Originally Posted by
tuphat
Writing as someone who's been through this exact situation --
1. You don't need a lawyer to write the letters I described in my post.
2. Demanding "pain & suffering" will be seen as frivolous and won't advance your cause. Stick to what you actually unconditionally earned, i.e., the cash back.
3. Citi's opening offer to settle will likely be a flat $500; probably good to think now whether that will be acceptable to you.
4. For various reasons that I'm not going to detail here, filing for arbitration with AAA is better than JAMS, imho.
5. T&C applicable to my card says that Citibank will pay my share of the arbitration fee for Claims of $75,000 or less if they are unrelated to debt collection
6. If you don't understand that the idea here is to get reasonable settlement in lieu of actual arbitration, this approach isn't for you.
What if the OP doesnt have #5 as part of their T&Cs,? If you didnt have #5 would you have put out the $250 not knowing if it was gonna be good money after bad?
I understand you are saying just file since Citi will settle anyways and never let it go to an actual arbitration, I hear that and it has merit to it as long as anyone else is in the same boat, personally if I didnt have #5 as you did I doubt Id throw the $$ out and would rather stop my loss $$ I paid in MO and card fees then add to it
Now if theres no #5 then Citi can decide to pay or draw it out and pay later on, theyd probably view it as a nuisance suit and as you said simply want it to go away and not worth its time and effort
Your point #3 is extremely important does a person simply hope to get back the $s they paid in fees for the cards and MOs or try and get the CB so called earned but pending.I guess one needs to include the filing fee as well. Id be happy walking away even and not out any $$ I dont see the CB as something that I lost or would be out. I see it as a biz decision that didnt workout. Either way w/o having your #5 as part of my T&Cs I would simply move on, rather then chance being out another $200 or 250. But as the Lotterys say You got to be in it to win it. I dont play the lotterys
Just trying to give the OP some food for thought and have them understand if they are in the same boat as those who went down this same path, if they dont have your #5 then they arent in the boat you were in, and would need some DPs from someone who also didnt have #5