According to Reuters (11/02/17) plaintiffs asserted that some of the banking overdraft fees charged by Bank of America were not connected to any real service in exchange for the fees, and thus translated to an interest charge that violated the National Bank Act.The bank overdraft fees lawsuit was filed in 2016. Lead plaintiff Joanne Farrell from California, alleged in the excessive overdraft fees class action that the defendant charged $35 when an account is first overdrawn, then another $35 if the account remains in overdrawn status for five days. Farrell’s lawsuit noted that the initial fee was charged for honoring a check when the account holder had insufficient funds in the account. However, the second fee was not tied to any particular service and – as such – the fee was in reality an interest charge for continued use of the bank’s funds.
In Farrell’s case, her negative balance ranged from $3.59 to $284.86 across the five days represented by the second $35 overdraft fee.
Viewed as annualized interest, the fee would translate to an interest rate ranging from 897 percent to 71,170 percent, according to the excessive bank fees lawsuit.
READ MORE EXCECESSIVE OVERDRAFT FEE LEGAL NEWS
According to Reuters, there are upwards of six million customers of the Bank of America who will benefit from compensation derived from the settlement. Those customers, who hail from across the nation, paid overdraft fees reaching back to February of 2014. As part of the settlement, the defendant also agreed to stop charging for extended account overdrafts for a period of five years. The hiatus in fees is estimated to save plaintiffs about $1.2 billion over the five-year term.
The excessive bank overdraft fees lawsuit is Farrell et al v. Bank of America, Case No. 16-492, in the US District Court, Southern District of California. The settlement was disclosed in a court filing on October 31.
READER COMMENTS
Ann Nonimuz
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Lisa Messer
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David Rickman
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Allan
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So will we be due compensation for more than one overdraft fee?
James M Oary
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Sandra Engstrand
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Deborah Perrin
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JV
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Sandra
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Russell Bayley
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jean farmer
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Kathleen S Pilz
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This has been happening to me quite a bit for the last ten years. Bank of America will move my deposits or debits, so I will be overdrawn and charge me late fee's, when, if they were added and deducted like they should have been, the account would not have been overdrawn. Then, if you don't make a deposit right away, they charge another late fee. A couple of time, I was charged a late fee 3 times, before my deposit was posted. Another problem I have is BOA holding deposits at least 24 hrs and allowing only a small part of a deposit to be post, until the check clears, even though they know the check is good. trhey do this when the check is large. They did that with a check I had from Northwestern Mutual.
Liana
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Angie garner
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CARMEN SEVERSON AND CLARENCE LEITH
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Been with Bank of America since then but often wondered why?
They would not apply credit card payments properly then charged late fees and overdraft fees if they didn't deposit the check for 7 days. We didn't know that they would deposit the check we took but funds not available for 7 days...for years we were depositing the same checks...finally I went with to find out why the overdrafts and that is what they said was funds not available for 7 days...but we could go inside and cash it and then deposit the cash for immediate funds...
That makes no sense we could go inside and cash the check and get immediate funds? But if we deposited the check the funds wouldn't be available for 7 days and incurring fees...?
Levius Petterson D Toussaint
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Darcel Chambers
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Kyle Mccarrell
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Cathy taylor
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Libni Casasola
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CHASE Bank, is another entity who steals money from their customers in the form of excessive fees & $10 for the use of the Bank ATM machines.
This abuses needs to be stopped.
Don
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Best one, back during the housing crisis when the banks were passing mortgages back and forth they lost unbroken chain of ownership and sent a letter to a friend saying such. boa wells Fargo and another bank all tried collecting the mortgage money monthly. The one that kept up the longest fabricated paperwork to claim they had the right to the money. They provided a document with Dean hackemers name on it with his title. Worst part was he hadn't attained that position until 5 years after the 'signing
Jerry Giovinazzo
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