CFPB to Bank of America: Pay Back Consumers $727 Million

This week the CFPB ordered Bank of America to return $727 million to credit card customers for deceptive marketing and unfair billing practices.

Evan Preston

This week the CFPB ordered Bank of America to return $727 million to credit card customers for deceptive marketing and unfair billing practices.

Like many credit card issuers, Bank of America marketed nice-sounding services like “Credit Protection Plus” and “Credit Protection Deluxe” to consumers.  But instead of protecting consumers, they were ripping them off.  Bank of America telemarketers misled consumers about the initial cost of the service, enrolled consumers who thought they were just getting more information, and misrepresented the benefits of the service.

Bank of America also billed consumers in a number of illegal ways for “Privacy Guard,” “Privacy Source,” and “Privacy Assist” services, which promised to monitor customer credit and potentially fraudulent activity.  Approximately 1.9 Million Bank of America customers we illegally billed for services they never received or only partially received.  Even worse, many customers incurred additional interest and fees due to these illegal billing practices.

If you think you may be one of the millions of American’s harmed by Bank of America, you can learn more about the CFPB’s action with this handy explainer.

One of the best things about the CFPB’s order is that wronged consumers don’t have to take any action to get their money back: if still a customer, your account will be credited, and if no longer a customer, you will receive a check.

This is another great example of the CFPB getting results for consumers.

Authors

Evan Preston