Currency conversion fees have recently replaced the universal default clause as the credit card fee everyone loves to hate. International currency conversion fees can run as high as 4% and are very minimally disclosed to consumers.

But according to the recent issue of The Nilson Report, America&39;s largest credit card issuers are being required to turn over millions as a result of a New York class action lawsuit regarding these fees. The suit is called the Foreign Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation and includes Visa, MasterCard, Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorganChase, HSBC and Washington Mutual.

The defendants in this case have denied any wrongdoing and the court did not rule on the merit of the case before a $336 settlement was reached. Visa is paying $101 million and MasterCard is paying $72.5 million. A similar case was also settled in California in 2003. The judge rules that Visa and MasterCard owed $800 million to cardholders but the case was overturned on appear in 2005.

What does this mean to cardholders? It is becoming a lot more common to the currency conversion fees disclosed in the Schumer&39;s Box of a credit card offer but not much else has changed. If these lawsuits continue, you may see more issuers lowering these fees or making the charges more clear.  Like the universal default clause, consumer and advocate backlash could lead to a slow phase out of currency conversion fees.

What do you think about currency conversion fees? Share your feedback in the comments section below.