On August 21st, TD Bank agreed to pay $97 in a settlement to over 1.4 million customers, plus a $25 million civil penalty, over allegations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that the bank enacted illegal overdraft fee practices.
In detailed coverage of the settlement, CNBC reporter Megan Leonhardt cited doxoINSIGHTS data, including the Hidden Costs of Bill Pay report, which revealed that Americans spend about $117 per year on overdraft fees. “Some consumers may not be able to avoid late fees or overdrafts, especially during the pandemic when millions are unemployed. But for many, these fees may be avoidable. In fact, many times they occur because people simply forget,” Leonhardt reported. On this point, she also quoted doxo’s VP of marketing and consumer services, Jim Kreyenhagan. “We get busy, we don’t think about moving money from our savings account to our checking account, we haven’t set up an automatic transfer, so we overdraft,” Kreyenhagan said.