It looks like Bank of America (BoA) is at risk of more than $250M, as the agency is accused of “double-jumping on fees” and opening fraudulent accounts!
Accusations Will Seem to Cost Bank of America $250M in Total
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Price CFPB) announced the news in a statement released on Tuesday (Jul. 11).
In a press release, the CFPB “ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100 million to customers.” The foundation of this system came from BoA “Double input on the fees charged to customers who don’t have enough money.”
Additionally, the bank was accused of chasing credit card holders out of payments while they were “open[ing] account without the customer’s knowledge or consent. “Wow!
As a result, the Director of CFBP Rohit Chopra he criticized BoA’s behavior as “unlawful” and declared that it “undermines the trust of customers.”
“Bank of America wrongfully canceled credit card rewards, double-dipped in fees, and opened accounts without authorization. This practice is illegal and undermines customer trust. The CFPB is cracking down on these practices at all banks.”
On top of paying customers more than $100M in settlement, BoA was also ordered to pay $90M in fines to the CFPB.
In addition, because of the “double jump,” BoA must pay $60M to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). All in all, this will drive BoA over $250M.
CFPB Details BoA’s Actions on Loyalty Customers
As the CFPB’s statement continued, the agency didn’t hold back as it described how Bank of America “harmed thousands of consumers over the course of several years.”
Specifically, it accused the BoA of developing a “double-dipping scheme to reap fines.” This was done by Bank of America “to allow repeated payments for the same transactions.”
The results were found, “Bank of America made more money by charging more than $35.”
In addition, BoA was unkindly called a “failure[ing] to honor promises” and “unauthorized by us[ing] or find[ing] consumer credit reports” to open fake accounts.
“As a result of Bank of America’s actions, consumers were charged unfairly high fees, experienced problems with their credit reports, and lost time to correct errors.”
So far, Bank of America has not publicly addressed the CFPB’s allegations and fines.