EDWARDSVILLE - Busy Bank is being sued for allegedly participating in deceptive overdraft fee practices.
Lynda Stinson filed suit May 7 in Madison County Circuit Court against Busey Bank, which has branches in Illinois, Missouri and Florida.
Stinson alleges Busey Bank routinely assesses overdraft fees on transactions that did not actually overdraw checking accounts and assesses more than one return item fee and/or overdraft fee on the same item.
According to the suit, the bank "misleadingly and deceptively" misrepresents its fee products.
“Here’s how it works,” the suit states. “At the moment debit card transactions are authorized on an account with positive funds to cover the transaction, defendant immediately reduces the consumer’s checking account for the amount of the purchase, sets aside funds in the checking account to cover that transaction, and adjusts the consumer’s displayed ‘available balance’ to reflect that subtracted amount. As a result, customers’ accounts will always have sufficient funds available to cover these transactions because defendant has already sequestered these funds for payment.”
However, the plaintiff alleges the bank still assesses “crippling $32 overdraft fees on many of these transactions.”
“Despite putting aside sufficient available funds for debit card transactions at the time those transactions are authorized, defendant later assesses overdraft fees on those same transactions when they purportedly settle days later into a negative balance,” the suit states.
The suit states that this practice is described as "deceptive and unfair" by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
"Defendant’s improper scheme to extract funds from account holders has victimized plaintiff and hundreds of other similarly situated consumers. Unless enjoined, defendant will continue to engage in these schemes and will continue to cause substantial injury to its consumers," the suit states.
Stinson seeks class certification and unspecified actual, statutory and punitive damages against the defendant. She also seeks to enjoin the defendant from engaging in the alleged fee practices.
She is represented by David Cates of Cates Mahoney in Swansea as well as attorneys from Indiana, Tennessee and Washington DC.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 2020-L-0655