Amex Gift Card Class Action Lawsuit, Up to $40 Cash Payout

There was a lawsuit against American Express alleging that they did not fully disclose all gift card contract terms and misrepresented the value of the cards. Amex denies wrongdoing, but as part of the class action settlement you may be entitled to up to $40 cash.

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Eligibility

The following three claims can be made to make you eligible to get paid:

  • If you tried to make at least one purchase using an Amex Gift Card together with another form of payment, but the merchant refused to process that transaction. This claim is eligible for up to $20 payout per gift card claim.
  • If you believe that a monthly fee was charged against your Amex Gift Card. This claim is eligible for up to $8 payout per gift card claim.
  • If you believe that a “Check Issuance” fee was charged against your Amex Gift Card. This claim is eligible for up to $5 payout per gift card claim.

Additional Details

  • You are included in this settlement if you purchased, received, held or used a gift card issued by American Express from January 1, 2002 through September 21, 2011
  • You can get up to $20 per gift card claim as noted above; the total amount you can receive from the settlement is no more than $40 total
  • Must submit claim by 11/16/15
  • Must submit a separate claim for each Amex gift card in question
  • You can submit a claim if you don’t have the Amex gift card number; however, the payout will be not more than $5
  • If you bought a card and gave it to someone else, e.g., as a gift, you cannot get a payment for that card

Additional Benefits

Aside from the cash payout, there are two other benefit for eligible members of the class settlement:

  • You will be eligible to buy a new $100 gift card without purchase/shipping/handling fees
  • If you have an American Express gift card (or a gift card number without the actual card) with a value of $25 or less, you will be able to get a refund of the unused balance at no cost

Our Verdict

This case has been floating around for a while apparently, but it looks like it’s now coming to a final settlement.

I’d guess some people have attempted to use of an Amex gift card as a part of a split-tender transaction and got denied. (I’m not clear on why this is considered a wrongdoing on the part of Amex. Possibly, the issue at hand is that Amex did not allow the balance of the gift card to auto-drain, but this is a total guess.) Some people may have also paid a check issuance fee against an Amex gift card.

If you are eligible, it shouldn’t take too long to fill out the form and hopefully get some money. Unfortunately, most claimants probably won’t have the Amex gift card number anymore and will end up with a reduced settlement of just a $5 max per Amex gift card.

In any case, it’s interesting to see a class action suit which should be available to many people in the miles-and-points community who are constant users of gift cards. It’s quite possible that many of us had eight separate Amex gift cards get denied when trying to do a split-tender transaction and they’ll then be eligible for the full $40 settlement.

You can read our primer to class action settlements here.

HT: @adavejohnson

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6 Comments
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HaleyB
HaleyB (@guest_170392)
September 10, 2015 14:44

BTW: RE: You can submit a claim if you don’t have the Amex gift card number; however, the payout will be not more than $5

AND you must elect either ACH or credit to an AmEx account, claims w/o supporting info (card # and transaction detail) do not qualify for payment by check.

William Charles
Admin
September 11, 2015 06:19

Thanks, HaleyB and good to see you on the site again!

skizzy
skizzy (@guest_169787)
September 9, 2015 21:04

Really hoping for a class action against Incomm/Vanilla.
They got it coming.

Seth
Seth (@guest_169635)
September 9, 2015 14:31

Anybody have concerns about biting the hand that feeds?

HaleyB
HaleyB (@guest_169725)
September 9, 2015 18:07

AmEx will pay the settlement no matter what, if not enough claims are made to use it up (unlikely) the money would likely just go to the lawyers anyway. Most of the money is going to the lawyers already.

Class action suits are bad for just about everybody but the lawyers. Lawyers get rich off these things. In a case like this where the harm is pretty minimal I don’t really care but there have been cases where the class was seriously harmed or killed and the pay was eaten up by lawyers fees.

So you can claim your $5 without any worry of offending AmEx.