Federal Court Allows Incoming Wire Transfer Fee Class Action to Proceed

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina recently denied a large national bank’s motion to dismiss a putative class action alleging the bank improperly charged fees for incoming wire transfers.

The named plaintiff, a California accountholder who was allegedly charged $15 for an incoming wire transfer, claims that his account agreement with the bank stated that the amount of all service fees to be assessed was listed in the agreement and did not include the amount of any fee for incoming wire transfers, leading the accountholder to believe such fees would not be assessed.  The accountholder brought claims against the bank for breach of contract, violation of North Carolina’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA), and violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL).

The bank argued that the account agreement’s silence as to the amount of wire transfer fees does not equate to an affirmative promise not to charge such fees, and that the agreement expressly stated that wire transfer fees “may” be charged.  The court found that a warning that incoming wire transfer fees may occur did not annul the bank’s promise to disclose the existence and amount of such fees, as alleged by the accountholder.  The court further found that the accountholder’s UDTPA and UCL claims were not duplicative of his breach of contract claim and that all three were adequately pled and should move forward.