Great coverage here in today’s Oregonian by Brent Hunsberger regarding Umpqua Bank’s decision to cram mandatory arbitration down the throats of Umpqua customers. If you’re an Umpqua Bank customer, you might want to seriously consider moving your funds to a credit union.
By way of background, the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion touched off a race to the bottom. The Court gave corporations great power to require customers to take any disputes to arbitration, while banning class actions.
The Court fell for the old Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football argument that arbitration is cheaper, easier and better for consumers. Arbitration is none of those things to consumers–especially in small consumer cases. In those cases in which the amount at stake might be $20-200, arbitration filing fees, hearing fees and arbitrator payment fees effectively bar individual consumers from pursuing their claims.
When the likes of Umpqua Bank and ATT Mobility engage in small-dollar rip offs of many consumers, they earn large amounts of money. To put it concretely, if a bank illegally charges five dollars each year to a million customers, it earns $5 million per year in illegal profits. In the past, consumer lawyers have stopped that nickel and diming by pursuing class actions. If a class of a million consumers collects $5 per consumer plus attorney fees and costs, does anyone think the bank will continue the illegal practice?
Banks–and those who represent them–dislike class actions. They settled on a simple strategy. Ban class actions and require consumers to go to arbitration. Ending consumer class actions is a bit like filling the slop pit for a bunch of hungry swine. They’ll be all over that deal.
Once the Supreme Court decided ATT Mobility v. Concepcion, banks, cell phone providers, credit card companies–hell, almost any big business that sells things or services under a written contract–all rushed in for the feeding frenzy. So I guess it is no surprise that Umpqua wants to get in on the action.
So where are consumers in this? If you care about this issue and you are an Umpqua customer, the best response is to vote with your feet. Move it to a consumer-friendly credit union. Because if enough Umpqua customers move, I’m guessing they will get a little nervous. And if a lot of Umpqua customers move, I’m thinking they might get a lot of nervous.
So do it if you can. If they can’t treat us better than slops in a trough, seems to me they don’t deserve our business.