On Wednesday April 9, 2014 Bank of America settled a lawsuit and agreed to pay $772 million in penalties for deceiving millions of customers into buying costly and unneeded services when they signed up for credit cards.
The Crux of the Case
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that Bank of America illegally deceived 2.9 million customers into buying extra credit card services those customers did not need and that Bank of America charged others for needless credit monitoring between 2000 and 2012.
“Bank of America both deceived consumers and unfairly billed consumers for services not performed,” Richard Cordray, director of CFPPB told the Associated Press. The settlement deal is the largest refund amount ordered to date by the CFPPB, and is the biggest settlement over credit card “add-on” services won by the federal government.
Bank of America will also have to pay an additional $20 million penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $25 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Delving into the details of the settlement, some of the misleading practices included Bank of America telemarketers telling customers that the first 30 days of a service were free when instead the customers were charged. Also, the bank led customers to believe that they were merely agreeing to receive additional information about add-on services, when in fact the bank was enrolling those customers into the services during calls.
Bank of America released a statement saying that the bank had already refunded money to a “majority” of the affected customers.
Bank of America’s Been to the Dance Before
This isn’t the first time Bank of America has been hit hard by its desire to charge customers fees. Back in 2011, when the Durbin Amendment going into effect was all the rage, Bank of America came up with a plan to charge their customers a fee for using their debit cards.
Bank of America stated its reason for this fee was to offset predicted losses the bank would incur because of the Durbin Amendment.
This went over like a lead balloon, and eventually Bank of America backed off this idea. It’s no mere coincidence that this fee and the resultant backlash heralds from the time period covered in the lawsuit. It seems back in those days, Bank of America was just really into adding fees for everything it could think of.
Transparent Pricing and No Fees
Host Merchant Services was hip to the pitfalls of fees right from its inception. HMS delivers personal service and clarity. The company promises no hidden fees. And a transparent pricing plan so that its customers are not saddled with all of these “add-ons” that Bank of America was so gung-ho about in 2011. HMS believes that when you get your statement every month, you should understand every item, and it should match what you were promised in the sales process.
