Skank of America wins in court

[marmar]

from LA Times:



Bank of America wins appeal on overdraft fees
The California Supreme Court overturns a 2004 class-action award to Social Security recipients from whose accounts the bank took fees for insufficient funds.

By Maura Dolan
June 2, 2009


The California Supreme Court unanimously overturned a billion-dollar class-action award against Bank of America Corp. on Monday, ruling that banks can collect overdraft fees from accounts in which government benefits intended for subsistence are directly deposited.

The ruling threw out a 2004 verdict by a San Francisco jury that found the bank violated state law by taking fees for insufficient funds from accounts set up to receive Social Security benefits.

The bank customers who had stood to benefit from the award included 1.1 million California residents receiving government assistance. James C. Sturdevant, who represented the Social Security recipients, said the award, with interest, would have cost Bank of America more than $2 billion.

He said banks earn about $40 million a year from overdraft charges and that some of the Social Security recipients in the suit lost 20% of their monthly income in a single day because of bank fees. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bank-america2-2009jun02,0,4121940.story

[NightWatcher]

1. completing my transition from BoA to Navy Fed Credit Union for reasons like this

[marmar]

2. Same here. My BofA accounts will be closed tomorrow.....

..... I'm switching to a credit union too.

[MercutioATC]

3. Why shouldn't they be able to collect overdraft fees?

I mean, they can only collect them if somebody overdraws their account, right?

[DJ13]

4. BofAss used to have a program called "Senior Checking"

It had no fees, free checks, and no overdraft charges (up to a certain number of days, I forget how many).

I believe they stopped that a few years back.

The lawsuit probably related to BofA changing the seniors over to regular checking accounts without notice, catching many of them unaware that they could be subject to overdraft charges.

[MercutioATC]

5. Now THAT I understand.

Thanks!