AC

If you're a longstanding international traveler, you may want to check your mailbox. Refunds ranging from $18.04 to thousands of dollars are being sent to roughly 10 million consumers who used MasterCard, Visa or Diners Club credit and debit cards while traveling abroad between Feb. 1, 1996, and Nov. 8, 2006. The checks are from the settlement of a class-action suit that alleged those card companies and several of their issuing banks overcharged and inadequately informed users about the extra fees tacked onto purchases abroad. The fees, usually 1% to 3% of the charged amount, have long annoyed many business travelers. The refunds were a long time coming. The $336 million settlement was approved in October 2009. But nearly a dozen appeals had to be resolved before the funds could be handed out. "Nobody is happy about the length of time it took," says Merrill Davidoff, co-lead counsel on the case. "But we're gratified we finally got some of these overcharges to approximately 10...