A woman has filed a lawsuit against Envision Credit Union over alleged unfair credit union overdraft fees.

Plaintiff Reina D. says she opted in to Envision Credit Union’s standard overdraft practices for her checking account. Like most customers, Reina says she was issued a debit card to have electronic access to her checking account for purchases, payments, withdrawals and other electronically enabled debit transactions.

According to Reina’s credit union overdraft fees lawsuit, Envision allegedly posts transactions in an order designed to maximize the number of overdraft fees charged to consumers.

Federal law requires financial institutions to provide customers with information required to obtain their legally binding informed consent. Because Envision’s Membership and Account Agreement allegedly did not include language addressing the transaction posting order, the lawsuit claims the opt-in disclosures were misrepresentative of the complete overdraft policies.

Reina’s complaint includes information from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s study of actual practices at financial institutions, which found that:

• ATM and debit card transactions are the most frequent transactions;
• Overdraft fee policies include expensive fees at little risk to the financial institutions;
• Opted-in accounts have seen times the number of overdrafts that incur fees compared to accounts that have not opted-in to such coverage.

Misrepresentations of Credit Union Overdraft Fees

Reina accuses Envision Credit Union of not accurately describing their true debit card processing procedures.

Envision allegedly charges overdraft fees on debit card transactions for which sufficient funds are available in the account when the transactions are performed. The credit union allegedly regularly assesses overdraft fees on transactions that purportedly have adequate funds to pay the through their life cycle because those available funds are sequestered at the moment Envision approves the debit card transaction.

According the Reina’s complaint, Envision’s “practice of charging overdraft fees even where sufficient funds exist to pay a transaction violates a contractual promise not to do so.”

The discrepancy between Envision’s actual practice and the contract language allegedly causes customers to incur more credit union overdraft fees than they should.

Reina alleges she was assessed overdraft fees of $29.50 on numerous occasions when she alleges she had sufficient money in her account to cover the transactions.

Reina seeks class action status and contends the class consists of thousands of Envision Credit Union members, who can be identified through Envision’s records. They all allegedly have been damaged by Envision’s purported misconduct of charging credit union overdraft fees in violation of the account contracts.

Envision’s alleged misconduct is “a common thread of unfair and unconscionable conduct resulting in injury to all members of the class,” alleges Reina’s credit union overdraft fees lawsuit. Reina claims that by charging overdraft fees to customers who did not actually overdraw their checking accounts, Envision allegedly violated their own account contract.

The Credit Union Overdraft Fees Lawsuit is Case No. 4:18-cv-00404-MW-CAS in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.