by Jeff Sovern
Different, that is, from arbitrations over the unauthorized accounts, about which we have reported (Wells has agreed to set aside its arbitration clause in the unauthorized account dispute and settle the claims in a class action; court approval is pending but seems likely). Ira's piece, titled Courts, Regulators Must Stop Wells Fargo’s Rigged Arbitration System appears in the Morning Consult. Excerpt:
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments in August over Wells Fargo’s abusive overdraft fee practices. Not content to rake in the profits at up to $35 per fee, banks like Wells Fargo began a deeply cynical and abusive practice: By re-ordering a customers’ transactions, banks could ensure the largest-dollar items were charged to your account first, resulting in additional fees when lower-dollar transactions, which had been completed earlier, hit your empty bank account. Instead of being charged one overdraft fee, you would be hit with several * * *
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Wells Fargo, on the other hand, refuses to reimburse its customers. Instead, the bank has spent years trying to force its customers into a complicated arbitration process, which would in reality provide little chance of recovering the money that was stolen through these overdraft fees.