Judge Approves $4M BofA Late Fee Class Action Settlement

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A Rhode Island federal judge has approved a revised $4 million class action settlement resolving allegations that Bank of America Corp. charged unfair late fees to its credit card customers who paid their bills on the due date.

The approval comes a year after U.S. District Judge Joseph A. DiClerico Jr. rejected a $2.2 million class action settlement in the case, where he ruled that the proposed attorneys’ fees would dwarf the Class Members’ recovery. In approving the revised class action settlement, Judge DiClerico found that the agreement was appropriate and did not impose excessive attorneys’ fees.

The Bank of America settlement resolves a 2008 class action lawsuit (Trombley v. Bank of America) filed by plaintiffs Bruce J. Trombley and Ryan Sukaskas, in which they accused BofA of imposing late fees and other penalties when customers made credit card payments on or close to the due date.

According to the class action lawsuit, Trombley made a payment at a BofA branch on the day his credit card payment was due. However, BofA did not credit the payment on that date, imposed a late fee and cancelled his promotional interest rate.

Sukaskas claims in the class action lawsuit that he attempted to make an online payment on the day his credit card payment was due, but was informed that BofA wouldn’t credit the payment because it was the due date. To avoid paying late, he made a payment by telephone. BofA subsequently imposed a telephone payment fee. In their class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs accused BofA of imposing similar fees and penalties on Class Members who attempt to pay their credit card bills on or close to the due date.

The deadline to file a claim for the class action settlement was December 23, 2011. Only 3,500 Class Members out of the 393,792 in the potential Class submitted approved claims. They will each receive $40. The remaining BofA cardholders who did not submit claims will receive a pro rata share of the remaining settlement fund, once their claims are approved and the administrative costs, attorneys’ fees and representative awards are paid. The pro rata share is likely to be about $6 for each currently unapproved Class Member.

Top Class Actions contacted the Settlement Administrator to see if there will be a new claim filing deadline for Class Members eligible for the pro rata share, but we did not received an answer as of the publish date.

For purposes of the class action settlement, Class Members include anyone who had a BofA credit card at any time between August 1, 2006 and February 22, 2010 and paid at least the minimum amount due either in person at a BofA banking center, by telephone using BofA’s pay-by-phone service or via BofA’s online banking services. Eligible Class Members must have incurred a late payment fee or other penalty that has not been waived or refunded by BofA.

The plaintiffs are represented by Peter N. Wasylyk of the Law Offices of Peter N. Wasylyk and Michael D. Donovan and Noah Axler of Donovan Axler LLC.

The Bank of America Credit Card Late Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Bruce J. Trombley v. Bank of America Corp., Case No. 1:08-cv-00456, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.

More information on the case can be found at the Settlement Administrator’s website: www.Trombley-Administrator.com.

UPDATE: Bank of America has settled another class action lawsuit over similar allegations. A federal judge on May 29, 2014 granted preliminary approval to a $10 million class action settlement reached in a case called De Leon v. Bank of America. Class Members will receive up to $40 for each on-time credit card payment they made during the Class Period.