AARP (and related discussions on Swiss Franc loans) (II)
in Banking, Insurance & Loans ·
boldnomad45 said:Where did that number come from? My math must be off. We took out a Swiss Franc Loan back in 2007 for $20,000 $0.00. Paid it off over seven years.
The bank sent us the paperwork, and now we're trying to figure out how much we actually overpaid just to see if a lawsuit is even worth it.
Our estimate puts it at roughly $4,000 $0.00. Then there's the lawyer...
What's the right way to calculate this? Are there any decent calculators online?
I had a similar situation with an auto loan in Swiss Francs—roughly 20k francs, which was about $35 at the time. It was also a 7-year term, paid off consistently.
Last year, I sued the bank. At that moment, the calculation suggested I should recover about $10 in overpaid exchange rate differences, plus some $30,000 in interest that continues to accrue daily. My attorney's fee is set at 20% of the final settlement. To file the suit, you need to find a lawyer, grant them power of attorney, sign a retainer, and pay for a certified expert to perform the actual calculation of your losses—specifically regarding the exchange rates and interest (your lawyer usually handles those details). Total upfront costs run about $2,000 to $3,000—covering the expert witness fees, court filing fees, and other legal nonsense required to get the case moving. I filed my lawsuit in May of last year, and my first hearing isn't scheduled until mid-May of this year. You should expect the whole process to take at least three years... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the longer it drags on, the more the interest grows.
