In recent years, the fairness of the overdraft fees of quite a few banks and credit unions in the United States has been called into question. The legality of Meriwest overdraft fees has also been looked into by customers and investigators.

Meriwest Credit Union, a popular credit union in San Francisco’s Bay Area, began in 1961 under the name IBM San Jose Employees Federal Credit Union. It operates branches in California and Arizona.

Some customers believe that, because of Meriwest overdraft fees, the credit union may not have the best interest of its customers in mind.

What is Overdraft Protection?

When a bank customer “overdraws” their bank account, often a bank offers a program called overdraft protection. Overdrawing a bank account is when bank customer spends more money than he or she has in their account.

In cases like this, most banks and credit unions have an opt-in program that allows the overdrawing transaction or transactions to go through. However, the bank often charges the customer a fee for the trouble.

Sometimes these fees are high, as much as $35 or $40 per transaction that overdraws the account. While customers should be aware of these fees, often these fees come as a surprise to customers.

Over the last decade, some banks have been accused of treating customers unfairly when it comes to overdraft fees. In fact, in 2010, Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $230 million in order to resolve allegations that the banking giant reordered the posting of bank transactions in order to increase the money they were making off of their customers’ overdraft fees.

Essentially, what Wells Fargo has been accused of is that, rather than posting transactions chronologically, a bank may post the largest transactions first. This has the potential of overdrawing the account quicker, and thereby creating more fees for the banking institution.

Most recently, TCF Bank has been sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who claimed that the bank deceived and manipulated customers into opting into their overdraft protection program.

Meriwest Overdraft Fees

Meriwest Credit Union offers an opt-in overdraft protection program. Their program, according to their website, is called “courtesy pay.” Meriwest overdraft fees are charged at a rate of $35 per transaction.

However, the wording in the Meriwest overdraft fees courtesy pay brochure is worthy of note. The Meriwest overdraft fees courtesy pay brochure even states that the order in which they post transactions is completely at the credit union’s discretion.

Essentially, Meriwest does not promise its customers that their transactions will be posted in the order that they were created, but that the credit union can choose which transactions are posted first.

They also say that there is no limit to the number of overdraft fees a customer can be charged per day. If several transactions post to their account while their account is at a balance of zero or less, $35 in Meriwest overdraft fees will be charged for each transaction.

If you believe you have been charged unfairly for Meriwest overdraft fees, you may benefit from speaking to an experienced attorney.

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