State Farm Class Action Challenges $3 Paper Bill Fee

A consumer is taking her insurer to task in the State Farm class action lawsuit over an allegedly improper service fee assessed to customers who request paper billing statements.

According to the plaintiff, New York resident Melissa Santoro, State Farm also charges the fee when customers pay using mail. Santoro contends that such fees violate New York state law.

“For many years,” states the State Farm class action lawsuit, “Ms. Santoro has had insurance accounts with Defendant, and since at least 2016, Defendant has charged Ms. Santoro a fee to receive a paper billing statement and/or pay by United States mail, which Ms. Santoro has paid.”

Indeed, according to the complaint, State Farm’s website lists several such fees, including $3 to pay a bill by check and receive a paper bill and $2 to set up a recurring monthly payment and also receive a paper bill. In fact, even State Farm customers who do not receive a paper bill each month are allegedly subject to a $1 fee for the privilege of paying their bill automatically each month.

Santoro says that she and other New York customers paid fees for paper billing statements and for paying their bills by check, but a New York law passed in 2011 prohibits the assessment of service fees for receiving paper bills or paying by mail. In fact, points out the State Farm class action lawsuit, such fees are considered to be “deceptive acts” by the company assessing the fees.

According to the complaint, the New York legislature determined that assessing fees for paper billing statements and to pay by mail disproportionately affects senior citizens and those with low income.

The practice also shifts the cost of printing statements to the consumer, says the plaintiff, and requires customers have access to the internet.

The State Farm class action lawsuit proposes to represent a class of current and former New York residents who were assessed a service fee to either receive a paper billing statement and/or pay their insurance bill by check. Santoro alleges that the number of people in the proposed class likely reaches into the millions.

The complaint contends that State Farm has violated the Deceptive Acts Or Practices law in New York. The plaintiff is seeking a range of damages, along with a court order requiring State Farm to return any profit it enjoyed from the allegedly illegal fee assessments. Further, the plaintiff wants a court order requiring State Farm to stop assessing service fees for paper bills and paying by check.

Have you been hit with extra service fees? Tell us more about it in the comments below!

The lead plaintiff Melissa Santoro and the proposed class are represented by Philip L. Fraietta and Frederick J. Klorczyk III of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The State Farm Class Action Lawsuit is Santoro v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Case No. 7:19-cv-09782 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Read More Lawsuit & Settlement News:

Blue Apron Class Action Alleges Salmonella In Food

FDA Allegedly Too Slow in Evaluating Valsartan Impurities

Re/Max Class Action Says Cold Calling Violates TCPA

Why Did My MetLife Disability Get Denied?