Starting today some RBC Royal Bank Visa cardholders will begin receiving their Visa statements showing a credit adjustment.

During the process to replace several existing cardholder agreements with a new simplified agreement, the bank discovered in the summer of 2001 that some of the old agreements were unclear on how to treat an interest charge on a specific type of Visa transaction. As a result, the bank decided to suspend the charge and return the monies.

RBC says that this move is completely unrelated to the recent class action lawsuit filed in B.C.

The bank will be returning approximately $17 million to 1.6 million affected customers with their April statements, averaging about $10 per cardholder.

Doug Wood, vice-president, Service Delivery and Card Operations at RBC Royal Bank, explained, “This situation applies to cardholders who had been carrying a balance from month-to-month, and then decided to pay off their balance in full. If they had new purchases on the statement they paid in full, they were charged interest on those new purchases. That’s the money we’re returning.”

“We have been working diligently since the summer of 2001 to identify all affected cardholders who will receive a credit adjustment,” said Wood. The interest charge was suspended in September, 2001 and the new agreement was sent to all cardholders in October 2001.