I'm sure most people out here might be in the loop with regards to the U.S. Court settlement about the exorbitant forex fees charged by cc/debit card companies. A class action law suit was recently settled for the tune of $336M and this news made the rounds early last week and even ended up on SD. Having spent close to 30 grand abroad in the past 2-3 years, I wanted to confirm this bit of news before posting it myself. Anyhow, I received a letter from the District court office administrator in Philly about this along with an enclosed form. I'm sure many of you received it late last week. If not, check the trash can.

Basically, if you made foreign transactions with one of the aforementioned cards while overseas and incurred a forex conversion fee between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, you may be entitled to a refund of the associated foreign currency transaction fees.

The issue is the foreign exchange conversion fee, which in some cases totaled 1-3 % (at least) of the value of the item you purchased. Refunds for fees associated with cash advances in foreign currencies aren't confirmed at the moment.

The deadline to file for a refund is May 30, 2008. If you haven't received a letter from the District Court with your details, here is the web link to file your case online:

Claim

Feel free to call the settlement helpline #: 1-800-945-9890

The FAQs are posted here: Link.

There are three refund options based on your estimated spending over the past decade. Please read the FAQs for more information.

Before you think I'm posting a scam, do your own research. Sorry if I've created the longest OP ever. Mods, feel free to move this to the finance forum. I felt this was a hot deal only because of the potential to get a lot of forex fees back as a check. (thanks to Ganda)

The accountants entrusted with this case are here.

gforce84 said:I felt this was a hot deal only because of the potential to get a lot of forex fees back as a statement credit.

Statement credit? To which card? The settlement covers all of them. I'm expecting a check. I got my notification yesterday.

I filled out something maybe a year ago with my spending over the past few years ... should I expect to hear something ?
Did you do something similar ?

Is it automatic ?

ganda said:gforce84 said:I felt this was a hot deal only because of the potential to get a lot of forex fees back as a statement credit.

Statement credit? To which card? The settlement covers all of them. I'm expecting a check. I got my notification yesterday.

The true Fatwalleter never ignores junk mail -- might be a 0% APR offer or so i'm told.

ganda said:

The envelope in the mail looks like junk mail. I'm sure that was accidental

Hmm, I received a notice about this settlement in March and filed a claim on April 2, 2007. Not sure how notification sent to me back then is different from what you are receiving now.

Surely wish I had gone paperless a long time ago, would've made the process 50% easier..

Thanks OP. I just opened my packet based on this thread and is in the process of requesting my old statements from Citibank. I know I spent more than $10k on just one trip so 1% would be at leaast $100.

The real winners of this...

How will the attorneys be paid?
The lawyers for the class members will request 27.5% of the estimated $313,000,000 expected to remain in the settlement fund after deducting costs for administering the settlement and notice, plus interest, for attorneys' fees for investigating the facts, litigating and resolving the case. They will also request reimbursement of their expenses, not to exceed $5,000,000, to be paid from the settlement fund.

Cite not working. Tried a couple of times to enter my info and just get an error message.

I got this today & my friend got it over the weekend. Both of us have used credit cards in foreign countries. Did anyone get this that hasn't?

shoppings said:I don't have any tranction in another country, but I did have internet tranctions in foreign currency. Am I also eligible for the refund? Or, since I received the notice, am I automatically eligible? Thanks.

Give them a call. I wouldn't rely on any answers from these forums as fact.