I got a letter in the mail from Freedom credit union in Warminster, Pa yesterday saying they are adopting a new arbitration clause and waiver of class action. They do have say we have a right to opt out and it must be received by October 26 which doesn't leave much time. I plan to write in and opt out. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Thank you.
I have already written the letter to reject the arbitration and will get it in the mail today. I recommend everyone do the same. You won't really care -- unless something unexpected were to occur and you wanted to sue.
Laws require you have the option to opt out of these, and retaliation for doing so is not allowed. Seems to me that in the past I once or twice got one that said you had to accept the clause or you would be dropped, but not in years -- if you are kicked out for opting out, then that is not an option to opt out, that is a mandatory requirement for doing business with them. I have opted out of many at this point.
I opt out of all of them. I have never had an issue for doing so. Yes, a lot of places have that now, but they have to give the option to opt out.
Must be big money types here to go to court with your own legal team.
The arbitration places get their business from this, if they go against the company routinely, they know they will lose a lot of business from that company because the company will drop them. I have seen them cancel a certain arbitration place for any more business.
Even though you opt out of this mandatory arbitration, you can still agree to go to arbitration at the time if you want to. But you will only be weakening your negotiating stance for a settlement.
And excetera, errors.
And that is the problem I see. Maybe it worked for Wells Fargo settling to pay. But settlements that usually go in favor of plaintiffs that I've seen are near worthless.
Not to mention, even agreeing to use a website may commit you to arbitration.
Rewards for CC and Medical info breaches. Free monitoring ? Whoopee!
Hopefully, I never expose myself to an Arbitration situation that could affect
my life in a significant way.
But consider, they know that. If you want to opt to go to arbitration instead of court at the time, I'm sure you could leverage that to get them to agree to pay all cost of it, win or lose, just like I believe the arbitration clause provides -- they want that arbitration. The last thing they want is a lawsuit, which will be much more likely to go against them and will cost them a lot more in a final judgment. They most especially do not want a class action, they would rather just pay your off any amount you want in order to avoid that, even a settlement of a class action would cost them multiple millions of dollars!
As for your lawyer fees, the court can order the CU to pay that too, provided the standard is met, such as "in a clear cut case of bank error/fraud." Idontknwo what youahve seen for lawusit settlement, btu the detaislofthat case make a difference. It is a known issue of arbitration that they award a lot less than a lawsuit would -- why do you think the CU is trying to force you into that? They would try to bar you from arbitration if it cost more than a lawsuit.
There is no downside to opting out of arbitration. ALWAYS opt out and follow the instructions for opting out precisely. Keep evidence of opting out because, if you file suit against the FI later, you will always be asked to prove that you opted out of arbitration.
I plan to opt out. I recommend that people thinking about this matter disregard all legal advice that has been proffered in the comments. I believe that almost all of it is erroneous.