Posted on 09/01/2005 6:05:54 AM PDT by thinking4me
Suit alleges credit-cards colluded - WSJ Thu Sep 1, 2005 2:42 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed in New York federal court alleges eight leading credit card companies violated U.S. antitrust laws by colluding to promote arbitration of customer disputes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
It said the complaint alleges Bank of America Corp. , Capital One Financial Corp. Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co , Morgan Stanley's Discover unit, Citigroup Inc. , MBNA Corp. , Providian Financial Corp. and Britain's HSBC Holdings plc "combined, conspired and agreed to implement and/or maintain mandatory arbitration."
Many of the largest U.S. credit-card companies require customers to sign away their ability to take disputes to court and instead settle disagreements in arbitration, the newspaper said. Now that practice itself is under attack in court.
The suit was filed on behalf of seven plaintiffs who live in California, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and New Jersey.
Some of the banks named allegedly convened a group in 1999 called the "Arbitration Coalition" or "Arbitration Group," the complaint says, according to the Journal.
The suit, which was filed last month and is seeking class-action status, claims that bank representatives spoke or met at least 20 times from 1999 to 2003 to share experiences from arbitration as well as advise on how to set up arbitration agreements with consumers that would withstand challenges in court.
In general, it is illegal under federal antitrust law for competitors in any industry to secretly collude to restrict trade or commerce, the Journal said.
A spokeswoman for Capital One said in a statement to the newspaper that the company does not comment on pending litigation. But she added that its "arbitration clause allows either party involved in a dispute to have the case considered by an impartial arbitrator to determine a final and binding resolution to the problem."
There was no immediate comment from any of the other banks named in the suit. The firms named in the case have yet to respond to the substance of the allegations in court, the newspaper said.
"The Grip of Death: a study of modern money, debt slavery and destructive economics" ......
playing the ostriches will only postpone the day of reckoning while making it much worst..
The Great Credit Card Scam By Rep Bernie Sanders (2004) http://bernie.house.gov/documents/articles/20041201145027.asp
Living in NYC and pro-US constitution gold standard? Please drop me a note.
I'm not disagreeing with the premise, but using a Bernie Sanders (Socialist) piece as your reference point isn't exactly gonna endear many Freepers to your position...
Doomed! We're all gonna die.... poor.
So creating market standards is not colludion?
First they whine for a standard then accuse them when they do.
What I despise is that 27-29% interest rate they charge in interest - even the mob did take that much of a percentage.
However honest money (gold standard) as the US CONSTITUTION prescribes is a non partisan issue. ... divide to rule/conquer, remember?
Did you know that central banking is the 5th plank of the communist manifesto and taxation the 2nd?
So now where are the real capitalists in the world, when premises are 101% collectivistic?? Any idea?
As long as sound money remain ignored, Right, left it doesnt matter really, both are the 2 sides of the coin.
Uh... From the conservative standpoint, one serious problem: Nobody is forcing anyone to borrow.
OK. Here's a question and I'm asking this out of sincere inquiry:
If we had a gold standard, since the amount of gold is limited, does that turn our economy into a zero-sum game (IOW, if I get rich someone else gets poorer?) Because there's a limited amount of gold to go around!!
RE:
But i can tell you that if people knew the long term effects of debts and debt based economies (the real cause of boom and busts cycles, currency crises and depressions), capable to doom your beloved one, usury would be endorsed as evil publicly.
Usury is a success because people are lazy and want to enjoy materialism without working for it... but this is a miscalculation of course. In a few weeks CC are going to rise the minumum payment, some are talking of 200% up. The double. How is it going to affect the economy considering that the savings rate is now zero in america.
WITH DEBTS YOU NEVER WIN THE GAME. IT IS A CASINO ECONOMY. BANKS ALWAYS WIN.
If we had a gold standard, since the amount of gold is limited, does that turn our economy into a zero-sum game (IOW, if I get rich someone else gets poorer?) Because there's a limited amount of gold to go around!!
RE:
your question is the result of a classical disinformation... your question sounds right at first sight but after a closer look does not hold any water and here is why: it does NOT matter whether we calculate a rug in inches, yards or miles...
HOW ABOUT:
1/2 ounce of gold for 10,000 dollars
1/10 ounce for 5,000
1/1000 for 1,000 .... and so on? REST ASSURED THERE IS PLENTY OF GOLD
google: gold and economic freedom by Alan Greenspan (written in 1996) - cheers
That's an interesting article, I skimmed it and will read it in full after work.
What happens to existing debts if we switch to gold standard??
Would that hamper our ability to borrow for purchasing a home, or would it simply turn interest rates over to the market (as I believe they should be) entirely?
google: gold and economic freedom by Alan Greenspan (--->>>>> written in 1966)
1966, sorry
I use credit cards for business, and I can tell you I lost at least four cards because of crooked New York bankers.
I negotiate a set interest limit for all purchases on a bank's credit card, and then along come these New York thieves. They buy out the bank's credit card account and then send me a notice that they're raising the rate to 15% or 19%.
So I need to tell these thieves that I have a negotiated contract with that bank, and if they raise the rate I'll sue the bastards for breach of contract. When they buy the bank's credit card account, they're also buying my contract and can't change it w/o my permission.
So we go round and round until finally I give up and find another bank willing to give me a set interest rate.
America did just fine with interest rates set between 3 and 7% for 200 years. Crooked New York banks are involved in piracy and usury. If congress can set the number of bullets in my magazine, it can sure set bank's interest rates at 7% and no higher.
A customer paying 19% on a credit card affects his buying power and a community's economy.
RE
First, usury must be abolished, time for the bankers to make an honest living and get paid much less than they actually are. Their earnings come from a predatory scheme.
All this debt money is worthelss = ZERO, it just is an illusion. It has a value because of con-fidence.
"Should government refrain from regulation (taxation), the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent and the fraud can no longer be concealed." -- John Maynard Keynes, "Consequences of Peace."
Any return to the gold standard must be made progressively, as the govt repegs the currency slowly on, inflation would vanish slowly on too. But this will never happen because too many organizations. lawmakers have fooled the voters and just cant tell the truth... So here we are waiting for the next great depression, our only chance to go back to the gold standard paradoxically. A massive debt liquidation must come first.
Gold, Money and the US Constitution http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_03/holloway021003.html
The Case for the 100 Percent Gold Dollar (2005) http://www.mises.org/story/1829
Here's a true story about the rapaciousness of credit card companies.
I almost never read those little inserts they put into your bills because most of them are about how you can buy something.
And I seldom checked my billing account because for more than five years I've had the money taken out of my checking account by automatic draft. But suddenly, I noticed that my balance wasn't declining with payments. I looked at the bill and saw my interest rate was almost 30%.
Although, they were always after me to raise my limit because I was a good customer and never been late with a payment, a phone call revealed that Citibank had indeed raised my interest rate unilaterally and notified me in one paragraph of one of those little inserts. It was just a 'underwriting decision'
And they told me that another paragraph change in one of those little inserts said I couldn't sue them.
Welcome to the world of stealth contracts where one party can change the contract at will with only minimum notice to the other party.
The worst part is when your interest rate is at say, 9% and you are ONE DAY LATE with a payment...something that can easily happen with the postal service...and they penalize you and jack it up to 25% PLUS a "late fee."
You've become quite the doom and gloomer here at FR. So we have a lot of debt. Maybe you should post a chart that shows household assets so we can subtract that from your debt.
You wouldn't do that though, would you? It would kill your argument that the worst economy since Hoover is just around the corner.
Do you know that household net worth is $49 trillion? The national debt, as a percentage of household wealth, is a smaller amount now, at just under 14%, than it was in 1994 when it was about 16%.
Our income and our wealth have grown faster than government spending. That's a good thing. Additionally, federal spending, as a percentage of household wealth, has declined by almost half during the past decade.
Finally, public debt as a percentage of GDP has gone down from 66.0% in 1994 to 60.3% in 2004.
Does this sound like The Grip of Death to you?
The disturbing thing though is DESPITE all that...the savings rate is zero.
Do you have any idea how the government calculates the savings rate and why their methodology is seriously flawed?
If American's are not saving and, instead, are burying themselves in debt, how is it that household wealth is $49 trillion. How is it that this amount is double what it was just a decade ago? Please explain this to us.
Wealth is not all saved money. Home equity is counted in wealth. Many people without a dime in the bank have some equity in their homes.
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