Chase is Reinstating Forced Arbitration on Credit Cards – How to Opt Out

Chase Bank is in the process of reinstating forced arbitration upon its most of its credit card holders. Chase had abandoned forced arbitration for a while in a settlement with the Obama administration over unfair practices in 2009.  Thanks to an almost complete takeover of the CFPB by lender interests under the Trump administration, Chase is emboldened to reinstate mandatory arbitration even though a comprehensive investigation by the pre-Trump CFPB found that it is unfair to consumers.

Chase is claiming that the arbitration is optional by giving consumers the ability to opt out.  The opt-out process is a bit of a pain in the ass but not crazy-hard.  The cardholder must  mail chase a signed, written opt-out notice. That notice must be received by Chase by the date set in the Chase notice to the cardholder. In the Yahoo post above, the date is given as August 9, 2019. In the notices my family received, it was August 23, 2019.

I am printing below a version of the opt-out letter that we sent.  There is not phone, email or web opt out procedure.  Note, that there is some chance the opt-out address that you rae given might be different, but if it is the same, you can just cut and paste this notice, add your name and card number, and mail it in.

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You don’t have to mail it certified mail, but you should have some proof you mailed it.  For example, give it to somebody else to mail, and have them make a note in their calendar that they mailed it.  That will raise a presumption of proof of delivery.

Finally, I want to give kudos to AARP.  They negotiated terms with Chase that removes the mandatory arbitration. If you have a Chase affilliate card with any other entity (especially universities and trade associations) you should write to that entity and advise them that if AARP can negotiate the arbtration term, they should as well.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chase-forced-arbitration-credit-cards-sapphire-192909115.html