New York, NY: A preliminary $12 million settlement has received court approval in the class action facing PNC Bank. The suit alleged deceptive business practices in the form of unfair overdraft fees charged to National City Bank customers. The suit was filed in February 2010, after PNC and National City Bank merged in 2009.
The plaintiffs claim that the bank misled customers about their account balance, concealed its overdraft policies and "reorder[ed] electronic debit transactions from the highest dollar amount to lowest dollar amount so as to deplete the customer's available funds as quickly as possible while maximizing the number of overdraft fees collected," the latest order in the case states.
Under the terms of the settlement, National City customers who held an account during the class period and "incurred at least one overdraft fee associated with at least one National City debit card transaction that was not previously reversed, refunded or returned" to them by the bank would be eligible for the class, U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote.
Under the $12 million settlement, class members in Washington would receive $36 for each eligible overdraft charge incurred during any two calendar months, not necessarily consecutive, between July 1, 2004, and August 15, 2010. The bank would also provide $500,000 to publish notice of the settlement, and administer it.
