Primary plaintiff Jennifer Collier alleged in a class action lawsuit that National Penn Bank charged bank customers overdraft fees on debit card transactions that did not exceed account balances. The 2012 class action lawsuit remained in the court system for nearly five years before a judge granted preliminary approval of a class action settlement in 2017. Disagreements between the primary plaintiffs and National Penn Bank concerning the effectiveness of the arbitration process caused the lengthy class action settlement delay.
According to class counsel, National Penn Bank allegedly charged the overdraft fees on customer account available balances, instead of calculating account balances by analyzing bank ledger balances. Bank ledger balances typically are higher than available account balances. Collier asserted the accounting principle implemented by National Penn Bank resulted in customers losing money because of overdraft fees, even though customers had enough money in their bank accounts to cover debit card transactions.
Terms of the class action settlement require National Penn Bank to set up a settlement fund of $975,000. The settlement fund distributes cash to eligible class members, as well as provides Collier with a payout as incentive for filing the class action lawsuit. Court costs and attorneys also come out of the class action settlement fund. Although National Penn Bank agreed to the terms of the class action settlement, the bank continues to deny any wrongdoing. The bank settled the class action lawsuit to avoid the high costs associated with a protracted civil trial.
What You Need To Know About The National Penn Overdraft Class Action Settlement
According to court documents, eligible class members include “U.S. persons who from June 8, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2011 held one or more National Penn deposit accounts and who were assessed an overdraft fee related to a debit card transaction that, according to the bank’s records, left the account overdrawn based on the available balance but not based on the ledger balance.’ Eligible class members have until November 7, 2017 to opt out of the class action settlement or dispute any of the agreement provisions. The potential award depends on the total amount of the overdraft fees each qualifying class member had to pay. Class members do not have to submit a claim form, as the class action settlement claims administrator will send the payments out through the United States Postal Service.
The judge presiding over the class action settlement case Collier v. National Penn Bank, et al., Case No. 12061036, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania has scheduled the final hearing on December 8, 2017. Find out what transpired at the final hearing by visiting the class action settlement website www.NationalPennOverdraftSettlement.com. The class action settlement website also presents the list of attorneys who represent the class and defense counsels.
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