This settlement does not pay eligible people automatically. A Georgia customer who ignores the notice gives up the payment, releases the covered claims anyway, and leaves the account’s allocation with SunTrust. September 14 is therefore a real money deadline, not an administrative suggestion.
The class is narrower than “anyone charged an overdraft fee”
The lawsuit covers a specific group of Georgia citizens and a specific period of debit-card and ATM overdrafts. Eligibility turns on citizenship, account history, transaction size, whether a fee was refunded and when the account was closed. A former SunTrust customer should not assume a generic old overdraft makes the person eligible.
The administrator’s current FAQ defines the settling class as people who were Georgia citizens on July 12, 2010 and continuously through October 6, 2017, had a qualifying SunTrust account, and paid an unrefunded overdraft fee tied to an ATM or debit transaction of $500 or less. Covered fees run from July 12, 2006 through April 15, 2014, and accounts closed before June 1, 2010 are excluded.
Not receiving a postcard does not automatically end the inquiry. The administrator says a person who believes the definition fits should contact it immediately at 877-239-8765. The claim form requires a unique ID and PIN from the mailed or emailed notice, so waiting until the last day to replace missing credentials is an avoidable risk.
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Why the fund does not translate into one advertised check amount
SunTrust agreed to a maximum settlement amount of $240 million, but that is not the total mailed directly to customers. Court-approved attorneys’ fees, costs, an incentive award and administration expenses come out first. The remaining net fund is divided among eligible accounts according to the covered fees and interest assigned to each account.
The final judgment says the average amount available after requested deductions exceeds $400 per account, but that is not a promise that every claimant receives $400. The allocation formula adds covered unrefunded fees and 7% simple annual interest through December 31, 2025, then applies each account’s proportional share. Payments below $5 are raised to a $5 minimum.
Joint accounts receive one account-level allocation. If one associated class member submits a valid form, that person receives the full account payment; if several submit, the payment is divided equally. That makes coordination important for families who shared an account years ago.
Filing requires a separate form for each eligible account
The online claim portal asks for the unique ID and PIN printed on the notice. Claims may also be mailed to the settlement administrator using the form supplied with the notice. Online forms must be submitted by September 14, 2026, and mailed forms must be postmarked by that date.
Each eligible account needs its own claim form. The claimant certifies under penalty of perjury that the required Georgia citizenship period is satisfied and signs electronically or on paper. SunTrust’s records already identify the covered fees, so the process does not ask claimants to reconstruct every transaction from a decade of bank statements.
After an online submission, the administrator sends a confirmation code. Saving that message, along with a copy of the notice and any address-change correspondence, creates a clean record if the payment does not arrive. People who move should update the administrator rather than relying on bank forwarding information.
Doing nothing is the most expensive option
The settlement’s unusual sting is written plainly in the distribution rule. A class member who misses the deadline receives no check or digital transfer. If nobody associated with an account files, that account’s calculated settlement payment remains with SunTrust.
The release of claims applies whether or not the person files or receives money. That means inaction does not preserve a separate lawsuit while sacrificing only the check. The administrator’s live instructions leave one practical conclusion: confirm eligibility, obtain the ID and PIN early, file one form per account, and keep the confirmation before September 14.
Treat the confirmation code like a financial record
A claimant should verify the web address against the administrator’s notice before entering an ID or PIN. Settlement deadlines attract copycat sites, and an unsolicited caller has no reason to request a bank password, gift card or fee to release a payment. The legitimate process lets a claimant submit through the official portal or mail the court-approved form to the administrator. An address change should be reported through that same channel so a later check or electronic payment does not go to an old account.
The claim file should contain the submitted form, confirmation code, eligible account number and any correspondence about citizenship or address. Joint account holders should coordinate because the allocation is made at the account level, not multiplied by the number of people listed. A person with several eligible accounts must verify that each one has its own submission. Those details are easy to lose when an old SunTrust relationship has since moved to Truist or been closed.
No responsible estimate can turn the $240 million maximum into a promised personal check. Deductions, account-level allocation rules and the number of valid claims determine the result. The court-approved administrator nevertheless makes the consequence of delay unusually clear: September 14 is the claims deadline, released claims are not preserved by doing nothing, and an unclaimed account payment reverts to the bank.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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