Customers Say Banks Charge Too Many Fees for Non Sufficient Funds

Customers claim that banks charge too many fees for non sufficient funds and don’t adequately explain their fee policies.

Every year, banks around the country gain a significant portion of their profits form fees they charge to customers. These fees include those charged when a customer attempts to make a purchase that exceeds the amount of money they have in the account, and the bank does not allow the charge to go through.

These fees charged for non sufficient funds in an account are different from overdraft fees, which are charged when a customer has opted into an overdraft protection program that allows charges to go through even if there is not enough money in their account.

Though banks get a large portion of their profits from non sufficient funds fees, these profits are dropping as fewer and fewer people are making purchases beyond their means. This trend is possibly due to mobile banking technology that allows people to check their balance easily wherever they are.

Customers and news outlets alike are wondering if banks are turning to deceptive marketing practices to increase the profits they earn from non sufficient funds fees. Customers have filed lawsuits against a number of banks for unethically or unlawfully charging fees.

Cincinnati’s WKRC reported that studies have shown that fees like non sufficient funds fees and overdraft fees disproportionately affect those who are already financially unstable and have low account balances, including the young and the elderly. 

Some customers claim that banks will re-process transactions that have already incurred fees for non sufficient funds, knowing that the account balance hasn’t changed. In this situation, the banks allegedly will charge multiple non sufficient funds fees, one for each failed attempt to process the transaction.

To make matters worse, The Balance notes that if a charge doesn’t go through, the business from which a charge was made may also charge customers a fee on top of any fees a bank would charge.

One TD Bank customer claimed that she subjected to unfair non sufficient funds fees. She argues that she was charged two separate non sufficient fund fees on one transaction that was over her account limit, because the bank re-ran the transaction after it did not go through. She claims that the bank knew that she did not have more funds in her account after the first time the charge was placed, and ran the charge again so they could charge her a second non sufficient funds fee.

According to the customer, the bank notified customers that they would charge non sufficient fund fees if a customers attempted to make a charge that exceeded the amount in their account, but did not notify them that they could be charged multiple fees for the same charge. She argues that TD Bank intentionally misled customers about its fee policies so customers would not know to take precautions against making charges over their accounts for fear not only of incurring one fee, but incurring multiple fees.

Allegedly, she and other customers may not have agreed to bank with TD Bank had they known that the bank’s fee polices were to possibly charge customers multiple returned item fees on one charge.

Join a Free Returned Item Fee Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were charged multiple returned item fees (also known as NSF fees or insufficient funds fees) on the same transaction by your bank, you may be entitled to compensation.

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