Credit Card Fee Class Action Settlement

[BobKamman]

I don't take credit cards but a client asked about this and it took more time than I should have donated to find out how much will be paid if you file a claim.  I don't take credit cards, but many of you may be getting these notices in the mail.  Also, there is a scam involving a fake website so you have to be careful where you look. 

From one reliable source:

"Each claimant’s share of the $4.8 billion total award, net of administrator and legal fees, will be proportional to their total interchange fees paid during the class period, and will be calculated after the filing period ends. This final pro rata calculation will hinge on the redemption rate—the percentage of eligible claimants who actually filed accepted claims, CCC said.

CCC assumes a near-100% redemption rate when estimating final awards for clients, it said. “If everyone in the class files an accepted claim, we project they may recover approximately 1% of their interchange fees paid over the 15-year period,” said Brian Blockovich, CCC president and general counsel. “So, a store with total interchange fees of $1 million through the period would receive about a $10,000 award payment.”

If the redemption rate is not that high, the payback will be even greater, according to CCC."

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/visa-mastercard-swipe-fee-settlement-claim-process-...

[IRonMaN]

We started accepting credit cards about 3 years ago so I am out on the big settlement.  But even if we were in the proper time period, based on our limited usage, they would have to round up to the nearest penny for me to walk away with a penny.

[PATAX]

Thanks for that information Bob. I do not accept credit cards but I think we all have clients that do.

[IRonMaN]

I resisted going with credit cards for a long time but speaking as an old fart, "the younger generation" lives in a world where they do not carry cash or checks.  I don't encourage the use of plastic and I don't have a lot of clients that go that route, but for those that do, I charge a convenience fee to cover my fees.  If they don't want to pay the fee, they can always come back with cash 😁

[BobKamman]

@IRonMaN  This may be the tax season I start accepting credit and debit cards.  What inspired me is the recent article in the NY Times: 

What was once a routine way to pay your bills — handwriting paper checks at the kitchen table, dropping envelopes into a blue metal box on the street — has become a high-risk endeavor: It provides the raw materials for low-level fraud artists and sophisticated crime rings, costing financial institutions billions. It has put banks on high alert, though their efforts to catch the fraud also routinely entangles innocent customers, causing institutions to suddenly freeze or shut down customer accounts in the process. Many of the bad guys manage to disappear without any consequences.

“Fraudsters go where the money is easiest,” said Chad Hetherington, a vice president at NICE Actimize, a financial crimes company specializing in fraud prevention.

Even as check usage has rapidly declined over the past couple of decades, check fraud has risen sharply, particularly since the pandemic. The cons may start with stealing pieces of paper, but they leverage technology and social media to commit fraud on a grander scale, banking insiders and fraud experts said. In the past, criminals needed a special internet browser that would grant entry into the dark web marketplace of stolen checks, maybe even someone to vouch for them — now all they need is an account from Telegram, a messaging app.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/business/check-fraud.html

And I may stop accepting cash.  I had one client who thought she was doing me a favor by paying cash (or maybe she has a side business she didn't want me to know about).  I don't go inside banks, they are full of tellers trying to direct you to the salesperson in the corner trying to peddle annuities or mutual funds.  And the ATM at Chase ate the currency I tried to deposit, and didn't give me a receipt.  

[PATAX]

I wonder if those tellers get a commission for sending you over to that annuity guy or maybe it's just job security.