Citizens Bank Consumer Reviews - Page 2

This company had double dipped I to our account not just once. Creating havoc with our finances. And seemed to have been irritated when a payment was blocked when they shouldn't have taken it. Or when it wasn't even due yet. Recently they towed this car. My wife's car! They didn't contact us. And they tried to convince us we hadn't paid in months.

We made some payments through our bank and some through Walmart MoneyGram express. Our bank had to take their money back and resubmit it. Citizens said they would research the payments made to someone else's account. They also stated they wouldn't sell our car and they would call first. They didn't! My wife did call them frequently. But these people lied and put the car on auction. Now we will be lucky if we get 3000.00 back.

PHILDELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA -- This company needs to properly train their employees in customer service. My experience earlier this afternoon at a Philadelphia branch was completely unacceptable. The moment one of their employees could no longer provide me with information that could help me quickly resolve a lost debit card incident, was the exact moment she should have apologized that she could not be of more assistance, or even suggesting the corporate number.

Instead, she chose to get an attitude and speak to me rudely, and disrupt the emergency phone call I made to my parents, who due to their own employees breaking the rules upon setting up my account, were the only ones who would be able to help me secure my account. This is a very stressful circumstance. My money was unsecured for an undefined amount of time, and instead of being sympathetic, she became argumentative. I will never do business with this disgusting bank again, and will dissuade others from wasting their time. A lot can go wrong if someone's financial information is at risk, and attitude was the absolute last thing I needed.

Citizens One is a terrible bank to acquire a loan. I was handed off to 5 different loan officers for a construction to perm loan. In the last handoff to a loan officer in Illinois, half of my paperwork was missing or I was told I hadn't turned it in. Fortunately, I had everything saved. My rate changed between the handoff from Rhode Island to Illinois with no explanation. They pulled my credit twice. One of the loan officers was rude and arrogant, and often argumentative. So much for their customers service slogan.

In the end, they decided they needed me to have an audit of my company P&L and Balance Statement. I received an email to that effect at 2:57 pm on Thursday. However, at 8:25 am Friday, they denied my loan for incomplete application. The loan officer today admitted she was too busy to get it to me earlier. An audit can't be conducted in that short period of time. I only had time to call my accountant. I own a small business so when they requested it, I was traveling. I'm wondering if Citizens One ever gives a mortgage to women who own businesses.

GLENSHAW, PENNSYLVANIA -- I am very disappointed in your customer service. I sent Tamara Terrell the required loan information she asked for on May 19. She sat on it until June 5. She would still be sitting on it if I hadn't reached out to her. That is 18 days! What's worse is she never accepted responsibility for her error and never apologized. Instead, she tried to blame me for not sending her the information. I had to waste my time going through my emails to prove her wrong.

My current loan expired on May 31st, so this delay has been a disaster for my wife and I. I reached out to Tamara's manager Holly Cohen and left two messages and she never called me back.

This is no way to treat a loyal customer. I am going to PNC and I hope everyone follows me there!

LANSDALE, PENNSYLVANIA -- My 86 year old mother was knocked down by the wind entering the bank (it was on a high wind alert day 11/21/16). She sustained injuries and the door entrance was subsequently closed and needed to be repaired after the accident. The bank called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. She had an MRI and quite a head bruise and was very kind and nice about everything.

When she received the $1420 ambulance bill she called the bank to see if they would assume responsibility for it. They simply sent it to their insurance carrier Liberty Mutual who denied it because the bank does not carry medical coverage payments. In fact I spoke to Liberty Mutual and they said it wasn't a slip and fall case and they did not have to act as if they should have known something could happen on a bad weather day because she didn't fall, it was an act of God.

So we have a long time senior customer who goes to the bank, gets whacked on her head by a door, they call for medical attention because she is a senior and then release themselves of doing the right thing for someone is injured on their property. Great customer consideration. I say find another bank who takes responsibility for their customers.

CONNECTICUT -- I have had a checking account with Citizens bank for about 16 years but as of lately have used it only for limited use because the closest branch is too far. When I originally opened it I lived in another state and the branch was five minutes from home. I have my SS Disability checks deposited into the account which I then used to pay my health insurance premiums and other bills. I receive SS disability because I have stage 4 breast cancer.

On July 13 I find a letter in my mail box dated July 9 from Citizens Bank telling me that all accounts associated with my name would be closed effective immediately and that any balances in the account would be sent back to me after August 20. I had called their 800 number on July 9 to check my balance and was told that I had an available balance in excess of 1200.

I then wrote a check on the account and deposited into another account that I have with another bank. When I received the letter on the 13, I called the bank and was told that yes the account was- depending on who I talked to- under review, closed, being closed etc and that they had reversed the check that I had written even though there was sufficient money to cover it (and charged me a fee).

I am then told that if I go to the bank branch to get my money I am not guaranteed that they will give it to me and I will have to wait until August 20 to get it out. I explain that I am very sick and need my money and that since they have already decided that the account is closed and are not honoring any checks they need to give me back my money. I then spend forever on the phone and finally get someone who gives me a code to give to the teller (it is already after banking hours) that they can look up to see that I need my money for medical reasons and to let me have my money.

I then call Social Security to ask them to change my direct deposit and they tell me that I am too late for this month and that the present months payment has already been sent to the bank (but is not yet showing as part of the balance) so the SS telephone agent and I call Citizens Bank and are told that the auto deposit of the SS disability check will not be rejected (in which case SS could have reissued a check), but will instead reopen my account with Citizens and that there is no guarantee that Citizens will allow me to withdraw my money.

I explained that I depend on my SS disability for many things mainly my health insurance payment since I have end stage breast cancer and cannot lose my insurance. No go. Apparently Citizens must freeze my account while they take forever to close it while denying me access to my money. Even money that was not in the account when they closed it. How can this be legal? I am so sickened beyond belief.

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND -- Let me start by saying, I live in Florida and my parents live(d) in Vermont. My mother and father had a mortgage with Citizens Bank. My dad died 10/23/10 and my mother was in the hospital. I was in Vermont helping with things at that time. Citizens Bank called about payment, I explained the situation (and that my mother would be getting to her financial business when she got out of the hospital). I wrote the check out and had my mother sign it. All was right with the world again.

I returned to Florida in late November, but booked a flight back to Vermont, as my mother was still in the hospital when I left and I felt I needed to get Power of Attorney and take over her bills until she was better. Sadly, after having flown my mother down to Florida (with her money) so I could care for her in my home, my mother passed away 1/23/11. I had to return north to arrange for her funeral and start the paperwork to become executor to her estate.

I contacted the people that needed to be contacted and explained the situation. Everyone was understanding and sympathetic. However, the day after I contacted Citizens Bank a very rude woman called asking for, first my dad, and then my mom. It was Citizens Bank. I could not believe these people! Even after I told her the situation, she was coarse and rude. She told me to fax the death certificates and executor paperwork as soon as I was named.

After returning home, my sister, who lives down the road from my parents' house and stops in frequently, called to tell me on 2/25/2011 that Citizens Bank called and I needed to call them. I did and spoke at great length with **, who told me to fax both death certificates, my driver's license, my contact information, and a note asking what I can do to keep the account in good standing until the paperwork gets through the courts (how customer friendly is that!?!). I did all of that on 2/25/11.

Thankfully, I had received a check from my mother's insurance and was able to pay all the bills due (I am still waiting for the court to name me executor). I paid Citizens Bank's February payment (due the 10th) and March's payment on 3/4/2011.

Yesterday, 3/7/2011, I receive two letters from Citizens Bank, one addressed just to my dad and one addressed to both my parents demanding they contact them within 10 days of the date of letter (dated 2/28/11, mailed 3/1/11) or they would turn the account over to a collection agency! My mother and father never paid these people late and have $8000 in one of their local branches. It wasn't like this was a problem account...not to mention the fact that I had spoken to numerous people there explaining the situation AND faxed everything their employee asked me to fax!

Needless to say, I called them in a rage. I did not call the number on the threatening letter, as it is their Consumer Counseling Dept. and I did not need help with paying my bills...although I will probably need counseling after dealing with these inept buffoons. After dialing and connecting to their automated service, I had to put in my father's social security number so they could "better serve me," and waited for “the next available representative,” ** was finally available.

I told her I wanted to speak with a supervisor. She needed the account number I was calling about...thanks for serving me better. I gave it to her and she stated she would take a look at the account. I told her no, that I wanted to speak to a supervisor for the reasons listed above.

After some back and forth, she said she needed to connect me to the 'correct' department and asked what kind of loan it was dealing with (did she not just get the account number?!?)...I told her it was a mortgage. She transferred me to **...in the Customer Counseling Dept!

** requested the account number, which I gave her. I told her I didn't need to speak to someone about anything other than the fact that I had notified them numerous times over the phone of the situation and had even faxed over all the things listed above and now I just wanted to speak to someone about the threatening letters and ineptitude of their bank. We had a few more back and forth.

** then told me that they had received the faxed death certificates...to which I responded that “I knew that. That wasn't the point,” and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor about the things listed above. She then interrupted me to tell me they had received payment (which I had already told her I had paid with the insurance money); I again went over why I was calling and when she interrupted me the 3rd time, I finally screamed at her...asking her what part of, I know they received the death certificates and payments and that I just wanted to speak to a supervisor, did she not understand?!?

Finally, and very condescendingly, she agreed to get one; asking several times if I would mind being put on hold...each time I told her that would be fine as long as I would be speaking with a supervisor. After about 5 minutes, ** comes on the line and informs me that I have contacted the wrong department...to which I tell her, "No, one of your employees transferred me here!" She then tells me that this is the auto loan department (but, ** told me it was the Customer Counseling Dept?!?) and she would need to transfer me to the mortgage department and to please bear with her and she would supply me that number as well, in case I needed to call back.

She was stumbling over herself because she was lying through her teeth...and, after more hemming and hawing, starts to give me an 800 number, which I finished for her because it was the number I had called initially...she then ignored what I had said and asked to put me on hold to get the number.

When she came back to the phone, she gave me an 877 number (877-754-7366) and was mumbling something about everyone still thinks this department deals with all loans...an email had been sent out, but she guessed not everyone had read their email...to which I responded that that was why I was calling...information given to that bank seems to fall into a black hole. She then tells me she will transfer me to the correct department.

I'm on hold again waiting for, "The next available representative". Finally ** answers. She asks for the account number. I calmly give her the account number, my name, and that I'm calling about my deceased parent's account. I also inform her that I have already spoken to ** as well as numerous other employees on different occasions and I am just trying to talk to a supervisor.

She asks if I can verify who I am by giving her my home address, phone number, and last 4 of my social security. I tell her I have faxed all that information to them and she should be able to see my parent's death certificates and all the other things I faxed and to put a supervisor on the phone. She then says she would just like to get a few bits of... I finally just told her that I would contact my lawyer and hung up.

I have not dealt with one employee there that gave me the confidence I was dealing with a professional business. They are a waste of space and as soon as the executor paperwork comes through, we are paying off the mortgage and pulling all my parent's money out of their bank. I can only hope my parents insured the mortgage against their death...which might explain why they are so eager to put a loan that has been in outstanding status into a delinquent status for a payment 15 days late.

NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Summary of Experience: Branch customer service is good - but corporate office eventually ruins it. Placing your money with Citizens Bank is not a safe bet; e. g., my fiancée and I made a deposit worth thousands of dollars: this deposit was returned by no fault of ours. When the deposit was returned we were assessed a $10 fee, which we paid. We had also spoken extensively with our branch and phone banking service and made sure to correct the problem in less than 24 hours by depositing the returned amount in cash.

Despite this, the bank's "fraud" department closed our account - even after all the evidence of our acting in good faith to correct a problem we never caused. Our ChexSystems record is now soiled with an "account abuse" item based on an event which we addressed immediately and was not our fault - the branch gave up on helping us and succumbed to the corporate decision, which was based on partial information. Citizens Bank is as problematic as Bank of America. DO NOT OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH CITIZENS BANK.

Branch service is initially good - but eventually the corporate office will ruin it - quite unjustifiably too. The branch will make the effort to work with you and most other branches have friendly personnel too, but they struggle as mediators between customers they are trying to keep and a bank corporation eager to assess fees unfairly whenever it can. After many months of working well with us - and in some cases going out of their way to help us as customers - our account was closed by way of a unilateral decision on their part.

My fiancée and I deposited a check for thousands of dollars. This check was returned by no fault of ours. When it was returned we were assessed a $10 fee, which we paid despite not being responsible for the returned deposit check. Over the course of the next 24 hours my fiancée and I spoke repeatedly and consistently with branch employees as well as phone banking employees making sure to understand the repercussions of this returned deposit (to find out, for example, how payments coming out of our account would be affected, etc.).

We also spoke at length of how we could correct this issue immediately. Within 24 hours we re-deposited the money in CASH. We left the bank relieved that this problem was taken care of only to find out a couple of days later that Citizens Bank had frozen our funds - we could not withdraw a penny - and that the account was scheduled to be CLOSED. Shocked by this, we called the branch, the phone bank service, etc. and received conflicting feedback: everyone but the branch employees ascertained that the branch could correct the problem.

The branch insisted that they could not do anything and seemed eager to close the account and stop speaking to us - there was no intent to resolve an obvious misunderstanding. The corporate Citizens Bank office, specifically a "fraud" office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had flagged our account as fraudulent simply because a deposit that we made was returned by the bank it came from. There was never any recognition of the effort we made immediately to resolve the matter nor did employees at the local branch acknowledge this effort.

At the corporate level no one ever accounted for our effort, in good faith, to fix the problem by depositing the cash amount the account was now missing due to the returned deposit. Citizens Bank has now soiled our ChexSystems record with an "account abuse" label - something that is most definitely not merited in this case. We had NEVER had a check deposit returned and we took care of the problem by replacing the returned deposit with an equal amount in cash within 24 hours.

When we spoke with the branch it was like speaking to completely different people - there was no human element whatsoever in their effort or conversation and we left baffled that the bank had made this decision, treated us like delinquents, and moved swiftly to clear us out of their system - all while damaging our ChexSystems record with an inaccurate picture of what happened and a partial account of the story.

DO NOT OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH CITIZENS BANK - they are as problematic as Bank of America and by the admission of at least one employee we spoke to in the course of this event they are getting worse. The online banking system is also very deceiving - you will never really know what your accurate balance is because they take days and days to post items against your account: many of these items are hidden fees and this is most likely by design and meant to catapult you into a nightmare of fees.

For your sake and the sake of your hard-earned money, please don't feed this monster of a corporation. I am a pro-business, pro free-market conservative Republican and I can admit that this company has gotten out of hand in abuse – I cannot stand by their business practices. We should not have "account abuse" and fraud all over our ChexSystems: Citizens Bank should have that all over their customer reviews and ratings.

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND -- On Monday evening May 18, 2009, while out of town, I knew I had to get to a computer to add funds to my account as I had several small debits coming in. I knew I had enough to cover 12 out of the 13 incoming debits. I unfortunately never got to a computer to transfer funds. BUT, what I did NOT realize until Tuesday morning is that Citizen's “practice” of debiting accounts is NOT, as I thought the smaller debits all paid first, or even as they are posted, BUT “intentionally” from LARGEST debit to smallest.

Now, when I called Citizens I was given the canned response that Citizens does this to “help the customer pay for their most important payments first”. WOW! Thanks Citizens for knowing so much about ME and what is important to ME! What a nice company, looking out for their customers… And, YOU'RE WELCOME for the SEVEN overdrafts which you just profited over $270 on.

And get this, on May 19, 2009 my last 8 debits were all under 10$ but of course didn't clear because Citizens overdraft system was sure to deplete the funds with all the higher debits FIRST. Resulting in SEVEN $39 overdrafts for debits under $10

Now, such a comment from Citizens is of course nonsense and we all know WHY Citizens has “designed” their overdraft system to post HIGH to LOW. At least while inquiring at Bank of America about the overdraft policy they were honest enough to admit the “real agenda” of banks employing this sleazy tactics was to increase their bottom line with overdraft profits.

And, I am sure it has added a nice revenues increase to your bottom line. But, I must say it is quite shameful that this “hidden tactic” is being employed against Citizens customers. I can assure you if most people were asked about this they would have no idea HOW the overdrafts policy works AGAINST Citizens customers. Unless, they get to read about such a scandalous experience it is pretty much a hidden policy. I am sure it must be buried in the checking account terms and condition in the 3pt font, somewhere on page 5.

And, to top it off before I knew what happened I charged $6.80 for Chinese food, but with Citizens $273 overdraft charges I was as a result $208 negative (because they charged my account and THEY made my account negative), they charged me ANOTHER $39 overdraft fee which would have cleared had they not charged my account $273. The scary issue here is probably 90% of Citizen Bank customers (and other Bank's customers) are unaware of the details of these seedy overdraft tactics.

I may have to bite the bullet and lose over $300, while I take time to move all my personal business accounts to a more reputable, respectable bank. But as Congress is just now debating the unethical fees being charged by credit card companies, I will do my part to make sure they are aware of, and hopefully also address these unethical “overdraft” practices. Is it illegal? Surprisingly no. Is it disgraceful, immoral, and shameful? Unquestionably! The days of personal relationships with your banker are OVER. It's just a computer program ready and waiting to suck your account dry with the slightest opportunity.

RIVERSIDE, RHODE ISLAND -- I have an ongoing problem with Citizens Bank gift cards. The bottom line is this: they cancelled my two active gift card before their expiration date, but they continued to charge me a monthly 'service charge' for these cards, cards which were no longer in service. When I complained, they refused to reimburse me for service charges on the out of service cards. Doesn't a service charge mean that you are paying for a service? If Citizens cancelled the service (i.e. use of the gift cards), how can the service fee continue to be charged?

I am just as angry about the very poor way I have been treated. Citizens could have made it easy to find out that the cards had been deactivated, but they did not. I used the card and it didn't go through at one business. Odd I thought, so I tried a second time, different place, a few weeks later. Still no luck. I went to the citizensbankgiftcard.com website, typed in my card info, and all looked fine (i.e. there was money on the cards).

Figuring my website verification might have activated something on my cards, a few weeks later I tried a purchase again, and still no luck. I tried the 800#. There was no option to talk to an operator, and pressing 0 did nothing, but I keyed in my card info, and the system said there was money on the cards. I shopped again. No luck again. Back to the 800# to do the optional card registration, figuring this might solve my problem. I was surprised that this option leads to a human operator, who told me that citizens had cancelled the cards.

I was sent checks for the card balance LESS card service charges. The 800# person gave me a Massachusetts Citizens bank address to write to for service charge reimbursement. I wrote. Citizens ignored my letter. They didn't even respond! Am I not worthy of a response? I emailed Citizens customer service. They said they couldn't help me, but gave me an address, this time in Atlanta, to send yet another letter to. I did so. Once again, I never got a response! I am pretty shocked at this. Is this the practice now, to just ignore letters from customers? I wrote to the places Citizens told me to write to, and they just ignored me.

I didn't give up though. I wrote to the head of Citizens at their Providence HQ and I actually, finally, got a response. It was a short letter saying that Citizens was just following service charge policy as outlined in the gift card rules they had attached to the letter. They presented no justification for charging a service charge for cards that they had taken out of service, nor did their gift card rules address this situation.

What I felt even more disappointed about was that Citizens HQ did not offer one word of apology for ignoring both of my previous letters, when I had sent those letters to the very people Citizens told me to contact in order to resolve this issue. Ignoring a customer letter once is bad enough, but twice is pretty rotten, and then failing to apologize when I told them about this says to me that the people at Citizens HQ care very little about their customers.

I know I share blame, as service charges don't start until the "13th month after issuance". I got the two $300 giftcards from my siblings. It was their way of thanking me for taking care of our 92 year-old mother as she needed 24/7 care, and my job had been outsourced to India, so I had time to do so. To be honest I felt guilty taking money from my siblings to take care of our mother so I just had a hard time using the gift cards. Weird, I know, but it didn't sit right with me. I did use one of the cards once, but after that I just put them aside.

I lost $45 in service charges ($2.50/mo for 9 months, on two cards). The 800# person told me that Citizens cancelled the cards on 6/3/2009, and I got my check, less service fees, in December 2009. Of the nine months of service fees, 3 months were while the card was active, and 6 months (June through December) are service charges on cards that had been put out of service. Those service fees bought me nothing but bad service!

They made it so difficult even to find out why my cards were suddenly not working, and they expect me to pay them service fees for all this aggravation. It is beyond belief to me that Citizens would, when I have repeatedly presented them with these facts, all the way up to the very top of the corporation, would not make things right. I am really very surprised how little they care about doing the right thing for their customers, and it is obvious that this poor attitude is prevalent at the very top of the corporate ladder. I am left to again ponder the question in Citizens online ads: “Is this how you define a good bank?”