JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been sued by customers who claim that the largest U.S. bank charged them unfair fees when they deposited their checks, resulting in them being dishonored through no fault of their own.
In a proposed class action filed Tuesday night, five customers allege that New York-based Chase deducted $12 from their accounts when checks they tried to deposit returned unpaid. A return fee was charged.
Checks can bounce for a variety of reasons. For example, if the writer does not have sufficient funds in the account, has issued a stop payment order, or if the check contains an error.
Chase customers called the bank’s “junk fees” on returned checks “unconscionable” and “predatory,” citing an October 2022 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announcement. breaking news It said charging such fees indiscriminately is likely illegal.
“By charging restocking fees for deposited items, Chase unfairly imposed financial penalties on customers for defective checks that they were not involved in issuing,” the complaint states. “They were punished even though they had done nothing wrong.”
Chase declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said it stopped collecting fees in December 2022.
Five customers said they were billed between November 2021 and October 2022.
Lawyer Lisa Considine said charging fees is a “pervasive and unfair industry practice.”
The complaint seeks at least $5 million in damages from Chase customers across the United States, alleging violations of consumer protection laws in New York, California, Illinois, and New Jersey. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in White Plains, New York.
The Biden administration in October called for a crackdown on hidden and unexpected fees in banks and other sectors such as car rentals, hotels and concert tickets, saying the fees cost Americans tens of billions of dollars a year. Ta.
The case is Maslowski et al v. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 24-01277.
