Chase Faces Lawsuit Over Fees on Deposited Checks That Bounce

JPMorgan Chase is facing a lawsuit over fees for deposited checks that bounce.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday (Feb. 21) against JPMorgan Chase, five customers accused the bank of unfairly charging fees for depositing checks that later bounced, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The customers claimed that Chase charged them $12 for “deposited item returned fees” when checks they deposited were returned unpaid, even though the customers were not at fault for the bounced checks, according to the report.

The customers referred to these fees as “junk fees” and labeled them as “unconscionable” and “predatory,” per the report. They pointed to an October 2022 bulletin from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that suggested indiscriminately charging such fees was likely illegal.

Reached by PYMNTS, a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson said the bank stopped charging the fee in December 2022. The spokesperson declined to comment on the complaint.

The customers who filed the lawsuit were charged between November 2021 and October 2022, according to the report. Their lawyer, Lisa Considine, called the practice of imposing these fees “pervasive and unfair.”

The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million in damages for Chase customers nationwide and alleges violations of consumer protection laws in New York, California, Illinois and New Jersey, the report said. The lawsuit, Maslowski et al v JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, was filed in the White Plains, New York, federal court.

This filing of this cases follows an effort by the Biden administration to crack down on hidden and surprise fees in various industries, including banking, per the report.

Junk fees, which are hidden charges that companies add to customer bills, cost consumers tens of billions of dollars each year and stifle competition among businesses, the Biden administration said in October when announcing newly proposed rules and regulations to crack down on these fees.

In July 2023, the CFPB ordered Bank of America to pay more than $250 million in penalties and restitution to customers, saying that the bank had been “systematically double-dipping” on fees imposed on customers with insufficient funds.

A Bank of America spokesperson told PYMNTS at the time that the bank no longer charges the fees addressed by the CFPB.