Is there a class action lawsuit working for Texas residents?

Is there a law firm willing to file a class action suit on behalf of Chase’s Texas residents similarily burdened?

Thanks.

DMH

It does not indicate that the closure was in response to my failure to accept the new terms, despite the fact that my certified letter specifically mentioned that I chose to opt out and continue paying under the original terms.

However, a letter I received the following week (in response to a complaint to my state’s Attorney General’s Office) contains the following statement. “as you may know, the notice explained that beginning on the first day of the billing cycle that included Jan 1, 2009, a $10 monthly service charge would be assessed, and the minimum payments would be increased to the greater of 5% of the outstanding balance or 1% of the balance plus applicable fees and finance charges. It also explained that you had the option of closing your accounts and paying your current balances in full within 30 days of the billing statement in which the first $10 appeared to avoid the changes. While our records reflect that your account was closed on January 23, 2009, since your account balance has not been paid in full, this will not prevent the new terms from taking effect.”

But, as I mentioned above, my February statement does not include the $10 fee although the minimum payment is at 5%. Hopefully this is a sign that Chase is beginning to back down and not a billing error that they’ll “correct” next month. Keep up the fight! Please let me know if you would like copies of any of my correspondence.

Was the letter you received exactly the same (wording wise) as the one linked to in this post?

Your “partial opt out” situation is the first example of this I’ve come across. Interesting! Please keep us posted here if anything changes.

@Chris –

I agree with your general assertions re: one-sided contract changes, but that issue goes clear to the Cardmember Agreement itself (it includes a clause which essentially tries to say “we can do whatever we want,” the type of which I’ll be posting about later).

As far as I know, the only people who have not had these changes “rendered” to their account (i.e. switched on), are the folks who filed a formal OCC or FDIC complaint *before* the terms went into effect. I could be wrong on that, but so far I’ve not come across an exception to that, other than Gayle’s unusual case above.

In my opt-out letters, I did not include a copy of the change in terms notice, but instead merely referenced the notice by the November 2008 statement that it was included with and the notice codes on it at the bottom, and paraphrased in my letter the major changes it proposed that I don’t agree with ($10/fee and higher minimum payment). I said I do not the notice at all, and therefore none of the changes may become part of my cardmember agreement, and if the changes do appear on my account, they will be considered unlawful, outside the scope of the actual cardmember agreement in effect, and subject to dispute.

One wonders, if including the change in terms notice alerted and its description of (or lack therefore of) opt-out language alerted the opt-out reviewers on how to not handle the request. I specially chose not to include the opt-out letter because I totally rejected everything in the notice, including their proposed method of opting-out of the changes contained within it, and I wanted to make this crystal clear to them that it doesn’t matter what the notice actually says, I reject the thing in its entirety to full extend of my rights under the cardmember agreement itself (which is the only controlling document, actually).

I do not know all the details of every case I came across where account holders received this letter as Chase’s reply, but I do know that in many, possibly even most of them, the account holders had included a copy of the change in terms notice with their original letter, and the change in terms was the same one Dr. Lahm has been wrestling with.

Your comment, though, points out a good reason for doing that. Including a copy of the notice with one’s letter is something I consider good “standard practice,” for this very reason. I’ll touch more on that later in another post.

On my second account, where the opt-out letter was sent later, Chase’s reply was much more devious—all they said was, “We like to speak with you to discuss your options… please call us at…” I didn’t call them. While they didn’t close the account, neither the $10 fee not increased minimum payment appeared on either my January 2009 or February 2009 statements. Writing to Chase again by cerified mail with a second notice of opt-out and asking them to confirm the opt-out, Chase simply didn’t reply. Entrapment?

Changes here at ChangeInTerms.com are happening, too. But in this case, change is good. More and more individuals are contacting me, and some are volunteering to help me.

Therefore, even though the site started as “me,” because there are so many people who have been abused by credit card companies, it is the work of “we” who intend to bring misery to Chase. That being said, there’s still plenty of work left to do.