How to File a Complaint Against Fifth Third Bank

You have to make sure that you qualify to file a claim in small claims court. Small claims court has two types of limitations, both of which have to do with money:

1. The first limitation is court typically awards monetary compensation only. This means you can ask for a specific amount of money for the problem you had to deal with, and the court can choose to award that amount of money. If you are asking for anything other than money, you won’t be able to use small claims court in most states, but you can still use consumer arbitration.
2. The second limitation is the amount of money. Most small claims courts have a limit between $2,500 and $10,000 in damages, which means you can file a claim only if the amount of money you asked Fifth Third Bank to pay is between that amount. Otherwise, you file for consumer arbitration.

Filing with a small claims court can be time-consuming and it requires a lot of paperwork, but it is much easier and faster than filing any other type of litigation or joining a class action lawsuit.

1. Send Fifth Third Bank a demand letter. This is a letter where you demand the company fix the problem. In the letter you can include who you are, your contact information and your account number, what the issue is, and how you want the company to fix it. This is something you have to send before you can file a claim officially in court. When you are done writing the demand letter, you have to send a hard copy via certified mail to the official address for Fifth Third Bank:
   Fifth Third Bancorp
   CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY
   50 WEST BROAD STREET, SUITE 1330
   COLUMBUS, OH 43215*
   *Note: The address you should use is the address listed in your consumer agreement. If a different address is listed, use that.
2. Fill out required forms for your state.  Check to see if your county has additional form requirements. Your state court website should have all of this information available to you. Make sure you have an adequate number of copies. Most courts require you to have three or four copies of every form and if you don’t, the court clerk won’t accept your case.
3. Formally file your case with your small claims court. In almost all cases you have to show up to the courthouse and present the documents to the county clerk who reviews them, stamp them, and give you back stamp copies along with a court date. Some counties let you submit this online, via fax, or snail mail but you have to make sure you follow the rules where you live.
4. Now you have to officially serve Fifth Third Bank. This requires that you deliver a hard copy of your documents in accordance with the instructions on your state court website. If you miss a single requirement, the court clerk throws out your case and you won’t get anything.
5. Make sure you arrive on time for your court date with all of the paperwork and the evidence you have to show what Fifth Third Bank did, and what you want them to do to resolve your issue.

What is Arbitration?

Your contract with Fifth Third Bank might have an arbitration clause in it which prevents you from joining a class action lawsuit, starting your own lawsuit, or using any other legal recourse aside from a small claims court or consumer arbitration.

Many large financial institutions have arbitration clauses in their agreements designed to reduce the time and money spent on lawsuits. This can work in your favor as well.

This process brings with it the opportunity for an early settlement because most big companies settle once an arbitration process has initiated in exchange for resolving the matter quickly. Given the other legal issues facing Fifth Third Bank presently, the company might be even more motivated to settle sooner rather than later.

How to File a Claim Against Fifth Third Bank with Consumer Arbitration

1. Submit your complaint to Fifth Third Bank. Using our online interface, Explain what your issue is and what you want the bank to do to fix it. We’ll handle the legal notice for you.
2. We take that information and generate a hard copy demand letter that gets sent on your behalf to the company. This is very similar to the demand letter you have to submit prior to filing a lawsuit in small claims court; only we add a time frame and let the company know that if it doesn’t do something to fix the problem by that time frame, you will use consumer arbitration.
3. At this point they could settle, offer you compensation for the problem by contacting you directly or going through us. If they don’t or if it’s not enough, you file your arbitration documents from the American Arbitration Association. We do these for you and we use a “documents only” arbitration process. This makes it much faster and easier to communicate and it doesn’t require you to miss work for regular meetings or phone calls during the negotiations.
4. The American Arbitration Association will appoint a case administrator to handle your case, collect documents from everyone involved, and schedule appointments between you and Fifth Third Bank. They will also let you know when an arbitrator has been appointed to your case who will set a date for your hearing. This hearing can be a document only hearing as well but if you want a phone call or an in-person meeting, that can be arranged.