andyhat | (no subject)

(no subject)

Woohoo! I got $.70 from AT&T Universal Card/Citibank as my "Schwartz Settlement Refund". The lawyers who pressed the class action suit got $7.2 million, but who can begrudge them when they worked so hard to get me a refund that will fully cover the cost of my next two sodas from the company vending machine? I like soda, after all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For many years, Citibank and AT&T Universal (now owned by Citibank) had a policy of charging late fees if your minimum payment wasn't received by 10am on the due date. So, lots of people over the years mailed payments that got there on the due date, but not by 10am, and got hit by $15 or $20 late fees. In addition, since any payment not received by 10am wasn't posted until the following day, anyone carrying a balance had to pay an extra day's interest, which is why they decided so many people are entitled to tiny little refunds.

As a result of the lawsuit, Citibank now credits payments up to 1pm on the day received. In other words, a bunch of lawyers made a bunch of money to get them to barely change their policy.

For more info, see the last two pages of this PDF or this entry from Jeffrey Cross's blog for more info.

I believe policies were similar at many other issuers, so expect more tiny settlements in the future.

What's interesting about your explanation, is that this CBS news article says that the refund is for charges assessed on charges made in foreign countries. Wonder which is the real explanation?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/09/national/printable548446.shtml

FeO

Same plaintiff name, but, as I recall, this one is still under appeal. And besides, it's a case against Visa and Mastercard themselves, not just Citibank.

Ah, I see. I was just assuming that this was the same case and that Visa/Mastercard had been named as co-defendants along with Citibank.

FeO

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only