Most people are familiar with the concept of bank overdraft charges. If a customer uses his or her debit card or writes a check when there aren’t enough funds in the account, the bank may charge up to $35 for each bank overdraft.
This, on its own, is not illegal. However, many banks, including Bank of the West, are under investigation for alleged deceptive practices concerning bank overdraft charges.
Overview of Bank Overdraft Charges
Overdraft protection used to be given to each bank customer prior to 2010. This meant that the bank could “pay” for a charge even if the customer did not have enough money in their account at the time of purchase. Now, customers have the option to pay for overdraft protection fees as a precaution, whether or not they need it.
Some customers have claimed that they were not informed about overdraft protection and unknowingly continued to use their card and accrued a potentially heavy band of overdraft charges. If a bank charges up to $35 for each bank overdraft, then a customer has the ability to collect hundreds of dollars in bank overdraft charges without their card being denied once.
Customers have also alleged that they were charged bank overdraft charges even after depositing a check that should have been processed, which would have avoided any extra fees.
Bank Overdraft Practices Under Investigation
There are three bank overdraft practices for which banks, such as Bank of the West, are under investigation.
Banks have allegedly reordered debit card transactions so that the customer would have to pay the maximum number of bank over draft charges. A customer would make several charges in one day of various amounts. Instead of ordering the transactions in order of when they happened, the largest transactions would be processed first. For example, this means instead of having one bank overdraft fee because of one last minute $75 charge, a customer may have to pay for several bank overdraft fees for $5, $15, and $20 transactions that occurred earlier in the day.
Bank of the West paid an $18 million Bank of the West overdraft fee class action lawsuit settlement in 2012. Allegations in the bank overdraft fees class action lawsuit stated that Bank of the West had reordered transactions as to make a customer pay for more fees.
The second bank overdraft practice under investigation is bank deposits confirmed at unpredictable and unreliable times. Many customers have allegedly deposited money into their bank account and had no way of predicting when the bank would process the transaction. While banks do have requirements as to how long it can take to process deposits, sometimes it appears that the deposit has or will be processed immediately and that the funds are available, when in fact, they are not.
The third bank overdraft practice involves authorization holds. It may take a few days in order for a transaction to be settled between the bank and merchant. It is often marked as “pending” on the account. Some banks have allegedly changed the transaction date back to the original date of purchasing instead of the date the transaction was completed and would charge bank overdraft fees if the customer did not have sufficient funds the day the purchase was made.
The bank overdraft fees class action lawsuit seeks to recover the money spent on illegal bank overdraft charges and practices.
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.
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7 thoughts onBank Overdraft Charges at Bank of the West Under Investigation
Hello my father and I hD a bank account in 2010/2011 at Bank of the west. My father got his check direct deposit on the 3rd and he would repaying a home loan and would take the $ out on the 5th. So.me how they changed it to the 1st and cause a over draft and I caught it. We went to the bank and corrected the problem. We a few months later they did it again and I recently moved out and did not catch it because my father couldn’t read and write. It would have been noticed sooner but the started a separate account. It got into over 17,000 in fees. My father thought I was stealing from him and was stubborn and wouldn’t listen to me. So he took out another home loan at bank of the west. He past away and now I am stuck paying back the loan. I beleibe I might have the bank statements still to prove all this. It was a joint account with my father was primary and I was on it also.
My grandmother brought me to bankofwest open a checking acct with my first paycheck. She said Tanya I have money spread out different banks im bringing you here because of costumer service is beyond best. That was over 40years. Safe and secure Like a warm blanket.
Past few years I’ve put up with abusive representatives over phone could not get my new debit card activated even though I proved myself worth/identity to a woman I could not understand nor she me. What really makes me sick are these insufficient funds of 100s when clearly funds are there question I ask “why does this bank resubmit payments for same bill multiple times to increase their “insufficient fund” ??
Auto payment goes thru on 1st bank tried taking it 28th 2days before direct deposit payroll. Or hold my credit card payment for 7days 1,000$ funds in my account almost cost me a late fee. Ugh breaks my heart
I have been charged over $900 in bank overdraft fees when my card was supposed to be turned off for attempted fraud thay had been caught. When charges continued to go through I called to find out why and bank of the west assured me they would reverse all the bank overdraft fees I deposited the money to cover the charges that had went through that were automatic subscriptions and was told that the fees would be reversed since the card should of been turned off for fraud, instead of reversing the fees they closes my account while I was waiting for my new debit card and charged off the account now I am in collections for their bank fees that they charged that they promised to reverse, I dontbknow what to do, they changed everything around so that the money I deposited and the charges that went through were nit in the same order they were originally and they made it to where I was charged even more fees bank fees before closing and charging off the account.
Constant retrying on payments without my knowledge or authorization and charging overdraft fees and with holding bills directly paid by checking acct and attempting them with later bills causing everything to be paid late with over draft fees
i was in a joint account with my father. He had bank of the west take the mortgage fee out every month on like the 5th of each month. The bank reset his date to the 1st and started charging over draft fees. The first time i caught it the 2nd time i already moved out and it went on for like a year. My father couldn’t read or write. He ended up taking out another mortgage to pay the over draft fees. My father has pasted on and its been like 10 years so its to late for me cus i am stuck paying off the mortgage but it is not right.
Excessive overdraft protection fees with no bank statements or ATM debit card notifications. Ridiculous bank policy bordering on a scam.
Very much a scam!! Fraud! You can’t keep track of your own money in this bank!! And they stopped allowing screen shots so you have to use a ipad or camera to take photos of your acct because it changes to their needs at any time