Do you have an auto loan with Wells Fargo? Did Wells Fargo charge you for auto insurance despite your having your own policy? If so, you may have a claim against Wells Fargo.
Although a more common practice with home loans, some banks require insurance on all vehicles backing the auto loans they underwrite. If a borrower does not already have insurance on the vehicle, the bank will take out an insurance policy directly and add the cost of the policy to the borrower’s monthly payment. Beginning in 2006, Wells Fargo required such insurance and would automatically send all new loans to an outside insurance company who was supposed to check, prior to issuing a policy, to see if the borrower already had insurance.
Unfortunately, according to an internal report commissioned by Wells Fargo and reported on by the New York Times, from January 2012 through July 2016, “[m]ore than 800,000 people who took out car loans from Wells Fargo were charged for auto insurance they did not need.” According to the Times, the 60-page report indicates that “[t]he expense of the unneeded insurance, which covered collision damage, pushed roughly 274,000 Wells Fargo customers into delinquency and resulted in almost 25,000 wrongful vehicle repossessions.” Although Wells Fargo has stated that it intends to remediate borrowers for wrongfully-placed insurance, Wells Fargo, as noted by the Times, plans to compensate fewer borrowers than the numbers suggested by its own report.
Attorneys at Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber, LLP have successfully brought lawsuits on behalf of consumers aggrieved by wrongful fees charged by lenders. We are currently investigating this matter, as well as claims against other lenders who may have wrongfully imposed auto insurance on borrowers. If you had or have an auto loan from Wells Fargo or another lender and were charged for unneeded, unnecessary auto insurance, please contact us immediately to discuss your legal options.