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$410,000,000.00 Bank Of America Settlement: Suit Claimed BOA Sought Payment Of Highest Debit Purchases First

If you are one of the Bank Of America Customers whose Bank Account has been hit with continuous Over Draft fees from 2001 thru 2011, there is very good news. The hefty $35.oo over draft fee was a constant concern for many who patronized one of North America’s largest Banks, and even sparked an army of loyal BOA consumers to migrate to other Financial Institutions. Despite the massive exodus of long time customers, BOA continued it’s practices of essentially robbing it’s customers with the infamous heavy over draft penalties that many have been questioning the legality of for the past decade. Recently Attorney’s for an unnamed Client who initiated a Class Action Lawsuit against the Financial Conglomerate were able to broker a deal with the Bank. The terms of the settlement list a Trust of over 410 Million dollars to recoup loses that BOA Customers have had levied against their Accounts fo the past ten years. Though the terms of the settlement remain unapproved by Federal Courts, it does offer hope for restitution  for Banking Patrons who fell prey to an extremely abusive business practice. BOA Customer volume had been on a spiraling decline for years. The Bank’s profit margin appeared un effected by the loss of banking patrons due to it’s positioning of customer debit purchase transactions. BOA Policy Makers who instituted the practice afforded he bank to profit from Billions of dollars, and it came at the expense of it’s most valued asset; loyal customers. Here is how it worked:

Customers making Debit Card or Credit Card Purchases with Bank of America are offered the Bill Pay Feature upon establishing a Checking Account. The requirements for setting up the Account is as minimal as $25.00 (in comparison to most Banks who require $150.00). The Bill Pay feature is a Marketing tool sold to Customers under the auspice that your purchases would be covered in the event your spending exceeds the account’s available spending dollars. The advertisements site embarrassment and the assurance that your bills will be paid as a strong selling point to new customers. What they don’t tell you is that they secretly and meticulously scrutinize individual accounts, monitoring buying habits & spending trends, and position higher ticked Debit Sales for priority during the collection process. So, say a customer goes to Macy’s and make a purchase totaling $150.00 on Saturday, purchases $450.00 worth of gardening tools on Monday, the customer’s Bank credits are $350.00 as of Saturday Morning. The Customer assumes that earlier purchases would be due for payment first, and knows his/her Direct Deposit from their salary hits the Bank before Midnight on Tuesday morning. The 24 hour process it normally takes to process Debit/Credit purchases allows for a small window so that these purchases can be covered right? Wrong! BOA practices show that higher purchases like the $450.00 purchase are prioritized for payment even though the purchase was made two days after lower ticketed Debit purchases. this is a trend that I know I have personally observed for quite some time. I often wondered why purchases made 3-4 days later were sought for payment prior to earlier items at a lesser value.

It appeared  that individuals charge to process Debit purchases for BOA could work much expeditiously for higher Debit items, and it was extremely transparent. This is just a hypothetical synopsis of BOA practices and I am sure that their tactics are far more abusive. Also, other alarming trends by BOA is the fact that many retailers encourage patrons to utilize the Credit feature of Checking Cards. These practices have been rumored to afford sellers a $5.00 kickback per Credit purchase transaction. Ever make a purchase and try to utilize your Debit Card only to be told that the Debit Machine is malfunctioning and they can only take Credit Purchases? Well a little research and a lot of common since reveals that the process which require the proper functionality of these Debit/Credit Devices are exactly the same. The machine requires a modem to dial up to a Central Verification Network to obtain validity and authenticity of a Bank Card. Most Companies utilize VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) to achieve this task. Why is it that some machines can only dial up to verify Credit Purchases and not ones requesting Debit? They dial up to the same Central Processing Center. I personally have walked out of establishments who tell me they can only accommodate Credit transactions, because I’m educated on the inner dealings of Banking Institutions and their third party business associates. This particular practice is not however limited or unique to BOA, as many other Banks are implementing this policy. It is my hope that a Class Action will follow this recent suit against Bank of America. The onset of such a litigation will more than likely impact multiple Banking Firms if not all. However, the current BOA Class named in the impending settlement with BOA is scheduled for another hearing in November of 2011 for the purpose of determining the Legal Fees involving the case. The Notice sent to Customers listed in this Settlement Class indicate that the Legal Fees may run up to about %30 of the overall settlement. Not a bad hit to take if your over draft penalties run into the hundreds or thousand dollar range. The Settlement also offers the option for Class Members to exclude being listed in the Class for the purpose of individuals own personal Litigation Ambitions, as many may want to pursue Punitive Damages against BOA. Either option that those included in the Class choose, it appears to be a small victory for the People as vindication no matter how small it may be in comparison to the Billions already capitalized on by Bank of America. Your check will be in the mail and you don’t have to lift a finger!

I’m David Adams

The People’s Champion

David Adams

A Self proclaimed geek, Sympathizer for the homeless, Social Change Advocate, Crime Blogger, Promoter of Awareness for Missing and Exploited Children, and a mobile technology enthusiast. A recognized Journalist and Human Interest Writer championing the plight of the masses whom are without a voice of their own.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInGoogle Plus

If you are one of the Bank Of America Customers whose Bank Account has been hit with continuous Over Draft fees from 2001 thru 2011, there is very good news. The hefty $35.oo over draft fee was a constant concern for many who patronized one of North America’s largest Banks, and even sparked an army of loyal BOA consumers to migrate to other Financial Institutions. Despite the massive exodus of long time customers, BOA continued it’s practices of essentially robbing it’s customers with the infamous heavy over draft penalties that many have been questioning the legality of for the past decade. Recently Attorney’s for an unnamed Client who initiated a Class Action Lawsuit against the Financial Conglomerate were able to broker a deal with the Bank. The terms of the settlement list a Trust of over 410 Million dollars to recoup loses that BOA Customers have had levied against their Accounts fo the past ten years. Though the terms of the settlement remain unapproved by Federal Courts, it does offer hope for restitution  for Banking Patrons who fell prey to an extremely abusive business practice. BOA Customer volume had been on a spiraling decline for years. The Bank’s profit margin appeared un effected by the loss of banking patrons due to it’s positioning of customer debit purchase transactions. BOA Policy Makers who instituted the practice afforded he bank to profit from Billions of dollars, and it came at the expense of it’s most valued asset; loyal customers. Here is how it worked:

Customers making Debit Card or Credit Card Purchases with Bank of America are offered the Bill Pay Feature upon establishing a Checking Account. The requirements for setting up the Account is as minimal as $25.00 (in comparison to most Banks who require $150.00). The Bill Pay feature is a Marketing tool sold to Customers under the auspice that your purchases would be covered in the event your spending exceeds the account’s available spending dollars. The advertisements site embarrassment and the assurance that your bills will be paid as a strong selling point to new customers. What they don’t tell you is that they secretly and meticulously scrutinize individual accounts, monitoring buying habits & spending trends, and position higher ticked Debit Sales for priority during the collection process. So, say a customer goes to Macy’s and make a purchase totaling $150.00 on Saturday, purchases $450.00 worth of gardening tools on Monday, the customer’s Bank credits are $350.00 as of Saturday Morning. The Customer assumes that earlier purchases would be due for payment first, and knows his/her Direct Deposit from their salary hits the Bank before Midnight on Tuesday morning. The 24 hour process it normally takes to process Debit/Credit purchases allows for a small window so that these purchases can be covered right? Wrong! BOA practices show that higher purchases like the $450.00 purchase are prioritized for payment even though the purchase was made two days after lower ticketed Debit purchases. this is a trend that I know I have personally observed for quite some time. I often wondered why purchases made 3-4 days later were sought for payment prior to earlier items at a lesser value.

It appeared  that individuals charge to process Debit purchases for BOA could work much expeditiously for higher Debit items, and it was extremely transparent. This is just a hypothetical synopsis of BOA practices and I am sure that their tactics are far more abusive. Also, other alarming trends by BOA is the fact that many retailers encourage patrons to utilize the Credit feature of Checking Cards. These practices have been rumored to afford sellers a $5.00 kickback per Credit purchase transaction. Ever make a purchase and try to utilize your Debit Card only to be told that the Debit Machine is malfunctioning and they can only take Credit Purchases? Well a little research and a lot of common since reveals that the process which require the proper functionality of these Debit/Credit Devices are exactly the same. The machine requires a modem to dial up to a Central Verification Network to obtain validity and authenticity of a Bank Card. Most Companies utilize VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) to achieve this task. Why is it that some machines can only dial up to verify Credit Purchases and not ones requesting Debit? They dial up to the same Central Processing Center. I personally have walked out of establishments who tell me they can only accommodate Credit transactions, because I’m educated on the inner dealings of Banking Institutions and their third party business associates. This particular practice is not however limited or unique to BOA, as many other Banks are implementing this policy. It is my hope that a Class Action will follow this recent suit against Bank of America. The onset of such a litigation will more than likely impact multiple Banking Firms if not all. However, the current BOA Class named in the impending settlement with BOA is scheduled for another hearing in November of 2011 for the purpose of determining the Legal Fees involving the case. The Notice sent to Customers listed in this Settlement Class indicate that the Legal Fees may run up to about %30 of the overall settlement. Not a bad hit to take if your over draft penalties run into the hundreds or thousand dollar range. The Settlement also offers the option for Class Members to exclude being listed in the Class for the purpose of individuals own personal Litigation Ambitions, as many may want to pursue Punitive Damages against BOA. Either option that those included in the Class choose, it appears to be a small victory for the People as vindication no matter how small it may be in comparison to the Billions already capitalized on by Bank of America. Your check will be in the mail and you don’t have to lift a finger!

I’m David Adams

The People’s Champion

David Adams

A Self proclaimed geek, Sympathizer for the homeless, Social Change Advocate, Crime Blogger, Promoter of Awareness for Missing and Exploited Children, and a mobile technology enthusiast. A recognized Journalist and Human Interest Writer championing the plight of the masses whom are without a voice of their own.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInGoogle Plus

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Chelsea

Great summation of the suit. I just received my settlement notice in the mail today. I do home the suit is successful. I have fallen into the same exact issue, and even called to complain. I was responded to by a curt “You should always make sure all purchases are able to be covered on the spot with funds to cover the purchase in the checking account”. I hope this improves their customer orientation and service.

slgirl

I had my accounts closed by bof a twice due to overdraft fees that they caused. They withdrew my savings acount and left me a blance of .13 cents which i still get a statement for. LOL , Chase bank has also done the same thing, they say you have money in your account but then wait till you get a ton of charges ( paying bills) and pull them all out at once. I think it is just bull crap what all the banks are doing. Good luck we are also part of the settlement too. Thanks so much for all the effort everyone has been doing to try to get the banks to fix their huge mess up.

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$410,000,000.00 Bank Of America Settlement: Suit Claimed BOA Sought Payment Of Highest Debit Purchases First | The People’s Champion
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