Thursday, 17 October 2013

Bank Of America Settles For $410 Million In Overdraft Fee Suit

By Cornelius Nunev


Bank of America has reached a settlement in a huge lawsuit that consists of most big retail banks in the United States.

Almost a million individuals are named in the case against the bank. B of A has agreed to pay $410 million to set-tle the suit. Aggressive overdraft policies are the subject of a massive class action, involving about one million people and more than two doz-en banks, including B of A. Don't worry; you'll still be able to get your installment loans from these banks.

Bank suits occur with charges

Some of the largest United States and Canadian financial institutions are the target of massive class action lawsuits due to the account fees and overdraft fees that have made customers an-gry. Bank of America has one class action suit with about 1 million people in it along with other banks with comparable suits for instance JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, states Bloomberg. A $410 million settlement was approved for Bank of America. More than two dozen banks from the U.S. Canada and Europe are being sued for overdraft fees, according to Reuters, and the cases were all consolidated into one massive class ac-tion. The case is titled In Re: Checking Account Overdraft Litigation.

Problem with extra overdraft fees

In order to create multi-ple overdraft fees rather than just one or two, Bank of America has been accused of pro-cessing largest to smallest transactions so that accounts will go into overdraft over and over instead of in the order they came in. Banks will allow a transaction to go through with overdraft fees but add a fee to the account for the consumer just like short term credit. Usually between $25 and $35 is typically charged. That's an average area for fees. Some consumers cannot possibly afford overdraft fees. That is why customer advocates do not like them. Consumers have to choose to be in an overdraft program if they want to be in one since banks cannot do it automatically.

Mobile use at Bank of America with a pilot program

Soon a pilot program at Bank of America will begin. The Los Angeles Times states this will be for mobile banking. If a transaction is dropped for insuffi-cient funds, the customer will receive a text message giving the customer the option to have the bank cover the overdraft. The consumer can then avoid the $35 overdraft charge if they're able to deposit the funds before 8 p.m. that even-ing. This is only allowed with the one transaction. It is very limited. One thing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be working on is the overdraft fee problem. This is after it begins operations soon, states the New York Times. There has been a fight over the director and powers of the bureau in Congress which may stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from start-ing in the near future.




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