Georgia bank customers who were charged overdraft fees by SunTrust, the bank now known as Truist, can claim a share of a $240 million settlement, with individual payments running as high as $1,000 and no proof of harm required. The deadline to file is September 14, and the administrator has already mailed claim notices to roughly 464,000 account holders. The case reaches back more than a decade, to a complaint arguing the fees violated Georgia’s cap on interest, and it is now one of the larger overdraft settlements to reach payout. For eligible customers, the only work left is filing before the window closes.
A decade-old fight over what an overdraft fee really is
The settlement resolves a lawsuit that began in 2010 and turned on an unusual legal argument: that SunTrust’s overdraft fees were effectively interest charges on very short-term loans, and that as interest they violated Georgia’s usury law, which caps how much can be charged. When a bank covers a debit or ATM transaction that overdraws an account, it is in a sense extending brief credit, and the plaintiffs argued the flat fee attached to that credit crossed the state’s legal limit.
SunTrust became part of Truist through a 2019 merger, which is why the payout carries the newer bank’s name even though the conduct predates it. Rather than continue litigating claims stretching back years, the bank agreed to a $240 million fund to settle without admitting wrongdoing, the standard structure for a case of this age and size. Reporting on the agreement from CNBC’s consumer team laid out the terms and the filing steps.
The size of the fund reflects how routine overdraft fees once were. A single fee might be $36, but charged across hundreds of thousands of Georgia customers over years, the total climbs into the hundreds of millions, which is how a per-transaction charge most people barely noticed becomes a nine-figure settlement. The roughly 464,000 account holders the administrator has notified give a sense of the scale, and each of them was charged the disputed fees enough times to land on the class list. That scale is also why regulators have spent recent years scrutinizing overdraft practices across the banking industry.
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Who is eligible and how much the checks run
Eligibility centers on Georgia account holders who paid the overdraft fees at issue and were never refunded them. Payments are pro rata, meaning each valid claim draws from the fund in proportion to the fees a customer was actually charged, so the amounts range from about $5 at the low end to $1,000 at the top. A customer hit with the fees repeatedly over the covered period stands to recover more than someone charged only once or twice.
Crucially, no documentation of loss is required. Because the bank’s own records establish who was charged, class members do not have to produce old statements or prove anything beyond their identity; the claim form asks a customer to confirm eligibility and submit. The precise eligibility dates and account criteria are spelled out on the official settlement website, which is the authoritative place to confirm whether a given account and time period qualify before filing.
The notice itself is the practical starting point. The administrator mailed and emailed claim forms carrying a unique ID and PIN to the roughly 464,000 identified account holders beginning in mid-July, and those credentials are what let a customer file online in a few minutes. Anyone who believes they qualify but has not received a notice can use the settlement site or its claims line to check rather than assume they were left out.
Why filing now beats waiting
The September 14 deadline is the hard boundary, and it applies whether a claim is submitted online or mailed. A settlement share is not paid automatically; it goes only to class members who file, and the money that goes unclaimed does not revert to the customers who ignored the notice. For an eligible Georgia account holder, letting the date pass is simply leaving money on the table.
There is little reason to delay. The claim requires no receipts, no calculation, and no estimate of damages, which removes the usual friction that leads people to set a settlement notice aside and forget it. A few minutes with the mailed ID and PIN is the entire obligation, and the potential return of up to $1,000 is real money for a household on a fixed budget.
The broader backdrop is a banking industry under pressure to rein in these charges. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has pushed to limit overdraft fees and publishes consumer guidance on how they work and how to avoid them, part of a shift that has already prompted several large banks to cut or drop the fees. This settlement addresses the past; the account habits it highlights, watching balances and opting out of overdraft coverage where possible, are what keep the same fees from recurring.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed against primary sources by The Money Overview editorial team.
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