Lawsuit says Wells Fargo auto insurance charges were a fraud

[corbe]

July 31, 2017 / 11:40 AM / 27 minutes ago

Lawsuit says Wells Fargo auto insurance charges were a fraud

Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A new lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo & Co of racketeering violations and fraud after the bank admitted to charging several hundred thousand borrowers for auto insurance they did not ask for or need, causing many delinquencies.

The proposed class action filed on Sunday in San Francisco federal court deepens the fallout from the latest bad practice uncovered at Wells Fargo.

It follows the scandal in which the third-largest U.S. bank has said employees created as many as 2.1 million unauthorized customer accounts to meet sales goals.

Wells Fargo said late last week it would refund about $80 million to an estimated 570,000 customers who were wrongly charged for auto insurance from 2012 to 2017, including roughly 20,000 whose vehicles were repossessed.

The San Francisco-based bank made its announcement less than three hours after The New York Times wrote about an internal report prepared for executives that detailed improper charges.

Wells Fargo said it halted the charges last September after customers expressed "concerns."

But according to the lawsuit, refunds to defrauded customers are not enough.

"Wells Fargo has long lost the right to decide what is best for its customers," Roland Tellis, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an interview.

"Refunds don't address the fraud or inflated premiums, the delinquency charges, and the late fees," he added. "It will be up to a jury or court to decide the appropriate remedy."

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Catherine Pulley declined to comment on the lawsuit, but in an email added: "We are very sorry for the inconvenience this caused impacted customers and we are in the process of notifying them and making things right."

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-insurance-idUSKBN1AG20Q?il=0

[Cyber Liberty]

I am familiar with this practice of Wells Fargo.  The only reason I am not interested in getting in on this is because we fought the charges like Hell every month until we decided to pay them off lump sum.  They didn't get anything from us because we knew they were FOS.

[Wingnut]

I am familiar with this practice of Wells Fargo.  The only reason I am not interested in getting in on this is because we fought the charges like Hell every month until we decided to pay them off lump sum.  They didn't get anything from us because we knew they were FOS.

When exorbitant use fee's are just not enough... count on Wells Farge to the extra mile to rip you off.

[Cyber Liberty]

When exorbitant use fee's are just not enough... count on Wells Farge to the extra mile to rip you off.

You bet.  It was infuriating.  I see the story shows the lawsuit covered the period from 2012-1017.  We had our fun with them in 2005, so it's a LOT more than the $80 Million in the story.

Mrs. Liberty and I track every penny of every bill, something we'd both learned long before we were married because we both had crooked spouses.  We caught this discrepancy each and every month, and made them fix it every time.  We got tired of it so we just paid it off.  Not everybody had the resources to do that, nor do they watch their bills that carefully.