If You Said ‘Charge It,’ Mobil May Owe You
If you used a credit card to buy gasoline--or anything else, for that matter--at a Mobil Oil station between July 20, 1991, and June 12, 1996, you may be owed money as the result of a recently settled class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit involves a 1991 California law that stopped merchants from recording a host of personal information on credit card receipts--things such as the cardholder’s driver’s license number, phone number and address. The law was passed at a time when credit card transaction slips often included carbon copies that were tossed in the trash. Enterprising thieves then collected these receipts from trash bins and used them to generate fake credit cards or to perpetrate other types of credit card fraud.
In a nutshell, the California law said merchants could ask to see a consumer’s driver’s license to ensure that person was indeed the cardholder. But merchants could not record the consumer’s driver’s license number, phone number or address on the credit card receipt. In fact, if the credit card form even asked for this information, it was a violation of the law, says attorney Jeffrey J. Daar of Daar & Newman in Los Angeles.
However, an individual named Jeffrey D. Gershon claimed in a lawsuit that Mobil continued to use preprinted credit card forms that called for the cardholder’s driver’s license number. And sometimes station personnel required that this line be filled out despite the prohibition in the California law, according to the suit. Mobil has not admitted liability in the suit and disputes some of the allegations. Nonetheless, the company agreed to set aside $2.1 million for credit card holders who can show they were subjected to the illegal forms.
The amount each claimant will receive will depend on the number of claims. However, Daar notes that the settlement agreement allows consumers to be compensated for up to $20 per transaction. For more information on how to file a claim and what sort of proof you need to substantiate a claim, call (800) 925-2505.
Investment club information
Thinking about starting or joining an investment club? Investment clubs--groups of individuals who set up their own investment pools to buy stocks in an effort to profit while learning more about the market--have soared in popularity, thanks, in part, to the stock market’s dazzling recent performance. Now, as part of the annual “Own Your Share of America” campaign--a drive by major corporations and investor groups to encourage stock ownership--the National Assn. of Investors Corp. is giving out free “investing kits.”
The “kit” is actually a set of pamphlets that explain some basic investment strategies, such as dollar-cost-averaging and dividend reinvestment, and that promote a passel of NAIC products.
Novices who don’t mind the marketing may find the kit useful in explaining a host of rudimentary concepts behind stock selection and investing in general. To get a copy, call (800) 230-6242 or write to: “Own Your Share of America,” P.O. Box 8057, Royal Oak, MI 48068-8057.
Consumer Checklist is a weekly feature that covers a range of pocketbook issues of interest to Californians. To contribute information about new legislation, products, services or surveys, write to Kathy M. Kristof, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053; or e-mail kathy.kristof@latimes.com
