Q: I keep hearing bank promotions on the radio for “Chase picks up the tab.” I’m confused. Do I need a Chase Check card or will a credit card work? Are there any tips or strategies for winning?

A: Once again, Chase Picks Up The Tab is back. For starters, here’s a quick overview of how it works:

• Both qualifying Chase debit and credit cards can participate.
• In order to participate you must visit a local Chase branch and enroll your cards in the promotion (which is free to do).
• For enrolled debit card transactions, you must process the payment as “credit” instead of “debit” (so you don’t enter a PIN number). Otherwise the transaction won’t be eligible.
• What does the Chase Picks Up The Tab winner get? Reimbursement for their purchase, up to $200 max.

Unfortunately I have not been able to locate a current official page for the 2011 promotion – there is nothing on Chase.com and their pages displaying in search results are from ’08 and ’09. An older page did say that each cardholder is limited to a max of 10 entries per week, regardless of how many transactions they make. I don’t know if that is still a rule now, but if it was in the past it likely is now too.

What are the odds of winning?
One transaction every five minutes win. There are 12 winners per hour, 24 hours in a day… so 288 winners each day. Over the course of the Chase Picks Up The Tab promotion (which ends Dec. 31st) there will be a total of 17,280 winners.

Because the promotion requires manual enrollment at a local Chase bank, I’m sure only a fraction of eligible cardmembers actually enroll. So in that sense, if you’re enrolled your odds are probably improved by that aspect of the contest. Ultimately, the odds are unknown since we don’t know how many transactions Chase processes in a given day (and out of those, how many are enrolled). Either way, we can speculate that the number of people participating is in the millions or tens of millions!

The Secret To Winning?
My hairdresser said the craziest thing this week, that she believes there must be some kind of timing technique to win Chase Picks Up The Tab. Unfortunately, her belief is incorrect! The winners are selected automatically through a 100% random process. Therefore there is no “secret to winning” as my hairdresser believed. It’s just like playing the lottery… winning all comes down to luck!

The odds of winning “Chase Picks Up The Tab” may be slim, but the odds of getting a great signup offer on a new credit card from them are 100%. Check out our current promotions for the Freedom and Sapphire

The last couple decades, it seems as though we’re being forced into mandatory arbitration agreements with every product and service we use. Whether it’s doctors, cell phone providers, or banks… pretty much everyone is forcing us to have our disputes handled by arbitration, waiving our rights to take a matter to court

Why It’s Unfair
Although arbitration saves big money for the business, it’s rarely fair to the consumer. Because the company is paying for the process (and often using the same arbitrators over and over) you can guess how the rulings usually go. Add in the fact that there’s no jury and you’re only allowed to present very limited evidence, it’s not very consumer-friendly. To make matters worse, even when the business is found to be at fault, the awards are typically only a tiny fraction of what you would get in court.

A Move In The Right Direction
On November 20, 2009, Chase announced they would drop forced arbitration on their credit cards – starting in 2010 and they will do so for at least three and a half years. Why? It’s the result of a class action lawsuit filed against Chase and a number of other major credit card issuers which accused them of “secretly consulting each other numerous times with the aim of requiring cardholders to arbitrate all disputes.” In return, the plaintiffs have agreed to not hold Chase liable for this alleged practice.

This is great news for consumers and I hope this trend continues. No one should be forced to waive their rights to a court trial unless they choose to do so.

With some of the credit card practices going on lately, it should come as no surprise as to why the Fed passed future credit card reform in December, and now Sen. Dodd is trying to make that happen sooner. Take for example Chase began charging approximately 400,000 customers a monthly fee of $10 if they have a balance on a low interest rate credit card. Additionally, they are increasing the minimum payment on these cards from the current 2%, all the way to 5%.

A representative from Chase claims this only affects 1/2 of 1% of their credit card customers. Whether that number is accurate or a lowballed figure, one thing is for sure – if a customer is given a 0% balance transfer promo offer or a 7.99% APR until balance is paid in full, the credit card company should be obligated to follow through with that commitment. A New York law firm has filed a class action lawsuit against Chase for this. If you would like to read more or have been affected by this and would like to join the lawsuit, you can visit the website of Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart.