Bank of America Junk Fees Case: The $250 Million CFPB Order

What Regulators Found

In July 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency took action against Bank of America over three practices. First, “double-dipping” on fees: charging a customer a $35 fee when a transaction was declined for insufficient funds, then charging it again if the merchant re-submitted the same transaction, so a single payment could trigger repeated fees. Second, withholding cash and points bonuses the bank had promised customers for opening credit cards. Third, opening credit-card accounts for consumers without their knowledge or consent, at times using their credit reports to do so.

The fake-accounts element echoed the earlier Wells Fargo scandal — the same sales-pressure dynamic surfacing at another major bank.

The Penalties

Bank of America was ordered to pay about $250 million in total: roughly $100 million in refunds to harmed customers, plus a $90 million penalty to the CFPB and $60 million to the OCC. The regulators also required the bank to stop the practices. Much of the customer redress is distributed automatically to affected accounts, so people generally do not need to file a claim — a detail worth knowing, because scammers often target news of bank settlements with fake “recovery” offers.

The mix of refunds and penalties is typical of CFPB enforcement: make customers whole and fine the bank on top.

What Customers Should Know

Review your statements for repeated overdraft or non-sufficient-funds fees on the same transaction, and check that any promised credit-card bonus was actually paid. If you see a credit card or account you never opened, dispute it and pull your free credit reports. You can report bank practices like these to the CFPB, and legitimate settlement redress will never require you to pay a fee to receive it.