A new lawsuit accuses banking giant Wells Fargo of overcharging thousands of customers on credit card interest rates and fees for more than a decade.
The class action lawsuit, filed by plaintiffs Carmin Nowlin, Tamika Haley and Jesus Rodriguez, alleges the bank charged active US military service members interest rates and fees that were above levels set by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
The SCRA ensures that any debts a service member incurred before being called to active duty will have their interest rates reduced to 6%. This reduction applies from the date of deployment and lasts throughout the entire period of active duty. Additionally, banks are required to permanently forgive interest over 6%, under the act.
According to the plaintiffs, Wells Fargo specifically marketed itself to service members – particularly those who were being deployed overseas – and quietly overcharged for more than a decade.
“Defendant breached its statutory and contractual duties to America’s fighting forces by charging interest rates and fees that were too high, allowing unlawful charges to improperly inflate servicemembers’ principal balances, and charging compound interest on these inflated balances. Defendant then concealed overcharges from the thousands of military families victimized by Defendant’s practices...
Due to Defendant’s misrepresentations to Plaintiffs and class members and concealment of SCRA violations and overcharges, Plaintiffs and class members did not discover, and had no reasonable opportunity to discover, the SCRA violations until 2022.
Defendant’s violations at issue were self-concealing, which is evidenced, in part, by the fact that they continued the nationwide practice of overcharging active military servicemembers for more than a decade.”
Wells Fargo has not released a statement on the allegations.
The bank has faced several lawsuits and complaints in recent months, including customer who says the banking giant left her hanging for seven months after thousands of dollars was stolen from her account.
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