Have you used credit card in India? Pls. read for a lawsuit based refund of $25 or more

[fineleg]

Read if you have used your credit card in India or other countries outside USA. I got this in postal mail as well from US District Court about few weeks back in December (or was it Nov end?) Did any of you receive this information in postal mail from U.S. District Court Settlement Administrator? Please post if so. You can read online at: http://www.ccfsettlement.com/ You can apply and get a $25 refund or more if you spent more. The lawsuit is about the price cardholders of Visa-, MasterCard-, or Diners Club-branded payment cards were charged to make transactions in a foreign currency, or with a foreign merchant, between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006. Plaintiffs challenge how the prices of credit and debit/ATM card foreign transactions were set and disclosed, including claims that Visa, MasterCard, their member banks, and Diners Club conspired to set and conceal fees, typically of 1-3% of foreign transactions, and that Visa and MasterCard inflated their base exchange rates before applying these fees. The Defendants include Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Bank of America, Bank One/First USA, Chase, Citibank, MBNA, HSBC/Household, and Washington Mutual/Providian. They deny the Plaintiffs' claims and say they have done nothing wrong, improper, or unlawful.

[fineleg]

What is the settlement?(top) Defendants have created a settlement fund of $336,000,000 to pay valid claims, attorneys' fees and expenses, any service awards to class representatives ordered by the Court, and the costs of administering the settlement and notice. This settlement also includes certain agreements relating to disclosures on billing statements and other documents about foreign transaction pricing (including foreign transaction fees). For more detailed information about the settlement, please review the Settlement Agreement. What are the amounts of foreign transaction fees estimated to be covered by the settlement?(top) Plaintiffs estimate that the maximum total amount of foreign transaction fee revenues covered by the settlement is approximately $3.8 billion after reductions for fraud and for defaults on credit card obligations. This $3.8 billion amount includes relevant fees paid on both credit and debit card transactions by members of the Settlement Damages Class from February 1, 1996 through November 8, 2006. The $336 million gross settlement fund represents approximately 9% of the maximum total amount of foreign transaction fees so estimated. The amounts of foreign transaction fees involved in the litigation could be significantly lower than $3.8 billion if the case were not settled and proceeded to trial. The proposed Settlement Damages Class is larger than the damages class sought by Plaintiffs in the underlying litigation. Furthermore, the amounts of foreign transaction fees involved in that litigation depend upon a variety of factors, including appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (which appeals have been stayed subject to final approval of the settlement). For example, the trial court in this matter ruled that many cardholders would be required to arbitrate their claims instead of pursuing them in court. Both the Plaintiffs and Defendants appealed this ruling, and those appeals were pending at the time of the settlement. An appellate order upholding the trial court's ruling would remove from the litigation a substantial portion of the foreign transaction fees described above. And an appellate court order in Defendants' favor could remove even more, or substantially all, of the foreign transaction fees from the litigation and require those cardholders to pursue their claims only in arbitration. In addition, there is disagreement between the parties as to what portion, if any, of the amounts of foreign transaction fees involved would constitute damages in the litigation even if the case proceeded and Plaintiffs won at trial. Defendants maintain that they did nothing wrong, unlawful or improper and therefore there is no liability. They also say that even if Plaintiffs proved liability, damages would be sharply limited or eliminated altogether by a number of factors including, without limitation, the prices that would have prevailed in the marketplace in the absence of the challenged conduct, the benefits provided to cardholders, Defendants' costs, and Defendants' changed business practices. Plaintiffs contend that, even accounting for Defendants' changed business practices and purported costs and benefits to cardholders, the potential damages are as high as the total amount of foreign transaction fees collected. Do I need to hire a lawyer?(top) The Court has appointed the lawyers listed below to represent class members. You do not have to hire your own lawyer. But you can if you want to, at your own cost. Merrill G. Davidoff Berger & Montague, P.C. 1622 Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 Bonny E. Sweeney Coughlin Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins, LLP 655 West Broadway, Ste

[fineleg]

FAQs: http://www.ccfsettlement.com/faqs/

[Rajiv]

LOL, its a lottery for Foreign Students who leave US after studying , use the high limit in US for shopping and then bye bye

[gator]

yeah.... we all got it in the mail, finey...

[fineleg]

yeah.... we all got it in the mail' date=' finey...[/quote'] @Rajeev: What is a lottery!? @gator: Is this something we act upon? Or is it useless?

[gator]

u do act upon.... if u can get some old credit card statements to show u spent more, go ahead and do it.... i think, u have time until march or so, iirc...