Class Action Claims Bank of America Exploits Ex-Convicts

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Three female individuals released earlier this year from Arizona correctional facilities have filed a class action against Bank of America claiming the financial institution exploits those recently released from incarceration. According to the plaintiffs, Bank of America is the exclusive provider of debit cards issued to former inmates released from corrections facilities in Arizona. If newly released individuals want to access their own money— which is kept in custodial accounts while they’re locked up—after confinement, the 23-page suit claims, the defendant forces them to enter into a “consumer relationship” with the bank in which the releasees are charged “exorbitant and unusual” fees once they are released. The CashPay debit cards issued by the defendant reportedly include a fee structure that allegedly “dissuades and disincentivizes Arizona releasees from accessing their own money, and penalizes them with excessive or unusual fees when they do.”

Among the other allegations put forth by the plaintiffs, Bank of America reportedly charges fees to newly released individuals that it would never charge to ordinary consumers. For instance, the lawsuit claims, releasees are charged a $15 fee per transaction at bank teller windows, and a $2.50 to merely speak with a customer service agent over the phone. Further, plaintiffs say the one-page form former inmates are given from Bank of America when activating CashPay cards does not describe any fees or terms and conditions that govern the card’s use.