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On this special episode of Drilling It Down, hosts Wes Lyon and Tyler Ott tackle a critical issue for business owners concerning a substantial $5.54 billion credit card settlement resulting from class action lawsuits against Visa, MasterCard, and several banks for price-fixing from 2004 to 2019. With a deadline of February 4, 2025, they urge listeners to take immediate action to claim their share of the settlement. Wes and Tyler outline the origin of these lawsuits, highlighting the significance of the settlement for businesses that processed payments via the mentioned credit cards. They assure listeners that this is a legitimate opportunity to recover losses from inflated fees and direct them to paymentcardsettlement.com to file a claim. The hosts also discuss potential challenges in the claims process, emphasizing the importance of meticulous financial records and providing strategies for retrieving necessary transaction data if initially unavailable. As they emphasize the urgency of acting quickly, listeners are encouraged to sign up for the McGill & Lyon Dental Advisory newsletter for ongoing updates and insights into the settlement process. This episode is an invaluable resource for business owners, packed with vital information about accessing untapped revenue from a significant class action settlement.
Want to submit a question that will be answered on the next episode? Submit it here or email us at newsletter@mcgillhillgroup.com.
If you're not already, subscribe to The McGill & Lyon Dental Advisory newsletter to keep up with all the articles mentioned in our episodes, as well as a plethora of other content. Use code Podcast20 for 20% off!
Listen to our sister show, Next Gen DDS! An all-in-one resource for dental students, residents, and early career doctors, discussing both clinical and business aspects of dentistry, hosted by Wes Lyon and Dr. Scott Menaker.
More dentists than ever are seeking out independent, objective, financial advice. In a world recently flooded with private equity money, lower dental insurance reimbursements, and questionable tax advice, it can be tough to see through the fog and answer the most important question, how can a dentist make more money? Join your host Wes Lyon as he helps you see clearly through the fog of dental office financials, allowing you to concentrate on delivering quality dental care.
Wes prides himself in offering independent, uncensored, objective advice to help dentists increase practice profitability, make better practice management decisions, and improve their personal financial planning. Whether you’re a recent graduate, new owner, in the stride of your career, or considering a transition into retirement, the Drilling It Down Podcast will help you make more money, pay less tax, and reach financial independence earlier.
About Us
McGill and Lyon Dental Advisors is an independently owned one-stop financial services resource for the dental profession, based on their "every step of the way" team approach. Their team offers financial consulting services and continuing education seminars exclusively for dentists nationwide. Throughout the years more than 30,000 doctors nationwide have trusted McGill and Lyon Dental Advisors for objective advice to reach their financial goals.
Aside from their consulting, transition, and continuing education services, the group also publishes The McGill & Lyon Dental Advisory, a dental business newsletter that offers valuable insights for all dentists. The McGill & Lyon Dental Advisory provides strategies and advice to help minimize federal and state income taxes, maximize practice profits, reduce overhead expenses, and create and protect your wealth. Membership includes monthly issues, searchable archives, special reports and bulletins, Q&As, financial calculators, forms, guides, letters, and more! Visit mcgilladvisory.com to subscribe!
Wes and his guests are experienced dental advisors specializing in tax planning, business planning, financial planning, wealth management, and practice transitions, who take pride in providing independent advice that puts the independent dentists’ best interests first.
Host Biography
Wes Lyon:
Wes helps dentists and specialists across the country achieve financial independence by improving practice profitability, slashing income taxes, managing dental insurance exposure, and making better personal financial decisions. Wes serves as President & CEO of Lyon Publishing Inc., President & CEO of McGill and Lyon Dental Advisors, and Managing Partner of Lyon Wealth Advisors Group, LLC. He is a highly sought after speaker making regular appearances at industry events, study clubs, podcasts, and McGill and Lyon seminars. Wes is also published in other editorials periodically and writes a Financial Management column for the Academy of General Dentistry. Before entering the dental consulting world, Wes worked in institutional investment management. Prior to that, Wes was a financial advisor specializing in helping small business owners with their personal finances.
McGill and Lyon Dental Advisors is a consulting firm providing dentists and specialists independent, objective financial advice as it relates to tax planning, business planning, and financial planning. McGill and Lyon Dental Advisors was founded in 1983 by Dr. Charles Blair and John K. McGill. Since then, the company has helped over 1,000 dentists reach their financial goals while paying the least amount of taxes required through their tax, business, and financial planning service.
Wesley Lyon:
Welcome back to another episode of Drilling It Down. This is your host,
Wesley Lyon:
Wes Lyon, co-hosting again today, Tyler Ott. Ty, welcome back.
Tyler Ott:
Always good to be here.
Wesley Lyon:
We got a little emergency podcast coming out here. We're coming up on a deadline.
Wesley Lyon:
So, Tyler, what's the deadline for? I heard there's, is it raining money?
Tyler Ott:
Yeah, it might be. You know, there's this credit card settlement and you got
Tyler Ott:
to get it filed by February 4th, 2025.
Tyler Ott:
So, if you haven't heard about it, good thing you're tuning in.
Tyler Ott:
We'll give you a little more information.
Wesley Lyon:
It's not a scam. It might be raining money.
Tyler Ott:
So it really just comes down to going to the website, filling the form,
Tyler Ott:
putting in your information, putting in your company's information and submitting.
Tyler Ott:
There's a timely deadline. You're looking at just over a month,
Tyler Ott:
maybe a month and two weeks to get this in.
Tyler Ott:
So Wes, kind of tell me a little bit about it, how to do it.
Wesley Lyon:
Yeah, well, first there's two major class action lawsuits pending against Visa
Wesley Lyon:
and MasterCard right now.
Wesley Lyon:
I guess this one's not really pending, But there were two class action lawsuits
Wesley Lyon:
brought against Visa and MasterCard.
Wesley Lyon:
One was for credit card fees, I believe, from 2004 through 2019.
Wesley Lyon:
And it was Visa, MasterCard, and then if you actually look at the document under
Wesley Lyon:
all the other defendants, a whole bunch of banks involved, too.
Wesley Lyon:
And they kind of got accused of price fixing.
Wesley Lyon:
I mean, a bunch of banks and credit card companies price fixing. Who would have thought?
Wesley Lyon:
Yeah But You know It was There's about Eight companies That started The class
Wesley Lyon:
action lawsuit Bunch of attorneys And they ended up Settling For 5.54 billion dollars So This,
Wesley Lyon:
$5.54 billion is available.
Wesley Lyon:
Pretty much anyone who has taken Visa and MasterCard from 2004 to 2019.
Wesley Lyon:
So unfortunately, I don't think I was charging anybody directly.
Wesley Lyon:
So I got to call John and fill his out form and make sure he gets paid.
Wesley Lyon:
But yeah, I mean, pretty big settlement amount.
Wesley Lyon:
This is legitimate. it. I actually had a client email me and,
Wesley Lyon:
you know, hey, have you seen this?
Wesley Lyon:
And then email back, talk to somebody, it is legit.
Wesley Lyon:
So there's a website to go to, paymentcardsettlement.com to claim your share of it.
Wesley Lyon:
But this is something everyone in business from 2004 to 2019 should apply for,
Wesley Lyon:
and they should do it now.
Wesley Lyon:
Applications should be pretty easy though. So we'll kind of go through if yours
Wesley Lyon:
is easy and if it's not easy.
Wesley Lyon:
So if yours is easy, you know, they have a bunch of data that was handed over by all the defendants.
Wesley Lyon:
So they should have a good idea of how much they processed, transacted,
Wesley Lyon:
and, you know, how much, it's not going to tell you how much you're going to
Wesley Lyon:
get paid, but it's going to tell you what your transactions totaling were.
Wesley Lyon:
So if you go to the website, paymentcardsettlement.com, I also noticed there were a couple websites.
Wesley Lyon:
Paymentcardsettlement.com, I believe, is the one that is actually that you want to go to.
Wesley Lyon:
You can also call 800-625-6440, but I would recommend just going to the website.
Wesley Lyon:
Everyone should have received or people should have received something in the
Wesley Lyon:
mail about this class action lawsuit now if you're like me though i toss all
Wesley Lyon:
those out uh so you may have just tossed it out but this could be a decent chunk
Wesley Lyon:
of money we don't know but it could be so we don't want to toss this one out.
Tyler Ott:
It really depends on who's claiming you know how much money is theirs left over
Tyler Ott:
so there's really no downside to it so if you can fill it fill it.
Wesley Lyon:
Yeah no absolutely so So we want to go fill that out.
Wesley Lyon:
But if you go to the website, you can either log in using your claimant ID,
Wesley Lyon:
which that would actually be on what was mailed to you, or you can use your
Wesley Lyon:
tax identification number.
Wesley Lyon:
If you have tax identification number, they're going to require some proving
Wesley Lyon:
documents that you own it.
Wesley Lyon:
They didn't give a specific one. It's going to be reviewed by a human,
Wesley Lyon:
but tax returns, incorporation documents.
Wesley Lyon:
They even said utility bills, which I kind of laughed about,
Wesley Lyon:
but I'd probably throw two or three in there just to expedite the process,
Wesley Lyon:
make sure it's going to go well for you.
Wesley Lyon:
And they should look you up by that, and all your, you know,
Wesley Lyon:
what they processed on your behalf should be sitting in there,
Wesley Lyon:
and you should pretty much just have to hit file the claim. So, that's...
Wesley Lyon:
That's pretty good news. Yeah. Who knows? It might be $5,000, $20,000, $2,000.
Wesley Lyon:
You might go spend an hour and get two pennies. Hopefully not.
Wesley Lyon:
But, hey, it could be raining free money. So free money is free money.
Wesley Lyon:
But it shouldn't take you, if your data is in there, it shouldn't take you more
Wesley Lyon:
than five or ten minutes to fill out.
Tyler Ott:
Yeah, it seems very straightforward. If you're confused, you can always give us a call.
Tyler Ott:
One thing to be wary of is there are going to be some sharks in the water.
Tyler Ott:
You know, there's always these people that are going to say,
Tyler Ott:
you know, we can file this for you.
Tyler Ott:
You just give us, you know, a percentage of how much you receive.
Tyler Ott:
Those are contingent fees. Do not do that. Again, we've mentioned this for all
Tyler Ott:
of the credits, your ERC, everything like that.
Tyler Ott:
If your CPA is offering to do this for a contingent fee that is not allowed,
Tyler Ott:
that should raise some red flags, some alarm bells.
Wesley Lyon:
I think this one could actually be done. It's just a class action settlement.
Tyler Ott:
But not for a contingent fee.
Wesley Lyon:
But yeah. No, I think, I don't know. I'd have to look at the rules, but it's not a tax item.
Wesley Lyon:
So there's a lot of people are going to offer to do this on a contingency fee basis, though.
Wesley Lyon:
You don't need to pay somebody 30 to 40 percent of what you're going to collect to do it.
Tyler Ott:
No. So really, it should be simple. Get your documentation, get your tax identification
Tyler Ott:
number, EIN number, fill it in, submit it.
Tyler Ott:
Really don't need someone else to do it for you. If you got a super,
Tyler Ott:
super busy, you maybe have your front desk look into it for you.
Tyler Ott:
But you should not be paying somebody to do this. It's really straightforward
Tyler Ott:
and it's just free money.
Wesley Lyon:
No, perfect. Before we jump in and talk about what to do, if your information
Wesley Lyon:
isn't in there, if you are currently not receiving the McGill and My and Dental Advisory each month,
Wesley Lyon:
make sure you go to mcgillhillgroup.com and you sign up for the newsletter because
Wesley Lyon:
you're going to get all the most relevant information sent to your inbox each month.
Wesley Lyon:
And by inbox, it's going to be email and it's coming via mail.
Wesley Lyon:
It's actually going to come as a magazine and it is must read information.
Wesley Lyon:
So you don't want this lost in your email.
Wesley Lyon:
You want it sitting on your desk until you read it. If you read this, do what we say.
Wesley Lyon:
You're going to make your $300 a year back in no time.
Wesley Lyon:
So make sure you subscribe to that. But Tyler, back to part two.
Wesley Lyon:
Some people might log in and their data,
Wesley Lyon:
might not be in there. It's going to be a little bit more problematic.
Wesley Lyon:
You're going to have to look in there. If you actually log in,
Wesley Lyon:
you'll be able to click on your TIN and see taxpayer identification number.
Wesley Lyon:
You actually see the amount and you can click onto it and it'll give you a little bit of a breakdown.
Wesley Lyon:
If you need more information, see if it's legitimate, you kind of click in to
Wesley Lyon:
more information, request it. They should have it to you. They say within seven days.
Wesley Lyon:
We'll see, but I assume it's the attorneys doing this and the attorneys want to get paid.
Wesley Lyon:
They want to get paid. So they're probably going to try to get this money paid
Wesley Lyon:
out because I believe they're taking 9% of the pot.
Wesley Lyon:
So Tyler, what is that? Like 350 or no, it's probably more than that.
Wesley Lyon:
It's going to be 450 to $500 million split between three law firms. Oh boy.
Tyler Ott:
That's a good paycheck there.
Wesley Lyon:
I didn't know we got in the wrong career. But no, if you do though,
Wesley Lyon:
and you have to provide data, you'll have to go in, pull credit card processing
Wesley Lyon:
data. You have to be able to see if you can grab that.
Wesley Lyon:
That's going to get a little bit more difficult. Don't want to lie about it.
Wesley Lyon:
So hopefully your data is in there.
Wesley Lyon:
If not, you'll have to call them, figure out how you can get the data,
Wesley Lyon:
how you can get it over to them, and decide how easily you can get a hold of
Wesley Lyon:
it and if it's worth your hassle or not.
Wesley Lyon:
In that case, it could be worth the contingency fee, but they're still going
Wesley Lyon:
to ask you for a ton of data.
Tyler Ott:
Yeah, even the person filing is going to ask for it. So, you're going to have
Tyler Ott:
to pull it no matter what.
Wesley Lyon:
But no, everyone listening, paymentcardsettlement.com. That is your key to free money.
Wesley Lyon:
And once you get it, make sure you use some of that, subscribe to our newsletter.
Wesley Lyon:
Otherwise, we will see you next episode.
Tyler Ott:
February 4th. February 4th.
Wesley Lyon:
That's right. February 4th. It's not in by then, which means do it now so you don't forget.
Tyler Ott:
Yeah, exactly. As soon as you hear this, do it. Yeah.
Wesley Lyon:
All right. We'll be back with you next episode. Thanks for tuning in.
Tyler Ott:
Thanks for having me.