https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/wells-fargo-refund-customers-account-service-fees.amp
Wells Fargo & Company expects to refund some customers for monthly account service fees due to “confusion” over how to qualify to have the fees waived, the company said in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The bank hasn’t disclosed how many customers might be affected by the issue or how much money is on the line, but the company mentioned the potential refunds as one way it was looking to rebuild customer trust after a series of embarrassing and costly scandals.
Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., publicly shared a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf this week asking the company to share the extent of the service fee problem, writing that the bank may have collected “hundreds of millions of dollars” in service fees on its popular Everyday Checking and Opportunity Checking accounts.
Porter referred to an earlier Capitol Forum article that reported refunds may be owed to millions of customers.
“Refunding these and any additional funds that the bank at any point improperly collected is a necessary step in regaining public trust,” she wrote. “Before Wells Fargo can in good faith begin any new initiatives or public relations campaigns related to its image restoration, it must take concrete action to address and resolve its many past mistakes.”
Porter asked for the bank to respond by Dec. 1 so customers can “be repaid in advance of the impending holiday season.”
In a tweet, Porter also said she’d reached out to federal bank watchdogs “to make sure the bank keeps its word” about refunding the money.
Wells Fargo customers with an Everyday Checking account can avoid the $10 monthly service fee by maintaining a $1,500 minimum daily balance, maintaining a direct deposit of $500 or more, making 10 or more debit card transactions, maintaining a linked Campus ATM or Campus Debit card or by being age 17-24.
But the bank said in its latest quarterly report that there may have been “confusion by some customers regarding the transactions that counted toward the waiver.” That may be because ATM withdrawals don’t count toward the 10 debit card transactions, but the bank relied on employees to verbally explain that to customers rather than writing it down, Capitol Forum reported.
In the filing, Wells Fargo said it was “reviewing certain past disclosures to customers.”