Kohl’s Account Ease Premium

Kohl’s and Capital One Financial Corporation are facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly adding and charging useless services to the Kohl’s credit card fees. Through the Kohl’s Account Ease Premium fees, customers have been complaining of unwanted and useless services.

While the Kohl’s credit card fees class action lawsuit was filed in February 2015, a federal judge has recently approved it for further litigation. In 2011, Kohl’s credit card customers were allegedly added to Kohl’s Account Ease and PrivacyGuard without their knowledge.

In paying the Kohl’s Account Ease fee, customers could ideally discontinue their account balance in the case of unforeseen events like unemployment, disability, hospitalization, or death. PrivacyGuard is a credit monitoring program, which was supposed to make the accounts more secure.

The Kohl’s Account Ease premium fees consisted of paying $1.60 per each $100 on the ending monthly balance for Kohl’s Account Ease premium, along with $14.99 per month for the PrivacyGuard security.

According to the class action lawsuit, customers were routinely denied benefits under Kohl’s Account Ease while PrivacyGuard never provided any services that were advertised.

Kohl’s had also allegedly made changes to the terms of agreement regarding the Kohl’s Account Ease premium fees, without notifying customers or collecting their consent.

Overview of the Kohl’s Credit Card Fees Action Lawsuit

Leading the charge against Kohl’s and Capital One are plaintiffs Jennifer Gordon, Valeri Tantlinger, and Jennifer Underwood, alleging the Kohl’s and Capital One engaged in “unfair and deceptive practices with regard to Payment Protection.”

The plaintiffs allege the companies collaborated in this scheme for profit sharing and the sale of ancillary credit card products, based on Kohl’s and Capital One having a private label credit card partnership agreement.

Kohl’s allegedly enrolled customers into a reformed Kohl’s Account Ease program they did not need or want.

In addition, the companies allegedly marketed and “imposed PrivacyGuard” onto customers, in order to protect their identity through credit monitoring and credit report retrieval services.

The plaintiffs further allege that once Kohl’s credit cards are canceled or if the ancillary products are canceled, then the companies file negative reports on their credit reports and lower the customers’ credit scores.

The named plaintiffs so far state their collective Kohl’s Account Ease fee is over $100, all for unwanted services.

Kohl’s and Capital One filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, citing the Virginia state statute of limitations.

However, the plaintiff attorneys argued that even though the charges regarding the Kohl’s Account Ease premium stems back more than three years, the lawsuit was not filed until 2011.

The presiding U.S. District Judge Wendy Beelestone stated that this was a complicated lawsuit, and that she will judge according to the law.

After the defense attorneys stated plaintiff arguments were not mentioned in the pleadings, Judge Beelestone requested to schedule additional briefing.

The company had also tried to push the arguments into arbitration in August, but the motion was denied by Judge Beelestone.

The Kohl’s Credit Card Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Jennifer Gordon, et al. v. Kohl’s Corporation, et al., Case No. 15-CV-730, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: On March 12, 2019, a $1.8 million settlement was proposed to resolve claims that Kohl’s and Capital One deceptively charged consumers for credit monitoring.

Join a Free Kohl’s Credit Card Fees Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were billed for Kohl’s Account Ease and/or PrivacyGuard on your Kohl’s credit card from February 2011 until the present, you may qualify to participate in this class action lawsuit investigation. Get help now by filling out the form on this page for a FREE case evaluation.

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