In a ruling issued Oct. 22, the judge hearing the Federal class-action lawsuit against credit card companies for fraudulently hidden and/or inflated fees for credit, debit, and ATM transactions in foreign currencies has overruled all of the objections to the settlement and to the plan for allocating what’s left of the third of a billion dollar settlement fund after the lawyers get their fee. The only major change made by the judge was to cut the lawyers’ fee down from the US$85 million they asked for to a little over US$50 million (plus expenses).
Those who lived or traveled abroad for extended periods of time, especially if they relied on ATM cards, will be the biggest losers in the division of what is, despite its seemingly large size, a very small pot compared to the number and size of the claims. More than 10 million claims were filed, for a median of 80 days abroad, but the settlement fund will only provide a mean award of $25-30 dollars.
Ironically, several major online travel agencies (Priceline, Orbitz, and Travelocity) that used their corporate credit cards to pay hotels and other foreign suppliers were also wronged by the judge’s decision — their claims were denied, although they were clearly valid and made perfect sense to anyone familiar with standard travel industry practices, because the judge and class counsel didn’t understand their “merchant” business model and card usage.
The settlement fund wasn’t enough to pay all of anyone’s claim, but the big winners in the plan of misallocation will be short-stay corporate business travelers, most of whom are double-dippers who have already been reimbursed by their employers for the fees in question, but who are extremely unlikely to pay their employers back what they receive from the settlement.
From more recent documents I’ve received from class counsel, it looks like they are still working out some of the details of the final orders, but I don’t expect any of the fundamentals to change. I can’t afford to appeal, but some of the other objectors — especially the online travel agencies, who paid millions of dollars each in currency conversion fees, may do so.
The settlement also includes an injunction restricting future fees for “foreign currency” transactions. All well and good, except that to ensure that this injunction has no effect, credit card companies and banks have already changed their terms across the board, to provide for (much higher) fees for “foreign” transactions, regardless of currency. That’s outrageous, since when the transaction is charged, billed, and settled in US dollars, it costs the card issuer and processor no more than if it were a purely domestic transaction. In some especially troubling cases, consumers have reportedly been charged “foreign” transaction fees when they bought tickets — paid for in US dollars, and processed and settled netirely in the USA — from ticket office in the USA of airlines headquartered abroad.
The Consumer Travel Alliance needs your help in lobbying Congress to put a legislative stop to this scam by Federally bailed-out banks.
© 2009 Edward Hasbrouck, originally published on his blog.
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All this fuss about foreign exchange fees. When traveling I use a Capital One, which has no fee, and another, a department store card, with a 1% fee, I don’t use my other cards that charge 3%, and they are losing my business and money whether they know it or not. The same is true for my ATM withdraws.
If everyone used a low or no fee card the 3% cards would soon get the message and the problem wouldn’t exist.
You’re right about Capital One and many credit unions and smaller banks. They do not charge foreign transaction fees.
Watch out for the atm/cash-advance fees. Capital One has a hefty one and other smaller banks and credit unions use different formulas.
Just be aware that these fees are out there and that though they are included in the fine print of your cardmember agreement, they are hidden on your bill (i.e. they are not disclosed in writing when you get your charges from overseas).
The whole point of the lawsuit wasn’t the fees per se, but the fact that they weren’t disclosed.
I originally got a Capital One card because they didn’t (and still don’t) add a fee to foreign currency or other foreign transactions.
Unfortunately, Capital One has recently made seriously anti-consumer changes to other parts of it card terms:
http://www.hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001662.html
The Visa card issued by the Bank of America / FIA Card Services to holders of Charles Schwab Bank checking accounts also has among the most favorable terms for use when travelling abroad, but they have made similar changes recently to other terms:
http://www.hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001645.html
The only card I normally use while traveling is Capital One. You do have to call ahead, because their fraud department is super vigilant and always thinks there’s something wrong, even when there isn’t. I take another card along for emergency backup, but normally never pull it out.
As noted, if lots of other refused to pay these pure ripoff fees, they would get the message.
I have a question about credit card use when traveling. What if one doesn’t have a credit card? Many people in the US that had good jobs and lost them as well as their homes no longer have any credit and their credit card accounts have been closed. I ve never checked into a hotel where a card wasn’t needed for incidentals. What are people doing if they have to travel to another town for a job interview and need to stay over night?
Mary: If you still have a bank account, you may have a debit card that you can use to pay for hotels and airline tickets. Even if you don’t have a bank account, you can buy (for cash) a prepaid debit card. Most hotels and online travel agencies will accept debit cards. If you use a debit card rather than a credit hard, howerer, be prepared to be asked for a cash deposit when you check in, to cover possible damage to the room or other charges.
Some airlines and online travel agencies have also begun to accept Paypal or other alternate forms of payment. For example, you can pay for an American Airlines ticket by Paypal, or in cash through any local Western Union money transfer office. (In effect, the network of Western Union offices has replaced American’s former network of city ticket offices and travel agencies!)
I suspect that these changes aren’t being made primarily to accommodate bankrupt travelers or those with poor credit, but to accommodate the large numbers of undocumented immigrants who have money and are able to pay to travel, but aren’t able to open a bank account or get a credit card.
The big difficulty is when you want to rent a car. Car rental companies want to make sure that they will be able to get reimbursed if you total the car. So they usually require a deposit of hundreds or thousands of dollars before they will rent a car for cash or with a debit (rather than credit) card. It’s almost impossible unless you can get someone with good credit to co-sign for a credit card account for you, or get a second card on their account in your name.
“Travelers short-changed in currency conversion fee decision”
So – What else is new?
USA $ are in 3 rates $1-5; $10-20; $50-100 such as country I live in 9 months a year=Thailand. I visit 2 times a year and bring $9,900 each trip in $100 notes for highest Thai baht conversion, which I day after arrival, deposit into a Thai bank saveings account, with a no fee ATM withdrawal card. All you other credit or debit card users are charged the $1-5 rate even though you are withdrawing over a hundred $ each transaction. All banks do this, no exceptions plus you have 150 baht transaction fee added on ($6). Capital One is no Exception they stick it to you, maybe a little less but are just as ( )honarable as the rest?????????????
Great read, you can always learn something new about forex!