Regional banks like to present themselves as small and customer-friendly. Some, though, are collecting millions of dollars in overdraft fees, often at the expense of their most vulnerable account holders.

These fees are generated through what are known as authorized-positive, settled-negative transactions. Banks automatically authorize debit card transactions, crediting the account with funds so it does not register as overdrawn. They then wait to settle the balance until the end of the day. By that time, a customer may have racked up several transactions — as well as multiple fees for having insufficient funds — without being aware that the account is overdrawn.

A single penalty may cost the owner of the account between $35-40. Often banks charge multiple penalties on a single transaction, piling fees one on top of another. This can result in significant financial damage to anyone, but most often impacts those who are surviving paycheck-to-paycheck or living within a fixed income.

This way of doing business is confusing and predatory. In return for the privilege of handling personal funds, banks promise to be trustworthy. Profiting from customers in this way is a breach of that trust.

For the past several years we’ve been collecting information on organizations that follow this practice, and we can prove that it happens far more often than many people realize. Our firm is investigating potential claims against the following, among others:

• Liberty Financial
• MidWest America Federal Credit Union
• Northwest Community Credit Union (NWCU)
• OnPoint Community Credit Union
• Oregon State Credit Union
• ORNL Federal Credit Union
• Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed)
• Purdue Federal Credit Union
• Rogue Credit Union
• RTN Federal Credit Union
• Y-12 Federal Credit Union

If it’s happening to you, we’d like to hear your story.