Fifth Third Bank Overdraft Fee Settlement Deadline

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If you have been a customer of Fifth Third Bank and incurred any overdraft fees related to a debit card transaction, the following may interest you. According to a class action lawsuit, Fifth Third Bank posted debit card transactions and/or ATM withdrawals in non-chronological order so that the bank could maximize the number of overdraft fees it charged to customers. Without admitting wrongdoing, Fifth Third ended up settling for $9.5 million. The official website is OverdraftSettlement.com. Taken from the claim form:

Eligibility: If you hold or held a Fifth Third Account any time between October 21, 2004 and July 1, 2010 and incurred at least one Overdraft Fee associated with at least one Fifth Third Debit Card Transaction, you are eligible to submit a Claim Form.

Settlement Benefits: Settlement Class Members who submit a valid Claim Form may receive a payment of up to three times the amount claimed on this Claim Form, depending on the total amount of valid claims submitted. The Court in charge of this case still has to decide whether to approve the settlement. Payments will not be made until the Court grants final approval and after any appeals are resolved. Please be patient.

The applicable period is pretty long, nearly six years. You could get up to triple your overdraft fees back. Supposedly final approval was supposed to be given on March 16, 2011, but I can’t find any updates. Claim deadline is coming up soon on May 2, 2011.

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Comments

  1. Is there anything on the suit against Wachovia and filing a claim, I have been looking I know they started a suit in 09 and am seeking information on that lawsuit.

  2. I left Wachovia for pull that sh!t on me. I called them on it and they gave me a refund for doing it but I’ll never bank with Wachovia (Wells Fargo) ever again. Or Chase for that matter. I’m pretty much done with all major banks. I bank with banks that refund ATM fees and don’t charge them and banks that have free checking accounts or even interest bearing checking accounts.

    That stupid regulation that passed, while well intentioned, has only made dealing with big banks harder. Fees are going up and being charged for everything now. Some banks are charging a monthly fee now just for using a debit/credit card.

  3. For most clients, overdraft protection works as a benefit. In fact, opt-in rates are surprisingly high when considering the total client base. For some, however, overdraft protection can be very costly. Clients who use overdraft protection the most tend to have low to negative average balances, and after removing overdraft and NSF fees, their profitability is very low if not negative. In other words, because of their account and transaction characteristics, overdraft and NSF fees were about the only economic incentive for a bank to offer “Free” checking to these clients. Now that these clients can opt out of the program and avoid most of these fees, many of these clients would actually cost the bank money to retain. Rather than closing and denying these clients a checking account, many banks instead put in place a modest monthly maintenance fee that in many cases can actually be waived with a minimum balance or direct deposit, effectively returning the account to “Free” checking.

    Remember that bank is not a charity, it is a for-profit business. A fair amount of overdraft and NSF fees are either waived or charged off if the client walks away from the account, and a bank must take steps to manage this risk accordingly. No one is required to maintain a checking and/or savings account with a bank, and there are non-bank financial institutions that offer services similar to banks, such as credit unions. It is important to consider your banking habits and required financial services before choosing a bank or non-bank financial institution.

  4. I want to know if anyone knows when we will receive our money? Like the back got there money by ripping us off, when will we get ours? And where can we find out about it?

  5. does anybody know if there is a settlement yet or when the payments are going to be pd out too the recipients let me know via email

  6. JMarie813 says

    Still wondering..on June 19th when they will send the payments out.If anyone has any idea,..pls.respond to my email add. Thank you. .. :0)

  7. energizer says

    Can anyone tell me if there is a way to file a late claim? I’m just recently hearing about all this…must have ben in a cave somewhere!

  8. I rec’d an email from overdraftsettlement.com yesterday. “Thank you for your inquiry. The matter has been taken under advisement by the Judge. He has not rendered his decision as of today.”. No idea when the Judge will rule on this case. He needs to make it sooner than later. http://www.overdraftsettlement.com is not updated regularly. I found things out going to google and looking up info on different sites.

  9. Judge Robert M Dow will be on vacation July 14-22. Returning on July 25th. Still no ruling on this class action lawsuit. Doesn’t look like it will be any time soon. Another blogger wrote that they spoke to an attorney for the Prosecution in May, and they said they may start to cut and mail checks in July. THAT WAS A LIE!!! Does anyone know anything!?!? I’ve tried http://www.overdraftsettlement.com, blogs, google, etc and cannot find any info any later than May 13th, where there was an appeal to the Fairness Hearing in March. What’s the freakin hold up?

  10. Anyone have any news, good or bad? I’d like to know when we might see our money, a rough estimate like a month/yr would be good. I see that Judge Robert M Dow is on vacatio til July 25, 2011. Can anyone call his office and see what the hold up is, or when he might make a decision? I’ve tried several times without an answer, all the answers I got, I posted, and were BS!!!

  11. “It’s my money and I want it now!!!”

  12. i have not heard anything as of late,i guess we just wait it out. if they are to be mailed out in july they better hustle,it,s coming to a close pretty quick her and i would like a little xtra myself so if anyone heres anyhing do not hesitate to email me,so we all have a clue as to what is up

  13. Just spoke to an attorney at Barnow and Assoc. He said they are waiting for the judge to grant final approval. The attorney said, that they believe he will grant final approval. Then there is 30 days to appeal. If no appeals, then benefits will go out shortly after. He said at the earliest 2 months, and if there are appeals, this could go on for another 1.5 yrs. What BS!!!!! This has been going on since 10/09. The bank stole this money from me between 2004-2007. I’ve waited long enough, I hope the wait is worth it!!!

  14. SORRY TO GINGER AND OTHERS, I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO SEND A RESPONSE TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS THROUGH YAHOO. DIDN’T WORK FOR ME.

  15. Good news!?!? “From Law360, New York (July 14, 2011) — JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and a handful of other banks (incl Fifth Third Bank) lost their renewed bids Wednesday to duck out of multidistrict litigation in Florida accusing them of breaching contracts by unfairly charging customers exorbitant overdraft fees.

    U.S. District Court Judge James Lawrence King denied a motion for reconsideration lodged by JPMorgan and the subsequent motions filed by Citizens Financial Group Inc., Comerica Inc., TD Bank NA, Capital One and PNC Bank NA. In a separate order, the judge did partially grant Union Bank NA’s dismissal bid, nixing… “.
    Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, google it.

  16. They are still doing this. They find ways to get more and more from you. I have lost 2 complete checks to them due to them bouncing checks. I made the mistake of getting one of their cash advances. I had a deposit go in they took the advance which then bounced checks, then after they bounced checks they took off the advance but that still put me in the negative due to all the overdraft fees. Which just started a bad cycle.

  17. @ beverly–I so feel you! in one month b/c of one check they re-sequenced and got me for over $500!!!

  18. Liars, cheats, thieves, scum sucksers!!! They took this resequencing to over $1000.00 for my account. x3=$3k. And they want to settle for $60 per person, wtf??? The lawyers get 1/3, how is that fair? And the settlement admin doesn’t have any figures, cause I asked. This is ridiculous, let’s appeal people!!!!

  19. Final Approval was granted on July 29th, 2011. For more information check out http://www.overdraftsettlement.com.

  20. WE need to FIGHT this!! This judgement isn’t fair. Send emails, make phone calls, do what you can to get the amount for this judgement to a more reasonable amount. I lost over $1k from 5th 3rd, and I may get $60?!?! $6 million between over 100,000 claimants. I sent an email yesterday telling the attorney that of the blogs i’ve been reading and writing on, the main concern is we are not going to get back nearly the amount that was stolen from us. Whomever put this class action lawsuit together needs to take a strong look at this before the 30 days are up. IT’s imperative we fight for what is owed to us. The banks have made millions on top of millions over the last 6 yrs, and what’s right is right!!! Otherwise, I want out of this and i’ll sue them on my own. Thieves! They are still making out with millions in their pockets.

  21. I lost money too. If you were involved in the lawsuit; you cannot sue again if you filed a claim. Just because 100,000 filedm claims; that does not mean that 100% of them will be valid. Many will be thrown out for various reasons. Class action lawsuits almost always end up with very little left for those who choose to join in.

  22. voice of reason says

    I lost money as well. In this case I would like to point out the fact that since final approval has been made any attempt at this point would further delay the process. I don’t believe it was fair the amount the attorneys took nor the amount settled for, but at this point it also wouldn’t be fair to let this situation drag on and on either. I was robbed in total of $ 495 plus a negative mark on my credit because of 5/3 because I refused to pay anymore but I don’t expect a windfall. As for the comment’s about fighting I think at this point you would be betting the farm and by the time you get done you would be owing them. The only thing you would have done is delayed the rest of us who just want something done from getting anything at all.

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