HAGENS BERMAN

Hagens Berman is investigating several major banks, including Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), and HSBC (NYSE: HSBC) to determine if the banks misrepresent transfer balance programs, resulting in higher-than-expected rates for consumers.

The firm’s investigation centers around so-called “transfer balance” programs, in which consumers take out a cash advance, often with the promise of zero interest for a specified time period.

Hagens Berman wishes to uncover whether these programs are misrepresented to consumers. The firm has already filed suit against Capital One, who the firm alleges deceived cardholders by applying payments to the transfer balance, or the large cash advance, rather than to the monthly credit card balance, also known as the purchase balance. According to the suit, consumers who believed they would be charged zero interest were instead charged rates exceeding 13 percent.

The firm is interested in talking to consumers who took advantage of similar transfer balance programs under the belief that they could avoid high interest rates by paying purchase balances on time, but later found that they were forced to pay high rates.