CHESTERFIELD, Mo.–Another credit union has been hit with a class action lawsuit over its insufficient funds policy.
The $2.5-billion First Community CU has been targeted in a lawsuit filed in St. Louis District Court by Paul LLP, Kaliel PLLC and co-counsel. The lawsuit seeks to be certified as a class action.
The lawsuit alleges Frist Community CU has charged members two or three "insufficient funds" fees on a single transaction, a practice the lawsuit claims is contrary to the credit union's account agreements.
According to a statement from the law firm, First Community charges a $27.50 NSF fee when members have insufficient funds, and often then attempts to process the same transaction days later, classifying the transaction as a “retry payment.”
“By resubmitting an electronic transaction for processing after it has already been rejected for insufficient funds, the complaint argues, First Community can impose multiple fees that overwhelmingly exceed the original amount of the transaction, as is the case of named plaintiff Leassa Kellerman, who was allegedly charged $55 in fees over six days to only be left with the same failed payment of $10.99,” the firms said.
Additional Allegations
The complaint goes on to allege, "First Community Credit Union makes millions of dollars each year through the imposition of NSFs. These fees are by definition often assessed on consumers struggling to make ends meet...and often fall disproportionately on racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly and the young."
As CUToday.info has reported, numerous credit unions have been targeted in a wave of similar lawsuits, including Navy Federal, Ent Credit Union, Alliant Credit Union and more.
Waves of lawsuits alleging NSF policy violations by credit unions aren’t new, with CUToday.info reporting the issue as far back as 2015. http://www.cutoday.info/THE-feature/Class-Action-Lawsuits-Target-CU-Overdraft-Programs