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Visa 1% Conversion Charge
About 11 PM on CNN I caught a fleeting glimpse of a news item scrolling by that seemed to say that Visa and MC have been ordered to refund an estimated $800 million to U.S. customers who paid a hidden fee on purchases made in foreign countries. I was watching the reporting about the war in Iraq on the main part of the screen intently at the time and I did not catch the full wording. Did anybody else catch the bulletin? <BR><BR>Do any of you have more information on this court case??<BR><BR>I did find a brief report on Yahoo Finance News that said the following about the California court ruling: MasterCard and Visa must pay millions of dollars in refunds to customers after the firms failed to properly disclose currency exchange fees.<BR><BR>The refunds could be as much as $800 million, but that figure seemed to come from a lawyer and was not stipulated by the judge. <BR><BR>I wonder how much longer that decision will be in litigation?<BR><BR>Based on what little I know, there seems to be quite a bit of room for legal appeals which could overturn the whole thing.
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Unsurprisingly, both companies are "disappointed with the courts' decision" and plan to appeal. That process could easily drag on for years.<BR><BR>http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/2...tercarddc.html
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If your REAL question is "when can I expect my refund?" then you might pass it on as something for your grandchildren to ask.
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Well like so many of the frivolous law suits the lawyers in the US come up with, the lawyers get 1/3 of the settlement and so it is a class action suit what will probably happen is the lawyers will each pocket millions and each of the members of the class action will get about $14 each....<BR><BR>We should all be aware of this. Recently I was called for jury duty and the lawyers doing the questioing of prospective jurors told us he would be seeking a very high settlement. When he asked me if I would be able to give a high settlement, I told him of course you're askng for a lot of money. You put your fee, 1/3 of the settlement, into the suit. The entire room gasped and of course the entire panel had to be released.<BR><BR>Law suits such as this are the equivalent of the suit against McDonald when some idiot spilled hot coffee on themselves and sued McDonald's for making the coffee too hot.<BR><BR>Give me a break. How much better the world and travel would be without the lawyers.
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It is my understanding that this is just a California case.
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From what I read, since Visa is based in California it affects all visa card holders. Since Mastercard is based in New York, it only affects California MasterCard holders.
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Dear xyz123: Please stop and think about your rant against lawyers. Do you really think this world and its inhabitants would be safer and better off without lawyers? We would then be at the total mercy of corporations and the almighty dollar. A lawsuit or the threat of one is the only way that the little guy has any real protection. I agree that class action fees are exorbitant and I am a lawyer but at least the unlawful practices are stopped. Remember the Dalkon Shield? A class action suit was the only thing that stopped this company from continuing to sell this product after it knew that it was injuring thousands of women. Would you feel safer receiving medical care or flying knowing that hospitals, doctors, and airlines did not have to worry about negligence? I surely would not.
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For bootman, I asked my real question: Does anyone have anymore information on the case? Who brought the suit? was one question.<BR><BR>I frankly applaud it, even if it gets overturned or scaled down. Last year, after I returned home, I took all of my Visa charges and tried to reconstruct the exchange rate at which each transaction was posted. I know full well that exchange rates change all day long just like the stock market. So which rate did Visa use? Did it use an average rate derived by taking a reading every 10 minutes or so, add the day's high and low and divide by 2, use the noon rate, the close rate, the high rate alone etc? <BR>I got rates from a web site for a bank in Toronto and also from a statistical service in Vancouver. None of the rates I could get matched the ones at which my transactions were calculated.<BR><BR>Next, I wrote Visa. First I got the run around. My answers to their email got more testy as the evasive responses got more evasive. Finally I got a response that in effect said "Shut up and go away."<BR><BR>I tried asking Master Card the same question. That organization was less evasive; it simply said "We will not tell you." And that was the end of the discussion.<BR><BR>I wonder what impact this suit will have on the banks that charge an extra 2% on top of the Visa / MC charge?<BR>
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$14? I'll take it!
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Just wait until the corporate lobbies succeed in having caps on settlements legislated nationwide. Consumers will be sitting ducks when it happens.
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Good point. Something will come along legally to block, or severly curtail, the initial judgement. <BR><BR>
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some other thread is on this. I have no problems with lawyers getting a big fee from suits, they wouldn't exist without them. Also, i think McDonalds should have been sued and they deserved it. <BR><BR>Why on earth people think it is okay for McDonalds to serve coffee that can cause second-third degree burns is beyond me. I always have problems with their coffee because it IS too hot, it is undrinkable for at least 15 min after you get it. No product you buy in a fast food restaurant should be so hot it can cause severe burns if it touches your skin regardless of how it touches it. I think xyz123 is completely wrong on that one and how the person spilled it on themselves is irrelevant, although some people apparently think because she or he accidentally spilled the coffee on themselves, it was okay to be scalding hot. How about if it were a little kid that accidentally spilled the same coffee on themselves at the table? Would that make it okay to sue them? The issue of the coffee temperature is the same. McDonalds deserved to lose.
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Christina - people like you scare the hell out of me. Ever hear of "personal accountability"? The world got along quite well before lawyers got involved in litigating every tiny accident. In fact, that's about the time the word "civility" went out the window. Death to lawyers!
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Someone tried to bring the same suit against McDonalds in the UK. The wise Judge threw out the suit on the grounds that coffee is supposed to be HOT!<BR>As Jack Cade told Dick the Butcher in Henry VI "First thing we do is kill all the Lawyers"
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I'm not religious, but I ad AMEN to the last two posts, plus xyz123. Enough is enough!<BR><BR>Curious
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I once heard that the settlers or old '49ers used to say something like "we didn't need laws, until the lawyers came."<BR>
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From the link Lesli posted...<BR><BR>Both MasterCard and Visa said they would appeal the decision.<BR><BR>"Judge Sabraw's decision regarding deception is seriously flawed in terms of both fact and law, and we believe we have strong legal arguments to have it overturned on appeal," said <BR><BR>Noah Hanft, MasterCard's general counsel, says: "Not only is it illogical for him [Judge Sabraw] to say we somehow deceived American consumers by providing them what he agrees are the best possible rates for currency conversion when they buy goods and services overseas, but he's also sending a chilling message to the business community."<BR><BR>And Visa International spokeswoman Cheryl Heinonen says: ""We are disappointed by the court's decision, particularly in light of the judge's acknowledgment of the favorable rates that Visa consumers enjoy when using their Visa card internationally. Using a Visa card when traveling internationally is, quite simply, the best deal in town."<BR><BR>As I read this, their argument seems to be: our rates are so great, we don't need to disclose them to consumers. <BR><BR>If Mastercard indeed offers the "best possible rates for currency conversion" and Visa is "quite simply, the best deal in town", then why do Mastercard and Visa not proudly disclose these "best possible" rates and "best deals in town"?
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Re Visa - There still are a few banks that do not charge the fee, capital one does not. There was an article from the Boston Globe travel about 2 to 3 weeks ago on the subject as to who did and did not.<BR><BR>Re coffee - I too believe in personal accountability, that is why when I get tea (anywhere it is too hot to drink) I ask for or get ice cubes to cool it down to drinkable, but I never like things real hot. At least if it is too hot you can cool it, if it was too cool, in a car you are out of luck.
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From my screen name you can see I'm a lawyer (but I do estate and trust law, not personal injury or class action work). This site won't resolve the debate over whether lawyers bring stupid suits or simply comply with requests of (sometimes greedy) clients. As to $14 a person, that may be a reasonable guess -- and if the credit card companies are going to rip each of hundreds of thousands or millions of people off in such small amounts, what other than a class action could make it stop? And who wants to work on it for years with no hope of a payoff on other than one client's $14 claim?<BR><BR>As to corporations stopping all such actions, perhaps you didn't notice the other day when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that punitive damages couldn't be more than 9 times actual damages on the theory that the Constitution prohibits using such awards to punish a corporation for its nationwide conduct, rather than its conduct in a specific case (okay, that's a very summary summary, but the ruling was weird enough that Scalia, Thomas AND Ginsburg joined in a dissent). Don't think your personal legal rights aren't under assault.<BR><BR>Finally, for those who like to quote the Bard of Avon about killing lawyers, let's remember that the line was spoken by one who sought to silence those who might help bring truth and justice.
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<BR><BR>Regarding the infamous McDonald's hot coffee case, here's a very interesting article by Andrea Gerlin in the The Wall Street Journal, dated September 1, 1994, entitled "How Hot Do You Like It?: McDonald's Callousness Was Real Issue, Jurors Say, In Case of Burned Woman"<BR><BR>http://www.vanfirm.com/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit.htm
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