Don't know if this is happening in the US, but............

[PeteCC]

Hi, All,

Please take a look at what's happening in the UK re. bank charges etc.

I don't know how the US banking system operates, but if it's the same as in the UK, then this should be of interest.

Quite a few, and the numbers grow daily, people over here are taking the banks to court, or at least threatening to, as the penalty charges applied for going overdrawn etc have been shown to be unlawful.

There are many, MANY, cases where these charges are being refunded, in full, for anything within the last 6 years, before any court action; anything up to £5000.00, (more than this figure and the claim process gets a little more risky, still possible to claim, but costs may be applied).

This follows a statement from the OFT, Office of Fair Trading, that the banks should only be allowed to claim for any actual losses they have incurred as a result of a customer not maintaining their accounts in good order, (mainly applicable to credit card 'penalties', but expanded to include bank accounts), and not to be applied as a punishment or source of profit.

This is snowballing!

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

Regards,

PeteCC

[Rkitko]

Interesting... I've heard some rumblings for quite some time that there have been court cases in the US about this, but a very quick search didn't reveal any. I think a lot of them have been in response to ever-increasing charges.

Incidentally, I work at a bank as a teller, so I talk to people about overdraft charges daily. Currently, Bank of America's charges are around US$34 for every overdraft, unless they have overdraft protection. I can't imagine how they determined that number or how it could possibly be the "cost" of every overdraft.

[RedjackRyan]

There have been a few lawsuits here in the US, i'll have to track down the particulars though.. The one thing banks do that really pisses me off is, I have direct deposit (paycheck goes automatically into the account) and work for a VERY large corporation.. I get paid every other friday.. Occassionally if i front for a very large event the bank will charge any fees or debits the morning OF my pay deposit before they've applied the incoming funds... Sometimes this results in an overdraft... so i get hit again... Then they apply what money is coming in. Doesnt happen often, and everytime i've called about it..they've graciously corrected the error.. but its damn annoying if i don't catch it right away.

[david uk]

It is indeed good news Pete.

Just a mini correction- the charges, at least where credit companies are concerned, have not been ruled "unlawful", just "unfair". My company (I think you know which one but can't name it for obvious reasons) is reducing some of its penalty charges not to avoid legal action but to keep up with the market which is slowly moving in that direction.

Still, all in all it does show that even large institutions can bend when pressure or negative punlicity is applied :)

[Rkitko]

Interesting, Redjack. I know some banks have been taken to court over that issue as well--how they apply incoming transactions. It seems a lot of people have been hit with such things.

For example, say you write three checks and all three clear from your account in the same day. The bank systems will apply the largest amount first and work its way down. Now, if the first large check puts you into overdraft by itself, each successive check after that will ding you with another overdraft fee. If, however, the large check was applied last and the other two checks alone didn't put you into overdraft (the others must have been for small amounts), then you'd be hit with only one overdraft fee when the large check clears and pull you under zero. I don't remember the result of the litigation... Really should look that up.

[DaveM]

Might be worthwhile to check lawcash.com. They keep track of class action lawsuits and the like--if you check back often enough, you'll probably find that EVERYONE is entitled to a settlement from someone. Hey, if someone's going to give you money or some CDs or a new computer....why not?

[aabram]

I'm bringing this back up because it's been in the news again recently, and I'm sick of them.

I'm DEFINITELY going to seek assistance with this :)