JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville woman living with a traumatic brain injury says she\u2019s being charged extra, simply because she needs paper billing statements to manage her finances.<\/p>\n
Lynette Hipsher suffers from short-term memory loss after two concussions and relies heavily on printed bills to stay organized. <\/p>\n
But now, she says the credit union and companies she banks with\u2014like VyStar Credit Union and Dillard\u2019s \u2014are charging her up $1.99 up to $2.99 per statement.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s horrible. It\u2019s expensive,\u201d Hipsher said. \u201cI\u2019ve got VyStar, their bank statements, VyStar\u2019s credit card bill, Bealls Outlet. I\u2019ve got two different Care Credit accounts. I believe Cato is one of them\u2026 Dillard\u2019s, Home Depot, Jared\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n With monthly fees adding up to as much as $15 to $20, Hipsher believes she\u2019s being penalized for a medical condition. She has reached out to her credit union and says VyStar has agreed to waive the fees going forward, but questions remain about whether such charges could violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax brought her case to attorney Bill Horne, who says banks have a legal obligation to offer reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThese financial institutions should understand their duty to accommodate people with disabilities,\u201d Horne said. \u201cThey know they\u2019ve got to comply with that.\u201d<\/p>\n But he adds that legal action may not be the first move.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cBefore you get a lawyer involved and try to kick up a lot of dust, try to resolve the issue yourself,\u201d Horne said. \u201cMake notes with whom you speak, the date, and time. Keep records. So that if you do have to see an attorney, you\u2019re giving them something to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n Hipsher is also a Certified Nursing Assistant, and she said she hopes her story pushes more companies to consider the needs of customers, like many of her clients, who are older or who have cognitive impairments, and stop charging for basic accessibility.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville woman living with a traumatic brain injury says she\u2019s being charged extra, simply…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,42410,5229,42414,42415,3188,723,42419,42416,42409,7310,425,42411,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,42418,42417,42413,42412],"class_list":{"0":"post-58179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-ada","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-bells_outlet","12":"tag-bill_horn","13":"tag-fl","14":"tag-florida","15":"tag-govino","16":"tag-horn","17":"tag-jackionocavino","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-local","20":"tag-lynette_hipshire","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-vice_star","28":"tag-vicestar","29":"tag-vicetar","30":"tag-vitar"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114837356778108557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}