Bank of America class action claims company wrongfully charges customers fee for depositing bad checks

Bank of America class action lawsuit overview:

• Who: Plaintiffs Isadora Y. Walker and Andrea G. Garcia filed a class action lawsuit against Bank of America NA.
• Why: The lawsuit alleges Bank of America wrongfully charges fees when account holders deposit checks that bounce.
• Where: The Bank of America class action lawsuit was filed in North Carolina federal court.

Bank of America wrongfully charges customers a fee for depositing checks that bounce, according to a new class action lawsuit filed March 29.

Plaintiffs Isadora Y. Walker and Andrea G. Garcia filed the class action lawsuit in North Carolina federal court after Bank of America allegedly charged them each a $12 fee for trying to deposit checks that ultimately bounced.

They claim this $12 Bank of America bad checks fee is unfair and unlawful because it is a blanket fee issued without consideration of the facts and circumstances associated with the attempted deposit.

Bank of America bad checks fee goes against public policy, plaintiffs claim

Banks allow consumers to write checks with the assumption that the check-writer will have sufficient funds to cover the amount of the check when it is deposited. If the account holder has insufficient funds in their account when the check is cashed, the bank will charge the check-writer a fee. 

The plaintiffs argue this type of fee is appropriate because the customer could have avoided it by ensuring their account had sufficient funds to cover the check.

“In the context of consumer fees, whether a fee is considered unfair frequently turns on a simple principle: if the consumer will not receive a commensurate benefit from the fee, then the consumer must have had a practical opportunity to avoid the fee,” the class action lawsuit says.

Check recipients, on the other hand, have no way of knowing whether the check will bounce. The plaintiffs claim banks maintain “highly sophisticated systems” for clearing checks and know when a check-writer has insufficient funds to cover the check. 

Despite having these capabilities, the bank charges “returned item chargeback fees” when account holders deposit a check that bounces, the class action lawsuit says.

“By charging its customers significant fees in situations where the customer did nothing wrong and could not have avoided the fee through reasonable diligence, Bank of America acted in a manner that is unfair, oppressive and against public policy,” the class action lawsuit says.

The Bank of America class action lawsuit asserts claims for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment and violations of California and Georgia consumer protection laws.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority recently fined BofA Securities Inc. $25 million over allegations of more than 700 instances of spoofing through two former traders in U.S. secondary markets.

Have you been hit with a Bank of America bad checks fee? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

Walker and Garcia are represented by Dana Stone Smith, Lisa R. Considine, David J. DiSabato and Oren Faircloth of Siri & Glimstad LLP.

The Bank of America bad checks class action lawsuit is Isadora Y. Walker, et al. v. Bank of America NA, Case No. 3:24-cv-00356, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

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