Fifth Third Bank Under Fire

A group of Fifth Third Bank customers have filed a lawsuit against 5/3 Bank, seeking refunds of millions of dollars in overdraft charges, which plaintiffs contend were taken illegally.

The suit maintains that overdraft fees were charged when customers had sufficient funds in their accounts. 

The suit claims that, in some cases, Fifth Third charges overdraft fees/additional fees every day an account is overdrawn; 5/3 is essentially charging overdraft fees on top of their overdraft fees.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of Marlene Willard of Hephzibah Georgia; in addition to other bank customers claiming they were unfairly and illegally charged overdraft fees by The Fifth Third Bancorp on purchases made with ATM/Debit cards.

The class action lawsuit alleges that these fees violate federal/state law, as well as contractual relationships the bank has with customers.

The lawsuit seeks certification of a class action on behalf of Fifth Third customers improperly charged or customers who received any insufficient disclosures about such overdraft fees; the complaint alleges that Fifth Third Bank manipulated debit transactions in order to create overdraft fees, even when sufficient funds were present.

In addition, the suit claims that Fifth Third Bank fails to properly disclose fees charged at point of sales transactions and uses deceptive disclosures in contracts with customers in order to hide true overdraft policies.

The complaint also alleges that Fifth Third Bank has not allowed customers to opt out of their overdraft protection, as recommended by federal regulations.