garykung

If my memory serves correct, are you the guy who sued Cartera for UA miles and ask FTers to the Boston court and support and have a Mini-DO?

Marathon Man

Yup

dogbyte

How long does Citi take to free up your credit limit after the payment is posted on the account? My payment posted 2 days, but my available credit is still the same. I don't remember it taking this long. I am being a bit more aggressive with the churning this month.

kaiotes

shouldn't be more than 2 business days.

Jesperss

If people put the same effort that they do in arguing in this thread and the time spent with these spends to make a small amount of cash every month into something else then they might actually be successful.

"What did you do last month?"

"Filed a bogus lawsuit against Citi bank in hope of squeezing a few extra bucks out of them"

"Why did you file a lawsuit?"

"Every day I stop by a CVS and buy some gift cards with my credit card. Then I stop by Walmart to load those gift cards on a debit card". Citibank didn't like this and closed my card down

"You do this every day?"

"Pretty much"

"It's summer. Don't you have anything better to do than hanging out at drug stores and Walmarts every day?"

""

virmaior

I, for one, was not even on such a promotion nor was I doing vanilla or hanging out with the birds.

Speaking of usefulness, for those of us who had points wrongly taken by citi, thinking about how to recover stolen goods is profitable. For those (like yourself) that merely join the thread to argue that our claims are bogus, there's absolute nothing to be gained by doing so... unless you work for citi?

Our lawsuits won't be bogus. I just got my terms and conditions from citi, and there's nothing in them that gives them right to take points earned and placed into my account away. = breach of contract.

Moreover, if you've been to their website or to thankyou.com they tell you that you earn points for all credit transactions and that these points are such that they value them 1.33 cents/point for travel or will sell them to you at 2.5 cents / point. Even reading the fine print, there's nothing there excluding what others did (not me). The only listed exclusions are cash advances (i.e. non-credit transactions) and fraudulent purchases). Buying gift cards (as others did) is not fraud... = false advertising / TILA

A better way to describe it is that citibank has squeezed a few bucks out of merchants and then decided they don't like paying the customers who they use to take money from merchants. That's bogus.

garykung

If your payment source is through a Citi checking account, instantly.

Otherwise, the payment must be clear before it will be available to you. (For example, making a payment online through Citi's website can get your payment posted within 24 hours. But the payment is not yet in Citi's pocket.)

I hope you know what libel means.

Claiming people filing bogus lawsuits without any proof is libel.

You can say people are wasting their time. But bogus lawsuit? It goes a little far.

AllieKat

Dude, it's not libel. "to publish in print (including pictures), writing or broadcast through radio, television or film, an untruth about another which will do harm to that person or his/her reputation, by tending to bring the target into ridicule, hatred, scorn or contempt of others." - http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1153

Your reputation of a forum isn't exactly what that means and isn't of any tangible value.

Now, as for the lawsuit, realize that while the terms may not say specifically they can do this, they DO say they can also do anything they want not mentioned in the terms - "You have no property rights or other legal interests in ThankYou Points." https://www.thankyou.com/tc.jspx

NONE. You have no rights or interest, according to their terms. Zero.

Now, does that mean your lawsuit is "bogus" - nah, I don't think so personally. But it means it doesn't have much chance of winning unless you can convince a jury that's an unconscionable contract. But first you have to convince them the arbitration clause is unconscionable because there's a binding arbitration clause in your contract as well. And arbitrators essentially never decide for you, they know who pays them.

To some, that might totally fairly be "bogus" - though I'd say it's more like "a dream" - dreams can come true, but it's rare and will be an uphill battle. I really do wish you luck, companies need to understand that they need to honor their side of things. But they have good lawyers, and if it were me - there's no way I'd bet a penny on you winning this case, and if you got a settlement, it wouldn't likely be for enough to justify your time unless you value your time at pennies an hour.

garykung

It is not my intent to argue this OT issue, but:

1. Online comment is a form of writing;

2. A reputation in an online arena does not necessary mean it is not protected by the law (such as eBay feedback or Yelp comments);

3. Frivolous lawsuit is a serious allegation, as filing a frivolous lawsuit may face court-imposed penalty.

A case can be lost. But it does not mean the case is either bogus or frivolous.

Bottom line - the comment involved is inappropriate.

Marathon Man

Yesterday, a Wednesday, i took my family to the beach a few miles from my house. It was sunny and in the 80s and my wife and i read magazines while the kids played in the water and built sand castles. When we came home they played in the pool and i went to cvs and rite aid and walgreens to buy vrs and gcs with my citicard. I think i spent $6k and then i picked up buns and came back to grill burgers.

I did some emails about miles and we called the grand parents. Put the kids to bed by 8 and we relaxed on the deck listening to the crickets and having a drink. We talked about the trip we just had to Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and Munich (trip report forthcoming) and how we need to burn all the TY points soon on a trip to Alaska maybe in Sept so my wife can make AA platinum lol and we can go see ice bears and moose (and a friend who lives there who cares for teams of huskies and has done the Iditarod a few times)

Today i need to go to cvs and the grocery store again and get more gcs and then two walmarts to cash em all out.

I follow the tcs of all programs and unless a store changes its policy or the card changes to 1x or something, I think Ill continue to enjoy this type of life cycle.

But when it gets colder and winter comes, we will have bought our season ski passes to enjoy trips north, so ill just have to change where i buy and burn the gcs!

Yes, right now i am happy to say that I have nothing better to do

virmaior

First, I appreciate that you're challenging us on the merits and actually engaging. That's helpful!

In answer to T&C from Thankyou.com, I don't think they apply. As a lender, Citi cards is bound by the TILA. I will probably argue (if given the chance) that citi's action violates the "changes to a credit card agreement" notice requirement (http://www.occ.gov/publications/publ...g-handbook.pdf, p. 20 = Act section 226.9). Also 226.16 (pg. 33) false statements in open-ended advertising re: point value and statements like "your account."

My arbitration clause specifically excludes small claims court. Not sure why they did that.

Also, the arbitrator scandal actually brought the conspiracy part. Not sure whether it is still just a total scam.

Marathon Man

because they are scammers.

Any entity that doesn't allow the other party to contest them or debate them in open court is probably a scam. I would still sue in SC and then sue them for blocking you to have your rights.

Going forward I am wary now of CCs that force me to give up my rights in order to have that CC. May not be worth it. Even if you do get such a CC, I bet that 'policy' or clause is flimsy anyway. Sue them anyhow if needed.

AllieKat

One - you're not going to find a card that doesn't demand you give up a LOT of legal rights, at least, not a rewards card.

"Sue them anyhow" is the right approach of course... a lot of these contracts ask you to sign away rights that legally can't be signed away. A court needs to determine how far they can go.

Marathon Man

I agree about the fact cards make you do XYZ... but to give up the right to complain against them if they mess up? Nahhhh that's pushing it! that almost tells me they plan TO mess up!

Thus, they will rip me off when they please and say I cant do anything about it. I know many try to rip us off anyway but to actually TELL US we cant do anything about it up front is a scam. Should be illegal of them to even print that rule. Which is why I say sue anyway.

Sure a card company can say, hey all we are trying to do is prevent the frivolous lawsuits, etc etc (I know in the city of Boston it can cost up to $300 to appeal a parking ticket fine because they want to deter those who are wasting their time vs those who have a real complaint) but still... to give up THAT right is WRONG!

In fact I would sue them on it before even losing any points! haha
(well, that is if you have already, say, done the 12 months on the card and now are about to cancel it lol)

virmaior

Err... rereading my sentence and the responses after, I can see it led to some confusion.

My CC agreement says that I can use small claims court. For claimers larger than small claims court, it has to be arbitration. Maybe this is to enable them to sue people who default without having to put up with arbitration?