Terms of Service

1. Who Banrox Is, and What Banrox Is Not

Banrox Inc. ("Banrox," "we," "us," "our") is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business at 40 N Altadena Dr, Ste 105, Pasadena, CA 91107. Banrox operates banrox.com, the Banrox member dashboard, and the Banrox mobile experiences (together, the "Services").

Banrox is a technology and financial media company. We build software that helps people see their credit and identity position, compare financial products published by other companies, and organise their financial admin. Everything below follows from that.

Banrox is not, and does not hold itself out as:

• a bank, savings association, credit union, or any insured depository institution
• a lender, creditor, or finance lender, and Banrox does not originate, fund, purchase, hold, or service any loan
• a loan broker, mortgage broker, or credit services organization, and Banrox does not negotiate loan terms on your behalf or take a fee from you to obtain credit for you
• a credit repair organization as defined in 15 U.S.C. section 1679a(3), and a credit services organization as defined in California Civil Code section 1789.12 or in the equivalent statute of any other state. Banrox does not sell, provide, or perform, and does not represent that it can or will sell, provide, or perform, any service for the express or implied purpose of improving your credit record, your credit history, or your credit rating. Banrox also does not sell, provide, or perform any service that gives you advice or assistance with regard to improving your credit record, your credit history, or your credit rating. Banrox does not charge you for any such advice or assistance, and no Banrox paid plan includes any such advice or assistance. Where a Banrox page explains a right you already have for free, such as how to dispute an error with a bureau, that explanation is published free to everyone, is not behind any paid plan, and is not sold to you.
• a consumer reporting agency as defined in 15 U.S.C. section 1681a(f), and Banrox does not assemble or evaluate consumer credit information for the purpose of furnishing consumer reports to third parties
• a debt collector, debt settlement provider, debt management plan provider, or credit counselling agency
• an insurance company, insurance producer, agent, or broker
• a money transmitter, payment institution, or issuer of stored value
• an investment adviser, broker dealer, tax preparer, accountant, or law firm
• an auto dealer, autobroker, or vehicle sales intermediary

Banking, lending, card, and insurance products described anywhere on the Services are offered, underwritten, approved, priced, funded, and serviced by third parties under their own agreements, their own licences, and their own criteria. Banrox has no authority to approve you, to promise you a rate, or to bind any provider.

Banrox serves the United States only. The Services are not offered to, and may not be used by, persons located outside the United States and its territories.

2. Your Agreement to These Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding contract between you and Banrox. You accept them by ticking the box that says you agree to them when you create an account, or by clicking any other button on the Services that states you are agreeing to them. If you do not accept them, do not create an account.

Browsing is not acceptance. Browsing the Services without doing one of those two things does not make you a party to these Terms. Banrox does not treat browsing the site as acceptance, and does not treat using a free tool, a calculator, or a quiz as acceptance. If you have not accepted these Terms in one of those two ways, these Terms are not a contract between you and Banrox, and Sections 18, 19, 20 and 21 do not apply to you.

The documents linked from these Terms are part of this contract. They are: Credit Data and Your FCRA Rights, Identity Protection and Privacy Protect Service Terms, Marketplace, Rates and Calculator Methodology, Advertiser and Affiliate Disclosure, AI Features, Documents Lab and Automated Output, Community and User Content Guidelines, Squad Card Waitlist Terms, Subscriptions, Billing, Auto Renewal and Refunds, Acceptable Use Policy, Calls, Texts and Email Policy, Electronic Records and Signatures Consent, Copyright, DMCA and Trademarks, Complaints, Disputes and Regulator Contacts, Security and Vulnerability Disclosure, the Privacy Policy, the GLBA Privacy Notice, State Privacy Rights, and the Cookie and Tracking Technologies Notice. Every one of them is published at banrox.com/legal, except the Advertiser and Affiliate Disclosure, which is published at banrox.com/advertiser-disclosure.

Order of precedence. If two of these documents conflict, the order is: first, any term that gives you a stronger right or a better remedy; second, the document written for the specific feature in dispute; third, these Terms; fourth, every other document. Section 21 (Arbitration) and Section 18 (Limitation of Liability) are changed only by these Terms and never by another document.

Changes to the other documents. The notice you get before a change to any of these documents is the notice described under "Changes to these Terms" below. No linked document changes with less notice than these Terms give.

Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms. If a change materially reduces your rights or materially increases your obligations, we will give you at least 30 days notice by email to the address on your account and by a notice on the Services before the change takes effect, and we will state the effective date at the top of this page. If you hold an account and keep using the Services after the effective date, the change applies to you from that date. If you do not accept it, close your account and cancel any paid plan before the effective date, and we will refund any prepaid, unused fees for the period after cancellation.

A change to these Terms does not apply retroactively to a dispute that arose before the effective date of the change.

If Banrox changes Section 21 (Arbitration), Banrox will give you at least 30 days notice by email to the address on your account and by a notice on the Services before the change takes effect, and you will have 30 days from the date of that notice to reject the change by the method in Section 21.8. If you reject it, the version of Section 21 in force before the change continues to apply to you, and nothing else in these Terms changes. Section 21.11 states which disputes a change to Section 21 can reach.

3. Eligibility

To use the Services you must be at least 18 years old, be a United States resident with a physical United States address, be able to form a binding contract, and not be barred from receiving services under United States law, including sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Services are not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us information, write to [email protected] and we will delete it.

We may refuse, suspend, or end access to any person, for any lawful reason, including failed identity verification, suspected fraud, sanctions screening, or misuse of the Services. Where Banrox refuses or ends your access because identity verification failed, Banrox sends you the notice described in Credit Data and Your FCRA Rights.

4. Your Account and Security

You agree to give accurate, current, and complete information, and to keep it accurate. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account, including activity by anyone you allow to use it.

Keep your credentials secret. Turn on multi factor authentication where offered. Tell us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorised access. We may require identity verification, additional authentication, device or network restrictions, or a temporary lock to protect you and other members.

You may close your account at any time from your account settings or by writing to [email protected]. Closing an account does not by itself cancel a paid plan; see Section 9.

5. What the Services Actually Do

The Services are made up of the features below. Each description is what the feature does, not what it aspires to do.

Credit monitoring, scores and reports

We display credit information about you that we obtain from consumer reporting agencies and their technology partners, with your written authorisation. Scores shown are educational scores or bureau scores as labelled, and a lender may use a different model and reach a different number. Additional terms: Credit Data and Your FCRA Rights.

Identity protection and Privacy Protect

We monitor sources for signs that your information has been exposed, and on your instruction we send removal requests to data brokers as your authorised agent. Monitoring detects; it does not prevent. Removal is a request that a broker may refuse. Additional terms: Identity Protection and Privacy Protect Service Terms.

Marketplaces, comparisons, rates and the bank directory

We publish information about financial products offered by other companies, ordered by objective attributes. We are a publisher of that information, not a party to any product. Additional terms: Marketplace, Rates and Calculator Methodology and Advertiser and Affiliate Disclosure.

Referrals to providers

When you ask to be matched or click through to a provider, we may pass information you gave us for that purpose to that provider so it can respond to you. You choose whether to apply. Banrox does not submit an application for you, does not negotiate on your behalf, and does not charge you for a referral. See Section 8.

Calculators, quizzes, Documents Lab and content

Estimates, illustrations, quiz results, generated documents, blog articles, and guides are general information for education and comparison. They are not advice, not an offer, and not a prediction of what any company will do. Additional terms: AI Features, Documents Lab and Automated Output.

Community and user content

Where the Services let you post, the Community and User Content Guidelines apply.

Business and merchant tools

Features labelled for business use are provided to the business entity, not to you personally, and are not for personal, family, or household purposes. The person accepting these Terms for a business represents that they are authorised to bind it.

Waitlists, previews and beta features

A waitlist is a place in a queue. It is not an application, not an offer, not an approval, and not a promise that a product will launch. See Section 15 and the Squad Card Waitlist Terms.

Nothing that touches your credit record is behind a Banrox paywall. Documents Lab, credit file dispute templates, guidance on freezes and fraud alerts, and every explanation of your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act are free to everyone, whether you pay Banrox anything or not. Banrox does not charge a fee for improving, repairing, or disputing anything on your credit record, and does not take a fee in advance for any such service. A Banrox paid plan buys identity monitoring, data broker removal requests, and member tools, and nothing in a paid plan is offered for the purpose of changing what a credit bureau holds about you. If Banrox ever intends to change this, this page will say so before the change takes effect.

Features not currently offered. Any page, marketing asset, or document describing a Banrox credit builder product, a Banrox originated loan, a Banrox deposit or checking account, Banrox debt collection services, a Banrox debt navigator or debt planning product, or Banrox auto brokerage describes a product that Banrox does not currently offer, does not currently sell, and is not currently enrolling anyone into. No such product is available for purchase, and no one is being billed for one. If any such page is reachable, treat this paragraph as controlling over it.

6. No Financial, Legal, Tax or Insurance Advice

Nothing on the Services is financial advice, investment advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice, or insurance advice, and nothing creates a fiduciary, advisory, agency, or attorney client relationship between you and Banrox. We do not know your full circumstances and we do not evaluate whether a product is suitable for you.

Decisions about borrowing, saving, insuring, or paying down debt are yours. Consider talking to a licensed professional before you act. The decision is yours, and Banrox does not promise any particular result from it. That does not affect Banrox's own responsibility under the law for information Banrox published, and nothing in this section limits any right you have that the law says cannot be limited by agreement.

7. Third Party Products, Providers and Links

Providers listed, linked, or referred through the Services are independent companies. Banrox does not control them, does not act as their agent, does not act as your agent with them, and does not guarantee their products, their availability, their pricing, their conduct, or their compliance with law.

When you leave the Services or give information to a provider, that provider's terms and privacy policy govern what happens next, not ours. Read them.

Banrox does not endorse any provider by listing it, and the absence of a provider is not a judgement about that provider. Trade names, logos, and trademarks of other companies appear on the Services only to identify their products. Their appearance does not imply a partnership, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement in either direction unless we say so in writing on the page.

Any dispute you have with a provider is between you and that provider. Banrox will help you find the right contact and, where we hold relevant records, will provide them to you, but Banrox is not a party to that dispute and has no authority to resolve it.

8. How Banrox Is Paid

Banrox may be paid by providers when a member clicks through to them or opens a product with them, and Banrox may charge members for paid plans. Banrox does not charge you a fee to be matched with, referred to, or introduced to any lender, bank, card issuer, or insurer, and Banrox does not accept a fee from you in exchange for obtaining credit for you.

Compensation never determines the order, the badge, or the description of a product on the Services. The complete explanation, including our live compensation status, is at Advertiser and Affiliate Disclosure.

9. Fees, Billing, Renewal and Cancellation

Paid plans, their prices, their billing frequency, any trial length, and the cancellation method are disclosed before you pay and again in your confirmation. Charges recur until you cancel.

You can cancel at any time, online, inside your account, in the same medium in which you signed up, without speaking to anyone. Cancellation stops future charges immediately.

The full statement of billing, automatic renewal, reminder notices, price change notices, trial conversion notices, and refunds is at Subscriptions, Billing, Auto Renewal and Refunds, and it is part of these Terms.

You authorise us and our payment processors to charge the payment method you provide. If a charge fails we may retry it and may suspend paid features until it clears. We do not add late fees or interest to consumer subscriptions.

10. Communications and Consent

By creating an account you agree to receive service messages relating to your account, security, billing, and legally required notices. These are not marketing and you cannot opt out of them while you hold an account, although you can close the account.

Marketing calls, texts, and emails require your separate, affirmative consent, which is never a condition of buying anything, and which you can withdraw at any time by any reasonable method. The complete terms, including STOP and HELP handling, message frequency, and carrier language, are at Calls, Texts and Email Policy.

Your consent to receive records and disclosures electronically is at Electronic Records and Signatures Consent. Calls with Banrox may be monitored or recorded for quality, training, and dispute resolution where the law allows, and where consent is required you will be told at the start of the call.

11. Privacy and Your Data

How we handle personal information is set out in the Privacy Policy, the GLBA Privacy Notice, the State Privacy Rights page, and the Cookie and Tracking Technologies Notice. Those documents are incorporated into these Terms.

You authorise Banrox and its service providers to obtain, verify, and use information about you as described in those documents, including obtaining your consumer report where you have separately authorised it in writing.

12. Your Content, Your Licence to Us, and Feedback

You keep ownership of everything you upload or post. You grant Banrox a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for display, and transmit your content, solely to operate, secure and support the Services and to comply with law. Banrox may sublicence these rights only to a service provider acting for Banrox and only for the same purposes, and every such sublicence ends when this licence ends.

This licence ends when you delete the content, and it ends for all of your content when you close your account. After it ends, the only copies Banrox keeps are copies in backups that are overwritten on the schedule in the Privacy Policy, in audit logs, and in records the law requires Banrox to keep.

Banrox does not use your content to train, fine tune, or evaluate any machine learning model, of any kind, and does not permit a service provider to do so.

You represent that you have the rights to what you post and that it does not violate law or anyone else's rights.

If you send us ideas, suggestions, or feedback, you grant Banrox an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty free right to use them for any purpose without obligation or compensation to you. Do not send us anything you want to keep confidential.

13. Prohibited Uses

You agree not to:

• use the Services unlawfully, fraudulently, deceptively, or to harm another person
• submit false, stolen, or synthetic identity information, or apply on behalf of someone else without written authority
• access, obtain, or attempt to obtain a consumer report or credit information about any person other than yourself, or without a permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
• scrape, crawl, harvest, index, or bulk download any part of the Services, or use any automated means to access them, except a public search engine obeying our robots file
• reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code, or bypass any rate limit, paywall, or access control
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system except as permitted in the Security and Vulnerability Disclosure policy
• interfere with the Services, overload infrastructure, or introduce malicious code
• resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Services or their data without our written agreement
• use the Services or their content to train a machine learning model without our written agreement
• misrepresent your identity, your affiliation with Banrox, or the source of a communication

The full policy, including consequences and the security research safe harbour, is at Acceptable Use Policy.

14. Intellectual Property

Banrox and its licensors own the Services, the software, the design, the databases, the compilations, the methodology, and all content we create, and all associated intellectual property rights. BANROX and the Banrox marks and logos are trademarks of Banrox Inc.

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to access and use the Services for your own personal, non-commercial use, or for the internal business use of a business account. Every right not expressly granted is reserved. Copyright and takedown procedures are at Copyright, DMCA and Trademarks.

15. Waitlists, Previews and Beta Features

Features labelled waitlist, preview, early access, beta, or similar are provided as is, may be incomplete, may change without notice, may lose data, and may be withdrawn at any time without liability. They are not covered by any service commitment. Joining a waitlist creates no right to a product, no priority you can enforce, and no offer of credit or of any financial product.

Do not rely on a preview feature for anything that matters. Do not put confidential or regulated data into one.

16. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may suspend or end your access, with notice where practical and immediately where the situation requires it, if you breach these Terms, if we reasonably suspect fraud or unlawful use, if a provider or regulator requires it, if we are unable to verify your identity, or if we discontinue a feature. Where Banrox ends or suspends your access because identity verification failed, Banrox sends you the notice described in Credit Data and Your FCRA Rights.

If we suspend or end access for a reason other than your breach or suspected fraud, we refund prepaid, unused fees on a pro rata basis. On termination, Sections 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 17 through 25 survive. Section 12 survives only as to the copies described in its second paragraph and the feedback licence in its last paragraph. The licence you grant Banrox in your content ends as Section 12 says it does, and closing your account ends it.

We may discontinue any feature. If we discontinue a paid feature, we will give at least 30 days notice and refund prepaid, unused fees.

17. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services and all content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty of any kind. Banrox disclaims all implied warranties, including the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY, the implied warranty of FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, title, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

Specifically, Banrox does not warrant that:

• the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, timely, or error free
• any score, rate, fee, term, or figure shown is currently accurate, since providers change them without notice and the provider's own disclosure controls
• you will be approved for any product, receive any particular rate, or achieve any credit score outcome
• monitoring will detect every exposure of your information, or detect it in time
• a data broker will honour a removal request, or that removed information will not reappear
• any estimate, calculator output, or generated document is accurate for your circumstances

Some states do not allow implied warranties to be excluded in a consumer transaction, and federal law limits the exclusion of implied warranties where a written warranty is given or a service contract is sold, including under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. section 2308(a). Where either applies to you, this section does not exclude the implied warranty, and the warranty is limited only to the shortest period the law allows.

Nothing in this section limits any right you have under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Credit Repair Organizations Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, or any other consumer protection law. Banrox does not ask you to waive any of them and would not rely on this section against any of them.

18. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Banrox and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and suppliers are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, or the cost of substitute services, arising out of or relating to the Services, whether based in contract, tort, statute, or any other theory, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total aggregate liability of Banrox for all claims relating to the Services is limited to the greater of the amount you paid Banrox in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or one thousand dollars.

These limits do not apply to:

• any liability that cannot be limited by law, including fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence, and death or personal injury caused by negligence
• any violation of law by Banrox, whether wilful or negligent
• any claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. section 1681 and following, including a claim under section 1681n or section 1681o, and any claim under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the California Unfair Competition Law, or any state unfair or deceptive acts and practices statute. Banrox does not cap, limit, or exclude liability for any of those claims
• any other statutory claim, to the extent the statute does not permit the limit
• any amount Banrox agrees to pay you under Section 21.3, which the limits in this section do not reduce
• your obligation to pay fees you owe

These limits apply even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some states do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

The allocation of risk in Sections 17 and 18 is a basic part of the bargain and reflects the fact that most of the Services are provided at no charge.

19. Indemnification

If a third party brings a claim against Banrox because you used the Services unlawfully, because you breached these Terms, because you violated someone else's rights, or because of content you posted, you will indemnify Banrox for the loss, liability and reasonable legal fees that claim causes, up to the greater of 10,000 dollars or the amount you paid Banrox in the 12 months before the claim. This limit does not apply if you acted fraudulently or wilfully.

Banrox will tell you about the claim promptly, will give you the documents about it, and will not settle it in a way that requires you to pay anything or admit anything without your written consent. You may take over the defence at your own cost with counsel you choose, and if you do, Banrox will cooperate with you. If you do not, you may still approve or refuse any settlement that you would be asked to fund.

Banrox will indemnify you on the same basis if a third party brings a claim against you because Banrox breached these Terms or violated the law.

This section does not apply to a consumer to the extent applicable law does not allow it.

20. Disputes with Other Companies

If your dispute is with a lender, bank, card issuer, insurer, another member, or any other third party you found through the Services, that dispute is between you and them. Banrox is not a party to it and has no authority to resolve it. Banrox will help you find the right contact and, where Banrox holds relevant records, will give them to you.

This section does not release Banrox from any claim based on Banrox's own acts or omissions, including how Banrox described, ranked, or presented a product, and it does not release any claim under a statute. It does not apply to any claim you have against Banrox under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Credit Repair Organizations Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, or any other consumer protection law, and it does not apply to any claim arising from how Banrox handled your credit report or your personal information. You keep those claims whatever happens between you and the other company.

Banrox does not ask you to sign a release at signup. Banrox does not ask you to waive California Civil Code section 1542 or any equivalent provision of another state's law, and no earlier version of these Terms is relied on to do so.

21. Dispute Resolution and Binding Arbitration

Please read this section carefully. It requires most disputes to be resolved by individual arbitration instead of in court, and it waives your right to participate in a class action or any other representative proceeding. It does not ask you to give up a jury trial in advance, and Section 21.4 lists what is carved out of it entirely. You may opt out within 30 days and keep every other part of these Terms.

21.1 Informal resolution comes first

Before starting an arbitration, you and Banrox agree to try to resolve the dispute informally for 60 days. Send a written Notice of Dispute to [email protected] and to Banrox Inc., Attn: Legal, 40 N Altadena Dr, Ste 105, Pasadena, CA 91107. Banrox will send a Notice of Dispute to the address on your account. The notice must state your name, the email and address on your account, the specific facts, the specific relief you want, and the amount if it is a money claim. If either party requests it, both parties will take part in a telephone settlement conference during the 60 days.

This 60 day period is a precondition to starting an arbitration. It is not a precondition to filing in small claims court, to seeking public injunctive relief, to reporting anything to a regulator, or to any claim the law does not allow Banrox to delay. All limitation periods are tolled while the 60 days run, and the tolling never shortens any period.

21.2 Agreement to arbitrate

Who decides questions about this Section 21. You and Banrox agree that an arbitrator, and not a court, decides any question about the meaning, scope, applicability, enforceability, revocability, or validity of this Section 21, including any claim that all or part of it is unconscionable or void. This paragraph is a separate agreement between you and Banrox. It is severable from the rest of this Section 21, and a challenge to any other part of Section 21, or to these Terms as a whole, is not a challenge to this paragraph. The only exception is that a court, and not an arbitrator, decides whether a claim falls within a carve-out in Section 21.4, and whether this Section 21 was formed at all.

If the dispute is not resolved in 60 days, you and Banrox agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Services, these Terms, any Banrox communication, or the relationship between us, including its formation, interpretation, breach, termination, enforceability, and including claims that arose before these Terms took effect, except a claim that had already arisen when you first accepted these Terms or any earlier Banrox Terms and Conditions, will be resolved by binding individual arbitration and not in court, except as stated in Section 21.4.

This agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. sections 1 to 16, which the parties agree evidences a transaction involving interstate commerce.

Whether this Section 21 applies to a claim relating to sexual assault or sexual harassment is decided by a court and not by an arbitrator, as 9 U.S.C. section 402(b) requires.

21.3 How arbitration works

Arbitration is administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules for consumer disputes, or its Commercial Arbitration Rules for business account disputes, as modified by this section. The rules are at adr.org or by calling 1-800-778-7879. If the AAA is unavailable or unwilling to administer the arbitration consistent with this section, the parties will agree on another established administrator, and failing agreement a court will appoint one.

One neutral arbitrator decides. The arbitrator applies these Terms and the governing law, and may award any individual relief a court could award to that individual claimant, including statutory damages and, where a statute provides for them, attorney fees. The arbitrator has the same power a court would have to decide that a provision of these Terms is unenforceable and to decline to apply it. The arbitrator may not award relief to anyone who is not a party. The arbitrator's decision is final and may be entered as a judgment in any court with jurisdiction.

Arbitration is held in the county where you live, or by telephone or video, or on documents alone, at your choice. You will never be required to travel outside your home county for a consumer arbitration.

Banrox pays all AAA filing, administration, and arbitrator fees for a consumer arbitration seeking less than 75,000 dollars, other than a filing fee equal to what you would pay to file in your local court, and Banrox will pay that too if you show it is a hardship. Where Section 21.6 applies, Banrox's obligation to pay fees under this paragraph arises for each claim when that claim's batch is scheduled under Section 21.6. Each party otherwise bears its own attorney fees unless a statute or the arbitrator says otherwise. If the arbitrator finds a claim or a defence was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose, the arbitrator may shift fees as the AAA rules allow.

If Banrox makes a written settlement offer before an arbitrator is appointed and you reject it, and the arbitrator awards you more than that offer, Banrox will pay the greater of the award or 5,000 dollars, plus your reasonable attorney fees and costs. This payment is a separate promise by Banrox and the limit in Section 18 does not reduce it. It does not apply to a claim governed by Section 21.6.

21.4 What is carved out of arbitration

Either party may, instead of arbitrating:

• bring an individual claim in a small claims court with jurisdiction, as long as the case stays in that court and stays individual
• ask a court for a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction to stop actual or threatened infringement or misuse of intellectual property, or unauthorised access to systems, while the arbitration is pending, as California Code of Civil Procedure section 1281.8 allows either party to do; the merits of that claim are still decided in arbitration
• bring a claim for public injunctive relief, which is expressly reserved to the courts and is severed from arbitration under Section 21.7
• report conduct to any federal, state, or local agency, which no part of this section restricts
• bring a claim relating to conduct alleged to constitute sexual assault or sexual harassment, which you may bring in court or in arbitration at your choice, under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, 9 U.S.C. sections 401 and 402, and the class and representative action waiver in Section 21.5 does not apply to such a claim
• bring a claim under the Credit Repair Organizations Act, 15 U.S.C. section 1679 and following, which is not subject to this Section 21 in any respect, including the class and representative action waiver in Section 21.5 and the time limit in Section 21.9
• if you are a covered borrower under the Military Lending Act, 10 U.S.C. section 987, bring any claim relating to consumer credit in court, because that statute does not permit Banrox to require you to arbitrate it, and the waiver in Section 21.5 does not apply to that claim

21.5 Class and representative action waiver

You and Banrox each agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, private attorney general, or other representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding, except through the coordinated process in Section 21.6. If this paragraph is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or a particular request for relief, that claim or request is severed and must proceed in a court of competent jurisdiction, and the rest of this Section 21 continues to apply to all other claims. If this paragraph is unenforceable as to a claim, that claim may be brought in court on a class or representative basis, and Banrox will not argue otherwise. Every other claim stays in individual arbitration.

21.6 Coordinated filings

This paragraph applies when 25 or more demands for arbitration raising substantially similar claims are filed by or with the coordination of the same counsel within any 180 day period.

First, each demand must be individually signed by the claimant and must attach that claimant's own Notice of Dispute under Section 21.1. A demand that does not meet this requirement is not properly filed, and no fee is due on it.

Second, the claims will be administered under the AAA Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules then in effect, and the AAA process arbitrator decides any question about how those rules apply.

Third, the claims will be heard in staged batches of no more than 50. Fees for a batch become due when that batch is scheduled, and no fee is due on a claim held for a later batch. If the administrator's rules require fees to be assessed on all filed cases at filing, the parties will apply to the process arbitrator to align the fee schedule with this paragraph, and Banrox's obligation under Section 21.3 applies to each claim only when that claim's batch is scheduled.

Fourth, the parties will select 10 bellwether cases, 5 chosen by each side, to be heard first by separate arbitrators, and will then take part in a single global mediation before any further batch proceeds.

Fifth, all limitation periods are tolled for every claimant awaiting a later batch, from the date their demand is filed until their batch is scheduled.

Sixth, the payment under the last paragraph of Section 21.3 does not apply to a claim governed by this paragraph.

This process is intended to make coordinated claims workable for both sides, not to delay any individual claimant. Either party may ask a court to enforce this paragraph, and a request to do so is not itself a dispute subject to arbitration.

21.7 Severability and the survival rule

If any part of this Section 21 is found unenforceable, that part is severed and the rest remains in force, except that if Section 21.5 is found unenforceable as to a claim seeking class wide relief, that claim proceeds in court and the remainder of Section 21 continues to govern every other claim. A claim for public injunctive relief is severed from arbitration and proceeds in court. This applies to a claim for public injunctive relief under the law of any state, not only California. The court decides whether to stay that claim while the arbitrable claims are arbitrated.

21.8 Your right to opt out

You may reject this arbitration agreement within 30 days after the date you ticked the box agreeing to these Terms. Send written notice to [email protected] with the subject line "Arbitration Opt Out," or by mail to Banrox Inc., Attn: Legal, 40 N Altadena Dr, Ste 105, Pasadena, CA 91107. Include your name, the email address on your account, and a clear statement that you reject arbitration. If you ask, Banrox will tell you the date you accepted these Terms and which version you accepted, so that you can work out when your 30 days end. Opting out affects nothing else in these Terms, and it will not be used against you in any way. If you opted out of a previous version of this section, your opt out remains in force.

21.9 Time limit for bringing a claim

Any claim must be brought within one year after you knew or should have known of the facts giving rise to it. This one year limit does not apply, and the full period the law gives you applies instead, to any claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Credit Repair Organizations Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the California Unfair Competition Law, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or any other statute whose period cannot be shortened by agreement. It also does not apply if the law of the state where you live does not allow a limitation period to be shortened by agreement. Where two periods could apply, the longer one applies.

For a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the period is set by 15 U.S.C. section 1681p, which allows two years from the date you discover the violation, up to five years from the date the violation happened, and Banrox will not argue that this contract shortened it. For a claim under the Credit Repair Organizations Act the period is five years, and for a claim under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act it is five years.

21.10 Survival

This Section 21 survives termination of your account and of these Terms.

21.11 Changes to this Section 21

A change to this Section 21 applies only to disputes that arise after the effective date of the change. It never applies to a dispute that had already arisen, and it never applies to a dispute of which either party had already given notice under Section 21.1. Banrox gives the notice described in Section 2 before a change to this Section 21 takes effect, and you have 30 days from that notice to reject the change.

22. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms and any dispute are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws rules, and by applicable federal law. For any dispute not subject to arbitration, the venue is the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California, except that you may bring an individual claim in a small claims court where you live, and except where the law of the state where you live gives you the right to sue there. Each party consents to personal jurisdiction in Los Angeles County and waives any objection based on forum.

Nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of any mandatory consumer protection law of the state where you live that cannot be varied by agreement. To the extent this Section 22 conflicts with such a law, that law prevails for that issue only.

Jury trial. If a dispute proceeds in court, each party keeps whatever right to a jury trial the law of that court gives it. Banrox does not ask you to give up a jury trial in advance.

23. State Specific Notices

California. Under California Civil Code section 1789.3, California users may reach the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210. California residents also have the rights described at State Privacy Rights.

Notice to consumers everywhere. A list of the regulators you may complain to about Banrox or about any provider you found through Banrox, with their addresses and complaint links, is at Complaints, Disputes and Regulator Contacts. You never have to complain to Banrox before going to a regulator, and you never have to complain to Banrox before filing in a small claims court. Before starting an arbitration, Section 21.1 asks for 60 days of informal resolution first, and all deadlines are paused while that runs.

Servicemembers. If you are a covered borrower under the Military Lending Act or protected by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, those protections apply to any credit product you obtain, and are provided by the creditor extending that credit. Banrox does not extend credit and therefore issues no such disclosures. Banrox will never require a covered borrower under the Military Lending Act to arbitrate a claim relating to consumer credit, and will never ask a covered borrower to waive any right under the Military Lending Act or the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Section 21.4 carves those claims out of arbitration.

24. General Terms

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the documents they link to, are the entire agreement between you and Banrox about the Services, and they replace every prior agreement and understanding on that subject, including any earlier version of the Banrox Terms and Conditions.

Severability. If a provision is held unenforceable, it is modified to the least extent necessary to make it enforceable, or if that is not possible it is severed, and the rest remains in force.

No waiver. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. Banrox may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, or sale of assets, on notice to you.

Force majeure. Neither party is liable for a delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disaster, war, terrorism, labour dispute, epidemic, government action, utility or telecommunications failure, or the failure of a third party provider.

Notices. We give notice by email to the address on your account, by a message inside the Services, or by posting on this page. You give notice to [email protected] and, where these Terms require it, also by mail to Banrox Inc., Attn: Legal, 40 N Altadena Dr, Ste 105, Pasadena, CA 91107. Notice by email is effective when sent unless it bounces. Keep your email address current.

Relationship. Nothing creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, franchise, or agency relationship between you and Banrox.

Third party beneficiaries. There are none, except that Banrox affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and suppliers may enforce Sections 17, 18, 19, and 21.

Export and sanctions. You represent that you are not located in, and are not a national of, a country subject to United States embargo, and that you are not on any United States restricted party list.

Headings and interpretation. Headings are for convenience. "Including" means "including without limitation." If a term of these Terms is genuinely unclear, it is read the way a reasonable consumer would read it.

Language. The English version of these Terms controls. A translation is provided for convenience only.

Records. Banrox keeps records of consents, disclosures, and transactions as required by law. You may request a copy of the records relating to you at [email protected].

Versions of these Terms. Banrox identifies each version of these Terms by a version identifier and an effective date, keeps every earlier version, and will give you any of them on request at [email protected]. Banrox keeps the record of which version you accepted and the date you accepted it, and will give you that on request too. Banrox does not yet store the exact wording displayed to you at the moment you accepted alongside that record. Banrox is building that. Until it is built, the archived version carrying the identifier in force on the date you accepted is the text you accepted, and Banrox will not argue otherwise.

25. How to Reach Us