Wells Fargo Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Improper Credit Checks

Wells Fargo was hit with a class action lawsuit on Monday alleging that the bank ran unauthorized credit checks on its customers in an attempt to sell them additional Wells Fargo products and services, which harmed those customers’ credit scores.

Lead plaintiff, Pennsylvania resident Lisa Signore, alleges in the Wells Fargo class action lawsuit that in July of last year she visited a Wells Fargo branch to make a payment on her mortgage. After a customer service representative helped her with the payment, Signore alleges that the representative tried to sell her several credit cards, but Signore declined. The Wells Fargo class action lawsuit further alleges that several days later Signore received a letter from Wells Fargo thanking her for opening a new credit card and a credit check had been run on Signore the day she visited the bank. Signore alleges that Wells Fargo ran a “hard inquiry” when they ran her credit check, which means it “is accessible to other third parties who can obtain Plaintiff’s credit report” and “[a] hard inquiry weighs negatively against a consumer’s credit score and makes a consumer appear as a higher credit risk, whereas an account review inquiry has neither of those effects.”

The Wells Fargo credit check class action lawsuit claims that “[a]s a result of Defendant’s conduct, Plaintiff had her credit score and/or credit worthiness diminished and suffered a loss of her privacy,” and “Defendant’s practices and procedures described herein affected not only Plaintiff Signore but also other consumers about whom Wells Fargo pulled consumer credit reports without a permissible purpose prior to opening credit accounts without authorization.”

Signore alleges that she represents a proposed Class of “[a]ll natural persons residing in the United States and its Territories who, within two (2) years prior to the filing of the Complaint and through the conclusion of this action: (a) had a credit account application initiated on their behalf by Wells Fargo; (b) had their credit report pulled by Wells Fargo, resulting in a hard inquiry; (c) disputed the Wells Fargo initiated credit account; and (d) within 90 days of the hard inquiry pull were sent a delete account letter or other similar notice indicating that Wells Fargo had requested the credit reporting agencies to delete the disputed credit account.”

The Wells Fargo credit check class action lawsuit contains one count against Wells Fargo for allegedly violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Wells Fargo operates over 6,000 banking locations in the United States, according to the class action lawsuit, and offers “offering a variety of consumer financial products, including mortgage lending, deposit accounts, and credit cards.” The class action alleges that Wells Fargo customer service representatives are encouraged to “cross-sell” or “persuad[e] existing customers to sign up for additional products and services, including credit cards.”

Wells Fargo “has adopted policies and procedures encouraging the aggressive marketing of financial products and services to existing customers, by maintaining quotas requiring employees to open additional accounts, and emphasizing the importance of cross-selling products,” the Wells Fargo class action lawsuit alleges, and “Defendant is aware that its aggressive marketing policies and procedures incentivize employees seeking to meet their quotas to open new accounts, including credit card accounts, without the knowledge of consent of consumers.”

Signore is represented by James A. Francis, John Soumilas, David A. Searles and Lauren K.W. Brennan of Francis & Mailman PC.

The Wells Fargo Credit Check Class Action Lawsuit is Signore v. Wells Fargo Bank NA, Case No. 2:14-cv-02834, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.