This is welcome news from a big bank. Chase says it is ready to protect its banking customers from payday lenders and others who try to milk consumers’ bank accounts. This is what the bank plans to do:
- Chase will only charge one returned item fee to customers in cases where a biller presents items that are returned to them due to insufficient funds in the customer account more than once in a 30-day period, even if the biller tries to collect multiple times. This change is intended to address payday lenders and others who present repeated payments to customers that are not in the spirit of their signed agreement with the customer. This change will become effective by the end of May.
- Chase is working to proactively identify potential misuse of the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system – including misuse on the part of payday lenders or other companies – and report such practices to the National Automated Clearing House Association. Chase will work with NACHA to try to strengthen their own policies to disallow excessive presentments.
- We have an existing policy to always follow a customer’s instructions to stop a payment. We plan to enhance communication and require additional training regarding that policy.
- Chase will make it easier for customers to close their accounts when there are open pending charges, including payday lender payments. If we believe those pending charges are inappropriate, we won’t honor them.
