Bank of America to pay nearly $800 million for deceptive credit card practices

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

By Danielle Douglas, Wednesday, April 9, 7:15 PM

Bank of America agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $800 million in penalties for deceiving millions of customers into buying costly and unneeded services when they signed up for credit cards.

Americans gravitated to credit protection products that promised debt cancellation or deferment to shield themselves from unforeseen economic problems in the wake of the recession. But in an aggressive push to sell these credit card add-ons, some financial firms glossed over the terms or enrolled unwitting customers.

Examiners at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau say that is what Bank of America and its telemarketers did for several years.

The bank will pay $268 million to reimburse about 1.4 million consumers who paid for credit protection services that they never fully received between 2010 to 2012 . Another $459 million will go to 1.5 million customers who were hit with unauthorized charges for identity protection products from October 2000 through September 2011, according to the CFPB.

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bank-of-america-to-pay-nearly-800-million-for-deceptive-credit-card-practices/2014/04/09/982bba7e-c00d-11e3-b195-dd0c1174052c_story.html

[Newsjock]

1. They'll just pass the cost on to their customers

Higher credit card rates, lower savings interest (can they go any lower than 0.01%?) and CD/IRA yields. The exec bonuses will survive intact or perhaps even expanded.

[Electric Monk]

2. related: The Definitive List of Bank of America’s Misdeeds from 2008-2013

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/12/the-definitive-list-of-bank-of-americas-misdeeds-f.aspx

(found here, earlier today http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024801087 )

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Great News!

Elizabeth Warren done good in starting the CFPB.

[Zorra]

4. K&R w/ smile. nt

[Rod Beauvex]

5. Hmm.

Now is this something BoA has to pay, or is this something that can be written as a tax write off?

[SoapBox]

6. Drop in the bucket.

There needs to be jail time for these criminals...after all, corporations are people.

[msongs]

7. list of BofA employees going to jail over this - - ->

oh sorry, there are none

[tofuandbeer]

8. When I was on unemployment, I was not very happy to see BofA routing the funds.

[SunSeeker]

9. BofA's reputation is now so bad my 10 yr old moved the little kiddie savings account he had there.

I don't think they'll miss his $125.37, but I was stunned that my son thought it was embarrassing to have his friends know he has an account there.