Foreign exchange class action settlement

Philip Brewer — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:27:45 +0000

Did you travel overseas between 1996 and 2006? Or, did you charge anything on a credit or debit card in a foreign currency? If so, be sure to claim your share of a class action settlement over allegations that credit card companies conspired to set and conceal the fees they charged for foreign transactions.

This one is real, folks--not a scam.

To see the gory details, and to file your claim, check out the Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation website:

http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

Your main options:

If you had at least one foreign transaction, but spent less than a week overseas, you can file for a $25 "easy refund."
If you spent more than a week, or had foreign transactions of more than $2,500, you can get a "total estimation refund," based on a rough estimate of how many days you were overseas and what kinds of travel you did.
If you have pretty good records of how much you spent overseas during that decade, you can provide the details and get back 1% to 3% of your foreign charges.

You've got until May 30th, 2008 to file your claim.

There's no way to be sure how much money you'll get--the refunds come from a limited pool, and if lots of people claim shares there'll be less to go around. But that's no reason not to claim your share.

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This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Get your piece of the Diamond Class Action pie.

Paul Michael — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:01:04 +0000

Hands up if you bought diamond jewelry between 1994 and 2006. Well, if you did you can claim some of the $295 million that has been set aside in the DeBeers class action lawsuit.

Anyone who knows anything about the diamond industry knows DeBeers. They also know that DeBeers is an enormous corporation that buys up massive quantities of diamonds in bulk, stockpiles them and thus, artificially inflates the value of the product. It's not new or original, but it works. This, from the class action suit:

Several class-action lawsuits were filed asking for money damages on behalf of diamond purchasers. The lawsuits also asked that the defendants stop certain business conduct. The lawsuits claim that the largest suppliers of diamonds in the world—De Beers S.A. and its associated companies—violated antitrust, unfair competition, and consumer-protection laws by monopolizing diamond supplies, conspiring to fix, raise, and control diamond prices, and disseminating false and misleading advertising. De Beers and the other companies deny they violated the law or did anything wrong. They also say that because they do not do business in the United States, the courts in the United States do not have authority over them.

Anyway, DeBeers was taken to court and decided to settle out of court for a huge sum of money. They deny any wrongdoing by the way. The class action lawyers must be celebrating in a big way, they can now retire in the Bahamas (heck, they can probably buy the Bahamas), but you and I still get to claim a little cash to make up for the extra money paid for diamond jewelry in the US between 1994 and 2006.

Simply go here and file your claim online . You don't need to submit physical receipts unless your purchase was over $10,000 (which is not quite my case, but engagement rings can get pretty costly these days). However, you may need to prove your purchases later on, so make sure you have at least a bank record or receipt before you submit your claim.

How much will you get back? Well, I can't say for sure but it looks like it varies considerably. For diamond-only jewelry over $5000, you're getting back 90% of the wholesale price. That means, as several readers have pointed out, that you won't be getting back 90% of the $5000 but 90% of what the reseller paid for it. For smaller amounts, the percentages go as low as 13.8% of the wholesale price, which may very well be peanuts at that point. Here's a table to give you a better idea:

You have until May 19th, 2008 to get your claim in. So, grab your receipts and get back the money you're owed.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: