Bank of America will Pay $250 Million for Opening Fake Accounts and Illegal Fees
On Tuesday, news broke that Federal regulators discovered that Bank of America has violated various consumer financial protection laws including double-dipping on fees, opening fake accounts and more.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has now ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100 million to customers as well as $90 million in penalties. Additionally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has also charged Bank of America $60 million in fees.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claimed Bank of America “harmed hundreds of thousands of consumers over a period of several years and across multiple product lines and services,” per CNN.
The bank reportedly was repeatedly charging some customers if their transaction was declined due to insufficient funds which resulted in customers being wrongfully charged tens of millions of dollars.
According to CNN, “That would happen after a first transaction was declined if a third-party merchant resubmitted the charge to the customer’s account, which may still have had insufficient funds to cover that expense. At that point the customer would again be hit with either a $35 insufficient funds fee or $35 overdraft fee.”
Bank of America is also accused of offering special rewards of cash and points to new credit card customers, but then illegally withheld those bonuses.
