American Airlines Federal Credit Union Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million in an Overdraft Fee Settlement
A Los Angeles federal judge may decide next week whether to approve a $1.5 million agreement that will settle a class action lawsuit against the $8.9 billion American Airlines Federal Credit Union over allegations that it improperly charged overdraft fees on member accounts.
Sylvia Varga of Marina del Ray, Calif., a former member of the Fort Worth, Texas-based AAFCU, filed the lawsuit in federal court. She claimed the credit union charged her Authorize Positive Purportedly Settle Negative Transaction (APPSN) fees on her debit card transactions in July and August 2019 even though the transactions had been authorized on a sufficient account balance. She also alleged that AAFCU charged multiple “retry fees” on the same transactions, and that she was charged two retry fees for non-sufficient funds totaling $50 for one PayPal transaction.
According to the proposed agreement, AAFCU did not admit or concede to any of the allegations made in the Varga complaint and denied any fault, liability or any charges of wrongdoing. The credit union contended the overdraft fees it charged were proper and in accordance with the terms of the account agreements and applicable laws.
