Settlement Website: MorrisODFeeSettlement.com
Objection Deadline: 04/19/2022
Exclusion Deadline: 04/19/2022
Claim Form: No claim form is required to benefit from the settlement.
Final Hearing Date: 06/27/2022
Settlement Amount: $2.3 million
Proof Of Purchase: No proof of purchase is required.
Potential Claim Amount: Under the settlement terms, every class member is eligible for a payment which will vary depending on the fees charged from each class member. You will automatically be eligible for a larger payment if you paid more fees compared to class members who were charged the fee just once. However, the exact payment amount will vary.
First Interstate Bank has agreed to a $2.3 million settlement benefitting customers who were charged overdraft fees once or multiple times between 30th December 2011 and 7th April 2021 on a debit card transaction in which there was an adequate balance while authorizing the transaction but an inadequate balance was there at the time of posting the transaction. The bank has also agreed to forgive fees worth thousands to resolve all claims brought against them regarding unfair charging of bank fees. Class members should have received a postcard notice or email notifying their eligibility for benefitting from the terms of this class action settlement.
First Interstate Bank operates with more than 300 branches in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming while the headquarter is in Montana. The company has acquired other banks and expanded multiple times over the past years. A class action complaint was filed against the bank by plaintiff Brandy Morris alleging violations of both state and federal law.
According to the plaintiff, First Interstate Bank has a practice of unfairly charging overdraft fees of $35 on customer accounts despite the accounts never being overdrawn. This practice violates the contract promises made in First Interstate’s adhesion contracts. Numerous customers have been injured with millions of dollars that were “biked from their accounts” in violation of their bank contracts. Brandy Morris had a checking account with First Interstate which charged $35 fees for debit card transactions resulting in an overdraft. The claims in the class action are related to overdraft fees charged on “Authorize Positive, Purportedly Settle Negative Transactions” (APPSNT).
The plaintiff added that when debit card transactions are authorized on an account having sufficient funds to cover the transaction, the bank takes out the money for the purchase and sets it aside which gets reflected by the new balance. As a result, the account holder always has adequate to make the transaction when the funds come out days later. However, First Interstate bank assesses crippling overdraft fees on various such transactions and misrepresents its practices in its account documents. According to the class action, this is an unfair practice as the bank has already set aside funds for the transaction branding the levy of fees to be improper.
As per the overdraft fee class-action lawsuit, the fees charged by First Interstate bank violated its account agreement. Though the bank hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing, it has agreed to resolve claims with a $2.331 million settlement. Other than providing cash refunds to customers, First Interstate Bank will also forgive $17090 yet to be collected in fees from customers. These benefits will be distributed among the eligible class members. Separate from the settlement, the bank recently announced that it will not be charging for non-sufficient funds from 1st April and will also reduce its overdraft fee charges.
A report was released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) last December pointing at banks that rely heavily on penalty fees including overdraft fees for accumulating revenue. As per the report, banks earned a whopping $15.47 billion in 2019 as revenue from overdraft fees with JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank America accounting for a third of it. The CFPB has taken the responsibility of cracking down on banks which tend to charge fees from customers and rely heavily on them.
Class members have the option of speaking at the final hearing if they offer prior notice but are not required to attend. The current First Interstate customers will receive their part of the settlement fund as an account credit and former ones will receive their share of the fund as a cheque through the mail. No claim form is required for benefitting from the settlement.