Some consumers suing banks over debit overdraft fees

According to the The New York Times (9/9, A1, Lieber, Martin) reports on the increased incidence of banks charging hefty fees when customers overdraw their accounts with debit card purchases, noting that “this year alone, banks are expected to bring in $27 billion by covering overdrafts on checking accounts, typically on debit card purchases or checks that exceed a customer’s balance. In fact, banks now make more covering overdrafts than they do on penalty fees from credit cards.” The piece notes that federal legislators and regulators are proposing curbs on such fees.

Meanwhile, the Times describes a Florida lawsuit in which the plaintiff alleges that Bank of America changed the chronology of a number of his purchases to increase the number of overdraft fees it could charge him. Such “lawsuits open a window onto the questions that government officials and banks are now trying to answer.”

Source – New York Times

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