Did you know an experienced overdraft fee attorney could help you fight a case involving deceptive checking account overdraft programs?

Over the last 30 years, banks have made millions of dollars by charging consumers excessive overdraft fees according to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts issued in 2016. Even though overdraft programs are advertised as a benefit to the consumer, most of the time, the bank is the one who sees the biggest benefit in the program.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the most vulnerable bank customers pay an overwhelmingly large number of the total overdraft fees issued. According to the CFPB, fewer than one-fifth of all account holders pay upwards of 90 percent of overdraft fees.

Pew Charitable Trusts offers a similar picture. Pew says a majority of bank customers who pay more than $100 every year due to overdraft fees or insufficient funds fees report incomes below the average in the U.S. These consumers indicated they paid almost an entire week’s income to pay such fees.

An Overdraft Fee Attorney Can Help

If you have been a victim of excessive overdraft fees, you’re not alone. An experienced overdraft fee attorney knows the laws and the tricks the banks might play in order to generate the maximum number of overdraft fees.

Beginning in August 2010, consumers were not supposed to be automatically enrolled in overdraft protection programs. By law, financial institutions are required to ask the customer to opt in to the program by choice. However, according to Pew’s research, few customers recall opting in to any type of overdraft protection program, but many are paying the fees.

Some financial institutions also allegedly manipulate the posting of transactions so that they can maximize the number of overdraft fees they charge.

For instance, let’s say you make a $100 deposit at an ATM at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. On Thursday, you have scheduled bills to be paid. The bank might pay those bills before processing your deposit, resulting in overdraft fees if there was not enough money in the account to cover them prior to the deposit. When you do the math, you see that if the bank could have posted your $100 deposit from the night before prior to paying your bills and you would not have incurred any overdraft fees. An overdraft fee attorney can effectively take apart this timeline and see how much you could have saved in excessive fees.

According to Pew, executives with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis expressed concern that deregulation and technology were two factors that were affecting their profitability in 1999, in addition to low interest rates. Between 1984 and 2015, banks’ revenue from a variety of service charges more than doubled, said Pew.

Among the financial institutions currently under investigation for potentially deceitful overdraft practices are:

• Any bank in California
• Pacific Western Bank
• Nationwide Banking
• Pentagon Federal Credit Union
• Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU)
• Alliant Credit Union
• First Technology Federal Credit Union
• Star One Credit Union
• America First Credit Union
• Digital Credit Union
• Vystar Credit Union
• American Airlines Federal Credit Union

If you are a customer at any of these banks and believe you have been a victim of unscrupulous overdraft fee practices, you could benefit from speaking with an experienced overdraft fee attorney.