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Do I have a case for class action against my bank?

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PookieNumNums

New member
What is the name of your state? Michigan

I think my credit union has been doing some that is bull $#:; and devious to all the members who overdraft.

When funds are on hold let's say $100 which they already took the money out of your account and put on hold for a business. If you overdraft you will be charged $35 which is fine but the devious thing they have been doing to me and every other member is they will charge you $35 twice when the $100 finally clears. This is so wrong in my opinion. Do you think I could have a class action case against this bank? They already took the $100 I should NOT get fined for that too if I overdraft.
 


quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Michigan

I think my credit union has been doing some that is bull $#:; and devious to all the members who overdraft.

When funds are on hold let's say $100 which they already took the money out of your account and put on hold for a business. If you overdraft you will be charged $35 which is fine but the devious thing they have been doing to me and every other member is they will charge you $35 twice when the $100 finally clears. This is so wrong in my opinion. Do you think I could have a class action case against this bank? They already took the $100 I should NOT get fined for that too if I overdraft.
I don’t understand exactly what you are saying here.

Was the $100 a payment made by you from your account or a deposit into your account?

You can get several overdraft fees if you do not have a balance sufficient in your account to cover payments or if you try to use funds being held before they clear.

You need to deposit funds to cover not only the previous payment(s) but also to cover all overdraft fees. So, using your $100 example, you would need to deposit $100 to cover the original payment plus $35 plus $35.

I don’t see any lawsuit available to you but you might want to either get from your credit union overdraft protection or switch to a bank that offers overdraft protection - but read all terms of any agreement very carefully and understand what it means.
 
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Just Blue

Senior Member
I don’t understand exactly what you are saying here.

Was the $100 a payment made by you or a deposit made by you into your account?

You can get several overdraft fees if you do not have a balance sufficient in your account to cover payments, including overdraft fees every time the same payment previously returned for insufficient funds is resubmitted, or if you try to use funds being held before they clear.

You need to deposit funds to cover not only the previous payment(s) but also to cover all overdraft fees. So, using your $100 example, you would need to deposit $100 to cover the original payment plus $35 plus $35.

I don’t see any lawsuit available to you but you might want to either get from your credit union overdraft protection or switch to a bank that offers overdraft protection.
I got kinda lost reading the OP as well.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
What is the name of your state? Michigan

I think my credit union has been doing some that is bull $#:; and devious to all the members who overdraft.

When funds are on hold let's say $100 which they already took the money out of your account and put on hold for a business. If you overdraft you will be charged $35 which is fine but the devious thing they have been doing to me and every other member is they will charge you $35 twice when the $100 finally clears. This is so wrong in my opinion. Do you think I could have a class action case against this bank? They already took the $100 I should NOT get fined for that too if I overdraft.
It's not clear what is happening here. My best guess of it is that you used a debit card at a business which took $100 out as some kind of deposit, and that as result your account got overdrawn. When that account got overdrawn, your account got dinged for $35 overdraft fee. But then it's not clear to me what happened with that $100 deposit later nor why you got the next $35 overdraft fee. If you explain in more detail — step by step — what happened, that would be helpful.

Note, too, that what fees the CU can hit your account with depends on what your account agreement says, and obviously I've not read your agreement. Also, whether you can sue the bank over this also depends on your account agreement. It may be that (1) it requires arbitration and/or (2) it prohibits class action claims.

Even if class action claims are not prohibited, I'm not seeing anything to suggest there is a good class action lawsuit here. You've not said anything to suggest you have evidence that the CU is doing the exact thing to many others.
 

quincy

Senior Member
It could be that PookieNumNums has an account with a credit union that has attracted the attention of banking regulators because of their overdraft policies. Over a dozen credit unions have been sued in states across the country in the past over overdraft fees. One class action in Michigan recently had a settlement agreement between plaintiffs and credit union approved (Tiffany K. Coleman-Weathersbee et al v. Michigan State University Federal Credit Union et al).

There were class action suits filed in 2017, and other class action suits considered in late 2020, against some banks and credit unions that were “reordering” payments where largest amounts were deducted from balances first (leading to more overdrafts), that had deceptive opt-out/opt-in policies, and that would provide customers with overdraft protection through “bank advances” to cover overdrafts but at a high rate of interest, and other questionable practices.

PookieNumNums description of what has happened with her account at her credit union seems a bit different than the credit union practices that supported the lawsuits - charging fees for overdrafts is not in itself illegal - but perhaps a better explanation would help.

Or PookieNumNums could speak with an attorney in Michigan who can advise her.
 
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PookieNumNums

New member
I guess I don't know how to explain it. Let's say I have a balance of $100 in my account. I spend $100 at Bestbuy using my debit card. I could see in my held funds $100 in a special section of my account and a balance of $100 shows on my account. That $100 on hold for BestBuy might take 3 days or more to disappear. Meanwhile if I need to overdraft and use my debit card to take $200 out of the ATM I have no problem paying the $35 fee. The thing my credit union does is once that $100 for Best buy clears (they already took the $100 ) you will be charged a $35 fee for Best buy and overdrafting if your account is negative. This is bull@!#: considering they already took the $100 from your account why the hell are they charging you an overdraft fee for something they already took the money out for !! I'm so ticked off. This has been happening for years to ANYONE in this situation.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
In your example you've overdrawn the account the account when you took the $200 out of the account. Apparently on the CU's books, the $100 charge from Best Buy hadn't processed through yet, so per the CU's books you were negative by $100 when you took the ATM with withdrawal, and the CU advanced you $100 for the ATM withdrawal to cover the amount you didn't have in your account. Then when the $100 Best Buy charge hits, you now have a second advance of another $100, for which the CU hits you for another overdraft charge. That may be perfectly valid under your CU account terms. You might want to see a consumer rights attorney in your state to see if there is any recourse here.

Or, you might try to arrange your banking affairs so you don't overdraw your account. Even a one time fee of $35 for that $200 ATM withdrawal is very expensive, and those fees add up.
 

PookieNumNums

New member
No they did not advance me the $100 for bestbuy they took the money from my account because of the debit transaction and still charged $35 once it "went away" which is complete fraud!
 

quincy

Senior Member
No they did not advance me the $100 for bestbuy they took the money from my account because of the debit transaction and still charged $35 once it "went away" which is complete fraud!
You can have an attorney review your account activities and those of the credit union but it sounds to me as if the overdraft fees you were charged are legitimate. You did not have $100 in your account when you withdrew $200 - it had already been paid to Best Buy but not submitted for payment by Best Buy - and you knew you didn’t have money in your account when you withdrew the $200.

Although there are credit unions that don’t play fairly or by the rules, I am not seeing that that is the case with what you are describing.
 
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zddoodah

Active Member
Do you think I could have a class action case against this bank?
An individual does not "have a class action." You haven't clearly articulated what you think the credit union is doing wrong, but you're free to try and get a consultation with a couple local class action firms to see if, after reviewing your written account agreement, they would be interested in pursuing a case. Keep in mind that the likelihood of significant recovery will have to exist for a firm to be interested in pursuing such a case.

Let's say I have a balance of $100 in my account. I spend $100 at Bestbuy using my debit card. I could see in my held funds $100 in a special section of my account and a balance of $100 shows on my account. That $100 on hold for BestBuy might take 3 days or more to disappear. Meanwhile if I need to overdraft and use my debit card to take $200 out of the ATM I have no problem paying the $35 fee. The thing my credit union does is once that $100 for Best buy clears (they already took the $100 ) you will be charged a $35 fee for Best buy and overdrafting if your account is negative.
So...I think your complaint is that the $100 charge at Best Buy should have reduced your balance to $0, so you shouldn't have been able to withdraw the $200. In fact, no matter what, you shouldn't have been able to withdraw the $200, but you apparently were and were charged a $35 overdraft fee. The Best Buy charge was then applied and you got hit with a second fee. The propriety of this practice will depend on the specific terms of your written account agreement.

No they did not advance me the $100 for bestbuy they took the money from my account because of the debit transaction and still charged $35 once it "went away" which is complete fraud!
It could be argued that it's fraud for you to manage your account in the way described. If what the bank did was proper under the account agreement, then you took advantage of those terms (which were known to you) by making a $100 purchase and then a $200 withdrawal. I don't know why the credit union allowed you to withdraw $200 when you only had $100 in the account, but that's neither here nor there. Having done this, you knew (because you knew the terms of your account agreement), it could be argued that you committed fraud by making the Best Buy purchase that you knew would be declined by the CU. Of course, I know you didn't strictly "know" what your account agreement says, but you're legally responsible for knowing.

As suggested above, you can take your written account agreement to an attorney to review.
 

quincy

Senior Member
PookieNumNums, here is a link to the State Bar of Michigan’s legal resource and referral center: https://lrs.michbar.org

You can use that link to find an appropriate attorney in your area.

There are several attorneys/law firms in Michigan with experience in class action suits. One could assess the facts of your experience with the credit union and, if a suit seems to be supported by the facts, the attorney can help you and/or can direct you to someone who can help you. Depending on the credit union, there could already be a case against the credit union forming that you could join.
 

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