! why the acrimony always heaped upon lawyers' heads, but not doctors, dentists, undertakers etc.? they make money out of others' misfortunes, too.

lawyers' children also eat. in the case of my kids, quite a lot.



regards, ann

"Isabel---if you were not charged foreign transaction fees on your Capital One VISA it would not be honest to claim them. Capital One is not one of the defendant banks in this lawsuit."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see anything on any of the forms or information that mentions any bank and whether or not they charged fees. This whole thing is about MasterCard and Visa and the fees they charged. People with Capital One cards may not pay any bank fees, but during those days when there was no notice to anyone of any fees that were built in automatically, I find it hard to imagine that Capital One Cards were exempt from that. And it is Visa and MasterCard paying out in this lawsuit, I thought, NOT individual banks.

NeoPatrick---the form (which I finally received) says this on the first page, under "Notice of Class Action Settlement":

"The Plaintiffs in this lawsuit . . . challenge how the price of credit and debit/ATM card foreign transactions was set and disclosed, including claims that Visa, Mastercard, their member banks, and Diners Club conspired to set and conceal fees, typically 1-3%, on foreign transactions, and that Visa and Mastercard inflated their base exchange rates before applying these fees. . . . The Defendants (Visa, Mastercard, Band of America, Bank One/First USA/Chase, Citibank, Diners Club, HSBC/Household, MBNA and Washington/Providian) deny the Plaintiffs' claims and say they have done nothing wrong, improper, or unlawful. If you made a foreign transaction between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006 with a U.S.-issued Visa, MasterCard, or Diners Club card, you are a member of the Settlement Damages Class. . . "

In other words, they are alleging that the named defendant banks conspired with the 3 credit card companies to conceal the foreign transaction fees they were charging. (Now, as we know, they must disclose them, and do).

As I understand it, Capital One does not charge foreign transaction fees. If that was also true during the years 1996 to 2006, then a Capital One customer would not have incurred any damages, and it would not be honest to claim that he or she did. The fact that Capital One is not mentioned among the defendant banks suggests that they were not a member of the "conspiracy".

The last sentence of the notice does not distinguish between holders of different bank-issued cards; it just says that if you made a foreign transaction on your credit card between those dates, you are a member of the settlement damages class. So anyone can file a claim.

I am just suggesting that if a person used a card that did not actually charge the hidden foreign transaction fees at issue in this lawsuit, they did not incur any loss, and shouldn't file a claim for those amounts. But the form does not prevent a person from doing that, so it is just a matter of conscience.

But the total size of the pie here is already set. So if some people claim more than they are due, there is less for the others. And the settlement fund actually only represents a small portion of what consumers actually paid during those years.

my goal is to fill out the received form by the end of the week.

I HAVE STARTED TO DIG THRU ALL EUROPE RECEIPTS(MANY)credit card receipts, and bank atm withdrawals, as I have been to Europe so many times since 1996.

I TOOK A FEW TRIPS to Italy prior to the EURO AND SHOPPED TILL I DROPPED.
trend girl

Please help me think straight about this. I have not seen this situation discussed here nor can I find any mention of it in the notice I received or online.

What if you have a number of charges on your CC for which you were reimbursed by others? It could be something as simple as several friends going to dinner together, one pays the tab on a CC and the others give him/her their share in cash. Is the one who paid the tab entitled to submit the full amount?

My situation is that times 10, at least! Each year from 2003 to 2006 I organized group trips to France. (Also 1996 & 2000, but I don't have good records for those years.) The participants paid me in advance for most expenses. Funds went into a special travel account and I charged hotels, meals, gas, some admission fees, train tickets, etc. to my credit card. I then paid that card from the travel account.

How much of these expenses can I submit? I'm sure that if I submit the full amounts, it will send up a big red flag! Am I legally, or ethically, entitled to do so? If I should get a refund based on the total amount, would I be ethically obligated to share it with my trip participants? Actually, now that I think about it, it probably wouldn't be more than $500-$600, assuming I get only 1%.

Should I just submit the portion of those charges for which I was not reimbursed (or "preimbursed")?

Maybe I should just go for option 2?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Nora, thanks for the explanation and the further quotes. As I started my post "Maybe I'm wrong", and apparently I was!

Betty1: For the purposes of this lawsuit, they aren't going to care if you were reimbursed by your friends for some of your charges. If you made charges on your card, and can document it, then you can do option 3.

If there is a "red flag," then you may be asked for full documentation, but the only thing that matters is that the charges were indeed paid on your card. (Can you imagine them asking, "now how many people were at that dinner? How much did you eat and drink personally, and how much did Fred and Ethel chip in? And did you really need that second glass of ouzo?" It would be madness.)

If you personally have ethical problems with using option 3 for expenses that you were mostly reimbursed for, that's up to you. In that case, choose option 2.

But Betty, of course you should file for all of those charges so long as they were made on your credit card. Once you get your multi thousand dollar check, I'm sure you will be contacting all those former fellow travelers and passing along their fair share, so problem is solved.

OK, I guess I'm being overly scrupulous.

Come to think of it, I'm such a pinch-penny that I bet what I charged for 8-10 people is no more than what some travelers routinely spend for 2!

If I split my refund between the 28 people who traveled with me during those 4 years, they would probably get no more than about $20 each. So instead I think I will deposit my "multi-thousand dollar"(LOL!) refund to my travel account and use it to upgrade meals or lodging for a future group - maybe in 2010?!

Thanks for the advice, cheryllj and NeoPatrick.

Here's a new one. I got a letter from the claims administrator saying that a portion of my claim was being denied since I had only had an American Express since 1999. Not true. Had one since way back in the 80's. Our foreign transactions well exceed several hundred thousand so we thought we'd get a little something back, but guess not. But since we weren't expecting anything when we made the charges, I guess no big deal.

Is it possible, that your account number changed? When I was calling to get my Citibank statements, they said my account only went back a few years. I had forgotten that due to suspected fraud, they had changed my number. But they looked it up and sent me the statements from the old number.

Which option did you claim?

Did you send in receipts with Amex transactions?

I used Amex whenever I could but often, most places took Visa or MC only.

I was planning to do option 2, where I estimate the number of days.

I too received the inital would you be interested inquiry in August and and completed my on-line (selecting #2) questionaire this week. I was not concerned because I requested consideration for this "refund". I would be concerned that I got this form in the mail arbitrarily (i.e. you ingnored the initial mailer and still got the Reinbursement letter?), who released your privat information?

I'm also thinking about option #2, but I'm apprehensive that the fund will run out of money from all the claims and the actual amount will be less than the $25/pp that we'd get from option #1.

Any thoughts?

I don't actually remember getting a prior letter asking me if I would be interested, but I would think they could get access to people'e names and addressed because it's a legal case -- under discovery or something. I've been an expert witness in some labor economics personnel cases, and we certainly had access to a lot of people's names and information if they were potentially part of a class action lawsuit (which the one I worked on was). I don't think they had to know about it, but am not sure on that point.

IN any case, I am wondering on the last point, also. I really do not want to try to reconstruct my charges, but can reconstruct number of days abroad 1996-2006 and came up with 177. I suspect the maximum refund would be one pct of estimated charges under that method. So I figure how much are they using as an avg expenditure for people traveling for leisure? $100 a day would be $17,700 est. expenses for me and one pct of that would be $177, much more than $25. If they use $50 a day, that would be a potential $88 refund. I don't know, it's guesswork as they don't say. I figure $25 is so low, might as well go for the itemized days, just to see what happens as it doesn't really matter if I get $25 or not.

tyedye---no private information was released; the credit card companies already had it. Under the court's order (which you can read---someone posted a link to it above) notice to the class members was to be sent either by direct mailings, or enclosures in the credit card bills or bank statements. The defendants (banks, Visa, and MC) prepared the lists of notice recipients from their own records.

Notice will also be published in various newspapers and magazines.

But if you receive the mailing printed with your name and address, it is linked to one or more credit cards. So they have the ability, in theory, to cross-check your claim number with your credit card records.

altajoe, the $336 million fund represents only 10 to 15 percent of the FTF's that were actually collected during those ten years. So---if every eligible person submitted their actual expenditures, the reimbursement per person would be way less than what they were actually charged.

Nora,

My point isn't about reimbursement of the money they may have illegally taken from me, its the amount of money available (after the lawyers take their pounds and pounds and pounds of flesh) to pay out to me.

It isn't that hard to figure out how many days you were out of the country during the time period, so if tens of thousands choose #2, they will be forced to dole it out at a percentage that might actually yield me less than the $25.

Again, there is a set amount for the total settlement. They will not be gong back to the well.

So, would I be better off just taking the $25. Just a thought.

altajoe---I think we are agreeing with each other---the fund isn't large enough to fully cover everyones' claims, if everyone submits a claim. Whether that means you are better off just claiming the $25, I don't think anyone knows.

I don't have to worry about it, because I only have one trip to France and a few ski trips to Canada, so Option 1 is best for me. (Now, if I could just claim my ski time in Alta, I'd do option 3!)

I guess I really don't care one way or the other. I chose option 2 but I wasn't aware of any of this until I got my letter, so if I get less than the $25 it's not going to break my heart because in my mind it's just bonus money that i wasn't expecting anyhow. If I get more than that, it will be a nice bonus. And if I get less than that, so be it.

Tracy

In reading the original court settlement I ran across some information that I thought would be interesting to everyone involved in getting a refund.

(Class Action Suit from the U.S. District Court)

The information below is taken from Page 10 of the court’s decision.

"Accordingly, the settlement amount falls within a reasonable range for purposes
of preliminary approval. “[T]here is no reason, at least in theory, why a satisfactory settlement
could not amount to a hundredth or even a thousandth part of a single percent of the potential
recovery.” In re Ionosphere Clubs, Inc., 156 B.R. 414, 427 (S.D.N.Y. 1993) (internal quotations
omitted). Here, the fund contains $336 million, representing roughly 10-15% of the credit
transaction fees collected by Defendants. No class member has objected to the size of the
Settlement thus far, and Plaintiffs negotiated for injunctive relief in addition to the sizeable
monetary award. See In re Initial Pub. Offering, 226 F.D.R. at 198 (noting that “this settlement
is not solely . . . about monetary recovery”). Therefore, there are no “obvious deficiencies” in
the settlement warranting denial of also In re Prudential Sec. Inc., preliminary approval. In re Nasdaq, 176 F.R.D. at 102; see
163 F.R.D. at 210 (“At this stage of the proceeding, the Court
need only find that the proposed settlement fits within the range of possible approval, a test that
the settlement here easily satisfies” (internal citation and quotations omitted."

Actually, the credit card companies are getting out of this settlement pretty cheaply compared with the consumer, regardless of who actually files a claim. Those that settle for options #1 and #2 will really please the credit card companies!

According to my recent post, the amount made on these transactions by the credit card companies could actually have been between $3,360 billion to $5,040 billion! At least that is what I read in the court document.

My figures should read $3.360 billion to $5.040 billion

Nora, Maybe I'll run in to you on the slopes (hopefully not literally) this winter.

I'm trying to put something together for the Peruvian, but getting my buddies together is like trying to herd cats.

If that fails, I'll probably just head up to Powder Mountain. Since ALTA's move to commercialism, PowMow appears to be overtaking it as my favorite Utah mountain.

>My point isn't about reimbursement of the money they may have illegally taken from me, ....

I don;t think that anyone took anything "illegally".

The lawsuit claims that cardholders weren't properly notified of the conversion fees, not that the fees were improper.

The suit was settled without admission of wrongdoing.

I got it, too. I don't want to have dig up credit card records for trips taken in the 1990s and I'd rather not have to send my credit card information and have it pass through many different people. So I think it's safer to take the $25, though I must be entitled to more.

If we choose option #2, do we have to research our old records, or will the card companies do that? (I actually had forgotten about this piece of mail until I read this thread title. Is there a deadline to respond? I don't know where I put it.)

You've got until May 2008 I believe to file.

Option #2 I don't see where one has to show receipts unless I missed seeing that information.

I'd better find my mail and actually read it.

May is the deadline given on the paperwork we received.

Stange, I haven't received anything in the mail as of today.

Well I did it online and printed out the confirmation.

Guess all we can do now is wait...

Someone pipe in as soon as they get their money or hear back.

Since the deadline for filing has been extended till the end of May, 2008, we won't be hearing anything until at least a couple months after that!

I just read on the FAQ at the website that if you choose option #2, you do need to provide cc information for at least one of your cards.

They give the phone number 1-800-945-9890 if you think you should get a form, didn't, and want to request a copy.

I'm (always suspicious of cc companies) wondering if they will collect names of claimants and somehow use them to raise rates as a "payback". I live so close to the edge that that could really bury me.

There's a final settlement hearing here in NYC at the end of March, I might check in there if I have nothing else going on that day.

We figured we spent approx 270 days in 10 trips to Europe since 1996. If we spent $4k per trip, plus $20k just in 2006 to get my teeth fixed in Hungary, shouldn't we take option 3 and try to get as close to the 3% as possible. We used our Master Card for almost all of this. Thanks for your opinion.

I'm so glad to see that others got this thing. I was beginning to wonder if it was a scam. Since I took ALL of my trips to Europe between 1996 and 2006 (including two extended periods for study abroad), I guess I should start trying to figure out how many days I was there, and much I spent!

quick question.....

Since we live overseas and use our credit cards frequently, our total is looking huge and I am going for Option #3.

As I go thru all my past credit card statements I am creating a detailed spreadsheet (date, country, amount) for all the transactions. Should I send a copy of this spreadsheet in with the form, or just fill out the month-to-month totals and wait for them to ask for the documentation? And I guess if they want documentation, they will probably want copies of all the credit card statements.

Any thoughts???

Grccx, I went for option #3 for both of us two, and just followed their directions on the forms. I can't imagine that they would want or appreciate your own spreadsheet in a form other than what they requested. I sincerely doubt they are going to ask for further documentation either.

On another thread about this I posted that I filled out the forms back last April for both my partner and I and submitted them at the same time, one with a total of about $70,000 and one with about $75,000. When the last set of notifications came, I got a letter acknowledging the receipt of my earlier forms with the actual amount already noted on it. But my partner didn't get such a letter, so I emailed and asked why not. I got a letter back from them stating that they are currently working on a full database of the received forms. Oddly it said that would take a considerable amount of time and if at that time they had not received his form, we will have an opportunity to send it. Huh? Does that mean they will automatically contact us saying they haven't received his form? I'm tempted to just send a whole new form for him, but don't want to create a problem if they receive two for him.

You're right Patrick. Just going to send in the forms. Will have the spreadsheet as the backup documentation (along with statements) if needed. Thanks!

I finally sent in my forms, and chose the option where you fill in the number of days, but not the most detailed choice as I didn't want to get into totalling exact amounts. Also, one of the cards I used in that period didn't have the 3 pct fee, so I didn't want to get into it.

I think my total was around 225 days, so I figured out some hypothetical scenaries and figured I should get more from that than the std. $25 -- unless they run out of money. But, I don't expect much anyway, so did the number of days as I was just curious how it would work out.

I'm sure they are not going to want individual people to send in their own formats and spreadsheets. There are millions of people involved in this, I'll bet, who could be sending in things.