BofA paying $772M over selling credit card extras

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bank of America Corp. is paying $772 million in fines and refunds to settle regulators’ accusations that it misled customers who bought extra credit-card products and illegally charged others for credit monitoring and reporting services they didn’t receive.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced the agreement Wednesday with the second-largest U.S. bank.

It is the largest settlement over credit card “add-ons” won by federal regulators, who have been examining the marketing of the products by the financial industry for several years.

The regulators said about 3.3 million customers were affected in the Bank of America case. They say telemarketers made sales pitches for two credit-protection products that were misleading about their costs and benefits.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America neither admitted nor denied the allegations.

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