Originally Posted by
Happy
So if the card agreement has the arb clause, when the bank closed your card and confiscated your points, it is better to go thru the arb than to file claim at the small claims court? From what have been posted over the years, most went the small claims court route and many, if not all, the banks chose to settle before court date. In a few cases the bank lost, or the bank even did not settle before hand but failed to show up so the consumer won by default. There is at least one case reported in either this thread or similar thread that the bank lost and its attorney was stunned by the outcome.
Yes. I would have gone to ARB before small claims. The filing fee for small claims is generally higher than the consumer arb fee. Arb fees charged to a bank are separate and exclusive from lawyer fees. They can rack up quickly and banks do not like to pay them on small disputes. Also rules of consumer arb are much more user friendly and you are less likely to have your case tossed from a procedural error.
All of that being said, it looks as if this strategy does not apply to anyone who opened an account after 2010. I looked into it this morning and the arb clause was removed from Chase's agreements in 2010. This really would only apply to those who had accounts open before then. Small claims would be the only option for those who are bound by an agreement after 2010.