Wells Fargo class action claims company charges illegal overdraft fees

Wells Fargo class action overview: 

• Who: Wells Fargo is facing a class action lawsuit regarding overdraft fees. 
• Why: Wells Fargo did not provide customers proper notification about its overdraft fees, the lawsuit claims.
• Where: The Wells Fargo lawsuit was filed in federal court in California.

A new Wells Fargo class action lawsuit claims the company did not provide customers with proper notification about overdraft fees.

Customers are supposed to provide written consent for overdraft fees, but Wells Fargo had employees read an unscripted summary of the fees and then opted in the customers if they gave a verbal affirmation, the Wells Fargo lawsuit claims. 

According to the lawsuit, Wells Fargo’s practices violate Federal Reserve regulations; all of the bank’s overdraft fees charged to customers who opted in before May 2022 are therefore illegal, the class action argues.

Wells Fargo class action says company has history of ‘troubling’ overdraft practices

Wells Fargo has a “long and documented history of troubling overdraft practices,” according to the class action.

In 2012, the lawsuit notes, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed a $203 million judgment against Wells Fargo over claims the bank misrepresented its overdraft practices. The judgment included an injunction against the bank misrepresenting its process for transactions related to overdraft services, the lawsuit says.

Wells Fargo also makes it virtually impossible for customers to resolve their claims of illegal overdraft practices, the class action says.

The Wells Fargo overdraft rules require complainants to go into an individualized arbitration process, but the company has instead forced complainants into mass arbitration “in which the success or failure of their claims was tied to the claims of thousands of other Wells Fargo accountholders,” the lawsuit says.

The process arbitrator also imposed onerous pleading requirements, which caused the dismissal of many claims and led the plaintiffs to file the class action. The requirements were not in the arbitration rules or law, the lawsuit claims.

Apple Federal Credit Union is accused of unlawfully assessing $29 overdraft fees on debit card transactions authorized on sufficient funds, a class action lawsuit from May 2023 alleges.

Have you been charged Wells Fargo overdraft fees? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Richard D. McCune, Steven A. Haskins, Valerie L. Savran and Emily J. Kirk of McCune Law Group. 

The Wells Fargo class action lawsuit is Penuela, et al. v. Wells Fargo NA, et al., Case No. 5:23-cv-00883, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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