Consumers who experienced unfair HSBC Bank overdraft fees may be eligible for legal action against the financial institution.

HSBC is a British banking and financial company which serves around 38 million customers around the world. The financial institution provides services for retail banking and wealth management, commercial banking, global banking and markets, and global private banking.

However, consumers who bank through HSBC may be subject to unfair HSBC Bank overdraft fees. Consumer complaints suggest that bank customers may be paying more in HSBC Bank overdraft fees than they should have to.

Like many other financial institutions, HSBC Bank overdraft fees are charged when consumers withdraw or spend more money than they have in their checking accounts. Due to fewer consumers overdrawing their accounts, many banks have increased their overdraft fees in the interest of maintaining their profit margins.

Although raising overdraft fees is not inherently deceitful, consumers have reported that some banks have processed their transactions out of order in an attempt to maximize the number of overdraft fees they can charge.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed to implement new regulations that would govern HSBC Bank overdraft practices and those at other banks. Although new regulations would help protect consumers in the future, they would not help consumers who have already had unfair fees charged on their accounts. For consumers who have already been harmed by unfair overdraft practices, legal action against banks may provide a way to recover compensation.

HSBC has already faced legal action for their allegedly unfair overdraft policies. In February 2016, HSBC agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that the bank wrongfully processes transactions to maximize the number of overdraft fees they can charge.

“[I]f a customer has an account with a $50 balance and makes four transactions of $10 and one later transaction of $100 the same day, HSBC debits the transaction from the account largest-to-smallest, thus subjecting the customer to four overdraft fees,” the overdraft fees class action stated. “Conversely, if the $100 transaction were debited last (in the order it was made), the customer would only be subject to one overdraft fee.”

Although HSBC agreed to pay to settle the class action, the financial institution maintained that there was nothing wrong with how they processed transactions and no laws were violated by the practice.

Purposefully processing transactions out of order is one of many allegations that have been raised against banks such as HSBC. Other allegations include failure to disclose fee structures and mismanagement of funds.

Banks whose overdraft fee practices are now subject to a class action investigation include HSBC, Capital One, First Hawaiian Bank, UMB Bank, Bank of Oklahoma, People’s United Bank, Commerce Bank, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU), Alliant Credit Union, First Technology Federal Credit Union, Star One Credit Union, America First Credit Union, Digital Credit Union, Vystar Credit Union, and American Airlines Federal Credit Union.

If you or a loved one were wrongfully charged HSBC Bank overdraft fees due to deceitful bank practices, you may qualify for legal action. An overdraft fee lawsuit could help recover compensation for wrongfully charged fees and more.

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