Bank of America $75M Overdraft Fees Settlement
U.S. banks with more than $1 billion in assets took in a combined $11.68 billion in overdraft fees in 2019, the Center for Responsible Lending reports. That was even before the pandemic really hit hard.
Now one of those banks, Bank of America agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges it collected multiple overdraft fees on individual transactions from checking and savings account customers, Reuters reports.
Customers said Bank of America often repeatedly charged multiple $35 fees for insufficient funds or overdrafts for the same transaction. The bank repeated attempts to process declined transactions at a merchant’s request. One woman said the bank charged her $105 after rejecting her $20 credit card payment and then attempting without her knowledge to “retry” processing the same payment five and nine days after the initial rejection, resulting in three $35 fees.
As part of the settlement, Bank of America will stop imposing multiple fees on “retry” payments for at least five years. The moratorium of retry fees is expected to cost the bank, and in turn save customers, $318 million overall.
As it’s usually the case with these settlements, Bank of America has denied wrongdoing as far as overdraft fees go. If you are part of this settlement you should be notified as soon as it is approved. The case is Morris et al v. Bank of America NA, U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina, No. 18-00157.
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clearly the banks are exploiting the poorest people…….again……..
Balance your check book and live within your means people
No way. Anybody can make an error, and those people then pay the appropriate penalty. If the bank says the penalty is going to be $35, but then charges $105, that is flat out fraudulent.