Comments on: Washington Mutual Debit Card / ATM Foreign Transaction Fees

By: C. H.

C. H. — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 05:17:30 +0000

I checked with WAMU today. I have a free checking account. According to the agent, WAMU does not charge an ATM transaction fee or any fee is I use my debit card at a MasterCard logo ATM machine. The agent did say that I may incur a fee by the owner of that ATM machine, but not from WAMU.

For use at a Point of Sales (POS) transaction, there is a 1% fee.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:50:17 +0000

Wednesday November 8, 7:43 PM EST

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumers will share in a $336 million settlement of a lawsuit accusing several banks and credit card groups of conspiring to charge excessive fees on foreign currency transactions, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The settlement covers holders of U.S.-issued MasterCard or Visa credit cards or debit cards, and Diners Club credit cards who made foreign transactions from February 1, 1996 to the present. Tens of thousands of cardholders, including companies whose employees travel internationally, may recover money.

Judge William Pauley of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan said the class-action settlement appeared to be the result of serious negotiations by experienced counsel, and was “fair, reasonable and adequate.”

Defendants in the five-year-old case include credit card groups Visa and MasterCard Inc. (MA), as well as Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), HSBC Holdings Plc , JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Washington Mutual Inc. (WM) and several affiliates. Cardholders accused them of colluding to fix charges and of poor disclosure.

“Every time you go overseas, you would be charged 1 percent by Visa or MasterCard and another 2 or 3 percent by your bank to convert a transaction into U.S. dollars,” said Patrick Coughlin, a partner at Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP in San Francisco, who represented the plaintiffs.

“The cost (to defendants) to do these transactions was about one-quarter of 1 percent,” he said.

Citigroup spokesman Samuel Wang said the settlement avoids the uncertainty of litigation, and that the bank’s portion was covered by existing reserves.

HSBC spokesman Stephen Cohen declined to comment.

Visa spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz said the card association was pleased that the judge approved the settlement.

Washington Mutual spokesman Alan Elias said the settlement was not a material issue for the company. Other defendants did not immediately return requests for comment.

Coughlin said one benefit of the litigation was that card issuers now break out currency charges as a separate item on customer bills. “This makes banks competitive in setting those charges,” he said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs had announced a pending settlement in July. Pauley’s approval is preliminary, and carries several conditions. A hearing to enter a final judgment was set for November 2, 2007.

By: asda

asda — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:11:02 +0000

If u thought that was bad, look at bank of america…they charge 5$ plus a 1% transaction fee for using a non BOA ATM. Also keep in mind the ATM may also charge u a fee! Thus for a $80 transaction, u could pay as much as $5 plus atm fee ($2.5) plus 0.80!

By: brian

brian — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:34:57 +0000

I used my Wamu card as a credit card for travel in Turks (where U.S currency is the only currency they use). I was charged 1% for all my purchases and not once did I use an ATM.

So now we they make a profit off our savings, but they also profit from our purchases. It’s a bank card,using my hard earned dollars and no exchange rates had to be done. Why the fee?!?!?!

I was informed that this is their fee for me using the card outside of the continental U.S. .

It’s time we all went back to hiding our money under our bed and let the banks thank us again for being customers.