Bank of Hawaii Overdraft Fees Examined After Class Action Settlement

Is Bank of Hawaii still charging illegal overdraft fees in spite of reaching a $9 million class action settlement in 2012 over these practices? According to a new potential class action lawsuit, the answer may be yes.

If you own a bank checking account you may have incurred at least one overdraft fee. These automatic overdraft protection programs generated $31.9 billion in revenue for financial institutions in 2013 alone, according to economics-research firm Moebs Services Inc. These fees average $30 per transaction and can reach as much as $50.

It is not illegal for banks to charge overdraft fees, but how they impose these fees can be against the law. Over the past several years dozens of banks from across the country were forced to refund millions of dollars in illegal overdraft fee charges to consumers through a series of class action lawsuit settlements.

These bank overdraft class action lawsuits accused financial institutions of employing tactics designed to trigger and rack up overdraft fee charges, including by processing checking account withdrawals from highest to lowest or by waiting to post deposits until after all withdrawals were posted.

Despite reaching class action settlement agreements for these violations, some banks are being accused of continuing to use illegal overdraft protection tactics including Bank of Hawaii.

In 2012, Bank of Hawaii Corp. agreed to a $9 million class action settlement with a Class of more than 160,000 debit card holders who claim they were charged excessive overdraft checking fees.

Allegedly, Bank of Hawaii didn’t just charge overdraft fees, but went as far as to alter the order that transactions were posted in order to trigger overdraft fees. For example, there were allegations that payments and deposits were delayed for days, leading to overdraft fees when Bank of Hawaii customers withdrew money from their checking accounts.

The Bank of Hawaii overdraft class action lawsuit also alleged the bank would charge overdraft fees instead of declining cards, contributing to overdraft fees, which often compounded.

Bank of Hawaii debt card holders were typically charged $26 for the initial overdraft fee, then another $10 overdraft fee for every seven days the account remained overdraft. Allegedly, this combined with posting transactions out of order made overdraft fees quite lucrative for Bank of Hawaii—until they wound up in court over the overdraft fees. These fees allegedly cost many Bank of Hawaii customers hundreds of dollars, starting with an overdraft of a few bucks.

More than 160,000 plaintiffs were involved in the Bank of Hawaii overdraft fee class action settlement.

Despite agreeing to the class action settlement, it has been alleged that Bank of Hawaii is continuing to impose improper overdraft fees to checking account holders. Customers who incurred a Bank of Hawaii overdraft fee may have a legal claim.

Join a Free Bank Overdraft Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you have incurred overdraft fees in the last three years from any of the following banks, you may be eligible to participate in a class action lawsuit to recover some or all of your overdraft fees:

• Ally Financial Inc.
• Bank of Hawaii
• Bank of the West
• Capital One Financial Corp.
• Commerce Bank
• Fifth Third Bancorp
• HSBC North America Holdings Inc.
• BOKF NA (includes Bank of Albuquerque, Bank of Arizona, Bank of Arkansas, Bank of Kansas City, Bank of Oklahoma, Bank of Texas, and Colorado State Bank and Trust).

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