Summary:
Wells Fargo forced unnecessary and unwanted auto insurance on hundreds of thousands of borrowers who already had insurance. Once again, when customers complained, the bank failed to remedy the problem, often claiming they “lost” the complaint and did not provide any refunds.
All told the bank charged as many as 570,000 customers for car insurance they didn’t need. An internal review found that about 20,000 of those customers may have defaulted on their car loans and had their vehicles repossessed in part because of these unnecessary insurance costs.
Once again Wells Fargo has been fighting the customers it defrauded and is refusing refunds. In California the bank has been fighting a class action lawsuit to resolve these refunds; as it did with fake account scandal, Wells Fargo has demanded arbitration such that each individual has to bring a claim against the bank and is not allowed to bring their claim to court.