Consumers are becoming more and more aware of potentially deceptive bank practices at their financial institutions, including Bank of Oklahoma overdraft fees.

Bank of Oklahoma overdraft fees, along with overdraft fees at banks and credit unions across the country, may be charged in excessive amounts or in deceptive manners in order to wring the most money out of bank customers.

A growing number of banks and credit unions are being investigated for the possible use of deceptive tactics. In some cases, these tactics may include excessive or unfair overdraft fees, automatic signup into these kinds of overdraft programs, lack of transparency about the true nature of these programs, or the deliberate processing of these fees in a manner that charges the most.

What Are Overdraft Fees?

An overdraft fee is incurred when a customer attempts to use more money than is in their account, also known as “overdrawing” an account. Most banks offer overdraft protection programs to their customers to allow them to make purchases despite overdrawing their account. Under this kind of overdraft protection program, customers are allowed to take money they do not have out of the account, but are charged an overdraft fee for each payment that overdraws the account.

Bank of Oklahoma overdraft fees and overdraft fee programs all across the country are a common practice and can in many cases be extremely helpful. Overdraft fee amounts vary from bank to bank and state to state, which is to be expected. However, some financial institutions may use deceptive practices to take advantage of their customers, charging excessive fees, withholding information, or processing checks and fees unfairly.

Deceptive Overdraft Fee Tactics

There are a few ways in which a financial institution, such as the Bank of Oklahoma, may trick customers into paying unnecessary or excessive overdraft fees.

While banks are required to let customers opt into their overdraft protection programs rather than signing them up automatically, some banks have ignored this law and signed customers up automatically anyway.

In other cases, even when technically allowing customers to opt into their overdraft protection program, banks might purposely leave out certain information about the program to convince customers to opt in. For instance, a customer might not be adequately informed of how high Bank of Oklahoma overdraft fees are when they sign up for the program.

Overdraft protection programs are extremely lucrative for financial institutions. Indeed, billions of dollars are brought in each year by overdraft programs alone, according to reports.

The deception involved with overdraft fees does not only occur at the point where customers opt in. Banks may also purposely process transactions out of chronological order, and instead from largest to smallest. This makes each following payment more likely to overdraw the account again, incurring an extra fee.

Filing a Lawsuit Over Unfair Overdraft Practices

Some bank and credit union customers affected by overdraft fees and deceptive practices have begun filing lawsuits against their financial institutions.

If you have been subjected to unfair Bank of Oklahoma overdraft fees or unfair overdraft fee practices at another financial institution, you may be able to join a class action overdraft fees lawsuit. A specialized attorney familiar with bank overdraft practices can answer questions and help you decide if a lawsuit is right for you.

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