If you took out an “Early Access” loan from Fifth Third Bank, a class action lawsuit may affect your rights.

Notice and Update as of January 17, 2024:

TILA Class

The Court has ruled in favor of the TILA Class on their claim that Fifth Third violated the Truth in Lending Act and awarded the Class the maximum available statutory damages of $2 million. Plaintiffs and Fifth Third are currently cooperating to agree to a process for distributing those funds.

In connection with that ruling, Class Counsel and other attorneys are seeking attorneys’ fees and costs totaling $5,638,922.53. Those fees and costs would be separate and apart from the $2,000,000 award and would not in any way impact the amount distributed to the Class members. The motion and associated papers can be found here.

Objections by members of the TILA Class to the petition for attorneys’ fees and costs are due February 9, 2024. They must be filed in Case Number 1:12-cv-00851 in the Southern District of Ohio.

Defendants’ Response to the Request is also due February 9, 2024, and will be posted here when available.

Breach of Contract Class

After a trial in April of 2023, a jury found that Fifth Third breached the contract but returned a verdict in favor of Fifth Third based on its affirmative defense. The parties are currently briefing post-trial motions, which can be found here.


A Court has established, or “certified,” this case as a class action lawsuit. If you are a Class Member, you have legal rights and options before the Court decides whether the claims being made on your behalf are correct.

In this lawsuit, the Plaintiffs claim that Fifth Third Bank misrepresented the annual percentage interest rate (“APR”) associated with Early Access loans and charged higher interest rates on those loans. Fifth Third denies the claims and allegations in the lawsuit, or that it has done anything wrong. Fifth Third says that the correct payment terms for its Early Access loans were clear and unambiguous and easily understood by its customers, so no breach of contract occurred.

The current lawsuit affects your legal rights if you are a member of one of two Classes certified by the Court:

  1. A Breach of Contract Class that includes all persons in the United States who enrolled in Fifth Third’s Early Access Loan Program prior to May 1, 2013, and took out at least one Early Access Loan; and/or
  2. A TILA Class that includes all persons in the United States who were enrolled in Fifth Third’s Early Access Loan Program from August 3, 2011, through April 30, 2013.

If you are a Class Member, you must decide whether to stay in the Classes or whether to exclude yourself before a possible trial. You have to decide this by September 30, 2021.

Your legal rights may be affected even if you do nothing. Read this website carefully.


Your Legal Rights and Options in This Lawsuit
Do Nothing

Stay in this lawsuit. Await the outcome. Give up the right to sue separately.

If you are a Class Member and do nothing, you may be entitled to money and/or benefits that may come from a trial or a settlement of the lawsuit. But you will never be able to sue Fifth Third separately over the legal claims in this lawsuit, and if Fifth Third wins this lawsuit you will be bound by that judgment.

Ask to be Excluded

Get out of this lawsuit. Get no benefits from it if any are ultimately awarded. Keep the right to sue separately.

If you ask to be excluded from the lawsuit and money or benefits are later awarded, you won’t be eligible to share in those. But you will keep any rights to sue Fifth Third separately over the legal claims in this lawsuit.

To ask to be excluded, you must act before September 30, 2021.


These rights and options—and the deadlines to exercise them—are generally explained on this website and in the FAQs. For complete details, view the Certification Notice, Complaint, Class Certification Order and Fifth Third Bank’s Answer to Complaint found on the Important Documents page here.

By establishing the Class and issuing the Notice, the Court is not suggesting that the Plaintiffs will win or lose this case. The Plaintiffs must prove their case at trial, which has not yet been scheduled.


Please do not call the Court or the Clerk of the Court for additional information. They cannot answer any questions regarding the Lawsuit.