FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 2, 2025
CONTACT: Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org
Trump CFPB Abandons Settlement Against Massive Credit Union on Illegal Overdraft Fees
Navy Federal harmed active duty servicemembers, veterans, and DoD civilian employees
WASHINGTON, DC — This week, the Trump Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) terminated its previous order for the Navy Federal Credit Union to return $80 million to customers who had been charged illegal overdraft fees. Previously, the CFPB found that Navy Federal customers – mostly veterans, servicemembers, and DoD civil employees – were charged overdraft fees even when they had sufficient funds at the time they used their debit card to make a purchase.
Debit card transactions can sometimes take days or even weeks to settle, and charging overdraft fees for insufficient funds days or weeks after charges are incurred cost Navy Federal’s customers $44 million in fees every year.
“The Trump CFPB’s actions tell us that this administration is not actually interested in helping veterans, servicemembers, military families, or anyone else harmed by abusive finance practices,” said Christine Chen Zinner, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “If we look at what they do, not what they say, then we can say that this administration is clearly completely fine with companies that trick military families into illegal overdraft fees.”
The CFPB’s consumer complaints database reveals a slew of overdraft related complaints for Navy Federal Credit Union.
- A Virginia service member reported that Navy Federal imposed overdrafts because “the balance displayed often does not accurately reflect my available funds. This has led to unintended overdrafts, especially when using payment services.”
- A Florida service member reported getting “charged an overdraft fee even when sufficient funds were available in our account. They would alter the ‘postdate’ to ‘legally’ impose these fees whenever possible.”
- Another Florida service member reported they could not resolve these issues with Navy Federal, stating, “I would even call them to let them know there should not have been a fee, because at the time of the purchase, I had sufficient funds. They would just tell me since it posted late, I would still be charged overdraft fees.”
- A North Carolina service member shared, “ The way they [Navy Federal] started to add fees made it seem like I was late but I wasn’t late it was interest fees, late fees, cash advanced fees, overdrafts fees. Nonstop without help, or guidance. The worst part is not knowing if the next month…[I] will be able to pay rent and get groceries for my family.”
Navy Federal has been ignoring regulators’ warnings about abusive fees since as early as 2015. Navy Federal also charged customers another $4 million in annual surprise overdraft fees collected simply because customers were not told that money they received from payment services such as Zelle, PayPal, and Cash App would not be available until the following business day if it was received after 8 PM.
The Trump CFPB’s termination of its consent order with Navy Federal Credit Union, an institution that also is being sued for denying mortgages to Black borrowers, is just one of many other actions by the administration to gut the agency, roll back consumer protections, and drop enforcements, and settlements, which experts have estimated already cost the public $18 billion. Before the second Trump administration took over, CFPB enforcement actions had resulted in $19.7 billion in consumer relief from enforcement and supervisory actions, and over $5 billion in civil penalties.
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