Date Received: 2021-06-29
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Subissue: Late or other fees
Consumer Complaint: I had a checking account with Citizens Bank that I opened in XXXX when my daughters were in College. My name and my daughters names were on the account. My account and my XXXX daughters account were joined in the sense that they had separate totals in their accounts as did I. When that account was opened supposedly I was told if the total amount in the accounts fell below {$20000.00} I would be charged fees. Since that account was opened, my daughters have withdrawn their funds and opened their own account with their now husbands. The last transaction being in XXXX. Since that point in time, I have received no bank statements from Citizens Bank and they have been charging me {$20.00} per month as a dormant fee because my total amount minus my daughters two accounts has fallen less than {$20000.00}. I have been charged {$1400.00} in dormant fees with no correspondence from Citizens Bank. This was an account that was liked to an Equity Line that I used to pay my Childrens College Tuition as well. My last child graduated from College in XXXX and the Equity Line has been paid off since XXXX. I had left more than {$17000.00} in that account which Citizens has been chipping away at with no correspondence at all. I found this all out when I happened to receive a text stating there had been fraudulent activity on my Citizens account. There was no fraudulent activity other than Citizens Bank taking ( stealing ) my money without notifying me. Their answer to me was when I opened this account back in XXXX I was told that there would be fees if the total amount fell below {$20000.00}. At XXXX my memory is just not that good. They stole my {$1400.00}. Is there any recourse? Thank you for your attention. I do not do online banking ever!
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: 020XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-07-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-29
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Subissue: Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged
Consumer Complaint: I signed up to buy an XXXX through XXXX 's website. The only option to buy the XXXX, was by using a Citizen 's loan to finance the XXXX, with no discounts. I bought the XXXX by putting my credit card information in at the time of purchase. I did not hear anything for 3 months, and assumed that my credit card would be billed as normally happens with any online purchase. Three months later I received a notification from my bank that my credit score had dropped 100 points, from perfect at XXXX down to under XXXX. I then researched what could be the problem, which turned out to be a loan from Citizens. I went through my emails and found no emails from Citizens except for one at the time of purchase that asked if I'd like to add my credit card to their information data base for ease - it expressly did not say that it was required. I don't like to send my credit card information out without a real reason, so I had decided not to do that at the time. I then called Citizens and was ultimately directed to billing, who notified me on a recorded line that I had not been contacted about my late bill, either by phone or by email, and also noted that this was not normal - others had been contacted 7+ times. I then asked if I could pay my bill and if Citizens would return my credit to normal, as this seemed like a mistake on their part, and something I was willing to resolve quickly, as there had obviously been an operational issue on their side, and I didn't want my credit hurt ( I'm trying to buy my mom a house ). Citizens refused the offer and demanded that I pay immediately or they would send my account to collections ( where it apparently already was ). I ended up paying XX/XX/24 months of the " loan '' with all of the interest ( " fees '' as they call it ), hoping this would get Citizens to help me on my credit score. I then attempted to put my credit card and then debit card into their website about 10 times ( I use both still, they work ), and had one instance where it looked like it went through, so I could be automatically billed. Apparently their website didn't work again, and they are threatening my credit again, and are now calling me on what seems to be a daily basis, despite my balance over the next two years being 90 % paid. I have spoken to them multiple times and they refuse to 1 ) fix their website, 2 ) fix my credit, 3 ) are knowingly harassing me. 1 ) They have called me and claim they don't know who they are calling or why. 2 ) Have attempted to state that I am calling them when they have called me. 3 ) Continue to hold my credit score hostage over XXXX {$100.00}. 4 ) In holding my credit hostage and trying to force me to prepay 2 years ahead of time, are in effect charging me a usurious rate of interest ( 10 % /year over two years is what the fees equate to, which I have now paid in ~6 months, resulting in an interest rate of >40 % ). 4 ) Refuse to help amend my credit score.
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 10011
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-29
Issue: Getting a loan or lease
Subissue: Credit denial
Consumer Complaint: On XXXX, As an informed consumer pursuant to 15 USC 1692a ( 3 ) and aggrieved applicant pursuant 15 USC 1691d ( e ), I, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, applied for Credit on used vehicle and was denied credit based on me exercising my rights as a consumer to credit transactions which is discrimination pursuant to federal law.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 75154
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-29
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-28
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Subissue: Money was taken from your account on the wrong day or for the wrong amount
Consumer Complaint: XXXX XX/XX/XXXX From : XXXX XXXX XXXX To : XXXX XXXX Office of the Chairman Citizens Bank XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, RI XXXX Subj : Response to ltr dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX OCC Case Number XXXX Ltr Dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Case Number XXXX Dear Ms. XXXX, I am writing this letter with regards to responses to the letters noted in the subject Lines of this letter. As far as I can see there has been no resolution to these matters. I was impacted by your banks neglect and costs incurred by myself and my XXXX XXXX. Although you did in fact reimburse some charges incurred by your fees you did not in fact make any kind of restitution for fees I consistently paid throughout the months of XX/XX/XXXX through present. ( Fees caused by fees charged ). When fees were paid by XXXX they were assessed immediately, when in fact the fees you charged continued to incur many more fees because of your fees. The fact that in some cases you did refund partial fees after months of going back and forth, you in fact continued to charge fees that would have never been there in the first place. As you can note going back in your notes and the complaints to the XXXX XXXX XXXX the fees were caused directly by problems with your banking system. On one occasion I had gone to the ATM to make deposits ( which I always did on Sunday Nights ) and your ATM was gone! On one occasion I had gone to your branch to make deposits and you only had a Large Truck in the Lot with an ATM attached ( But it would not allow cash deposits ) and there were many other occasions. I have made it clear on many occasions that I am in fact XXXX and cant go into a branch and I had to take cash from my Credit Union account to put into your bank because I hadnt received checks from them yet. And if I wanted the funds to be deposited immediately, I would have to deposit cash. I would make cash deposits and you would charge fees the following mornings anyhow although my account was not overdrawn. Then I would have to spend two days on the phone with people trying to straighten things out and get frustrated and contact the XXXX. That was the only way I could get things straightened out. The Only way! So, to get bank to the point when you would charge me fees. I would pay them, and then other fees would be charged on the fees that were charged before I would get my partial refunds. A good example of things and how you have screwed up my account is just take a look at it now. I left it overdrawn just so you could look. I keep getting charged the XXXX for a service to use with my XXXX. It has never worked! I have been online with your tech support on many occasions and cancelled it many times. I still get charged, then you charge me overdraft fees on it, and then you charge me sustained overdraft fees for being overdraw for a period of time. This not only causes me grief because of the fees but then on top of it all I must spend hours on the phone with your bank, I must spend hours fixing it all in my XXXX and so on. I charge my clients XXXX an hour to work on their servers so every time I must deal with your bank it costs me a fortune. And a lot of grief. Another issue was your bank stopped payments to my XXXX, XXXX and XXXX accounts which caused me to get by accounts locked when I had to switch them to use the credit union. It took me time to move most of my banking to my new account because I was waiting on my paperwork for my new XXXX from the attorneys and could not move my account right away because I had to get everything straightened out. In the meantime, I needed to keep a business account open to cash checks made out to XXXX. If you would like I can get a Certified Audit of my account, but I would have to pass the cost on to your bank. I got a quote of XXXX. It Would not be so much but I did have between XXXX and XXXX a month moving through my account there. You also asked me why I did not get an overdraft account and credit card. Well, that was easy. I was turned down for both through your bank. I do in fact have two bankruptcies on my credit file from 7 years ago but was forced to file in order to file a case against XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX because I paid on a home for 16 years through automatic payments and somehow the mortgage I was supposed to have through XXXX ended up with 5 different banks and I owed more than I paid for the house in the first place and had a 3.5 % interest rage. That is with the IRS, DOJ and the court systems ( because they actually threw me and my two children out of the house I paid for while I was in active bankruptcy ) being looked over as we speak. If I did not get sick and get stuck at home looking through things I would never have known. I had just paid out XXXX in medical bills to keep my credit good and was forced into bankruptcy by them. I do not really have a good taste in my mouth for banks. Actually, did a search and pulled up 64 others ( In an hour ) that went through the same thing with them when they bought out XXXX XXXX XXXX. Could you imagine how many people I could dig up if I spend a few hours looking for overdraft anomalies with Citizens Bank. I own a computer company and have been doing the internet since it was only for the military. Before the had pictures on it for search engines so I do know how to search. All I am asking is that you fix my account, give me all the fees that you charged and fees on top of the fees because of the fees and I will leave everything be. I have been trying to move everything away from there and will do so over the next month. It is not easy and takes a lot of time to move everything when I have had that account for 15 years and 90 % of my bills and billing ran through that account. If you need me to figure out what that number is, as I told you above, pay me the XXXX and I will have a Certified Audit done to arrive at that number. I tried myself and I am great at about everything technical, but it just gave me a great headache over and over. If not, my next step will be to contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and see if they could persuade you or do a search and find thousand of other that have had issues with your Overdraft fees and tell them all how to file with all agencies that are involved with banking practices. I am not asking much. Just make your mistakes right. I am not a bad guy but do not like being taken advantage of and getting caught in the circle game your banking system plays with people. It just came to my attention that you had changed the name of my company from XXXX XXXX XXXX DBA XXXX to DBF XXXX which caused all of my accounts I was doing XXXX stopped allowing my deposits and withdraws causing me to lose approximately {$120000.00}. I am requesting that you send me my original paperwork from when I opened my account and reason why you changed the name of my company. Everyone that uses XXXX now do not accept my account. And it has caused me great hardship. Please fix my account. I expect you will do an audit and find what is true and put back and put my company name like it is and has been since XXXX when I opened it and maintained it all these years. Sincerely : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, PA XXXX Copy to : Baking Files
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 15236
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-07-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-27
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: We have a mortgage with Citizens Bank on auto pay since XXXX. Suddenly XX/XX/XXXX we can't pay our mortgage. All payments are reversed. Payments are coming from our XXXX XXXX Account, which they forced us to open with the mortgage. Concerned about staying current, we transferred over {$3500.00} from the XXXX XXXX to the XXXX XXXX, which was shown as removed from our checking account but was NOT credited to our Mortgage. We spent hours and hours on the phone, only to be shuttled between Banking and Mortgage departments. No one could explain or help us. Finally, they said that we changed the account number on the Checking account, which the online banking portal does not allow a consumer to do. They promised us a call back, which they did not honor. We made a phone payment from a checking account with another bank, but we are not sure that this will be credited to our Mortgage, thought the money is showing debited from the other checking account. It looks like they are stealing our money. My husband and I have each spent hours on the phone with them and they can't give us any explanation or help us in any way. Very concerned about what to do next.
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 100XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-27
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-25
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Subissue: Other problem
Consumer Complaint: I have a credit card through Citizens Bank NA. I have made all payment on time since the inception of the card. I enrolled through the Alert system for the credit card at the time of setting up my online account. When logging on to make my XX/XX/XXXX Payment online on XX/XX/XXXX, I had rewards in the amount of {$25.00}. I used the rewards to credit the account balance. The bill pay feature then showed my new payment due XX/XX/XXXX with a new minimum payment. I logged back into my account on XX/XX/XXXX to check my transactions and I was notified that the XXXX payment had not been made, even though the credit is reflected in my transactions. I immediately made the payment in full. On XX/XX/XXXX through my credit monitoring software I was notified that my credit had decreased over 35 points due to a balance decrease from the Citizens Bank credit card for over XXXX of the previous balance ( from {$3800.00} to {$900.00} XXXX. When I called the credit card services department on XX/XX/XXXX, the late fee was waived due to the circumstances surrounding the late payment. I was transferred to a supervisor XXXX who spoke down to me like I was a child and recommended credit repair companies for one late payment and a credit limit decrease. When I explained the situation he told me that even though the fee was waived as a courtesy, and even though I have the alerts system set up and was not notified, that a letter was sent to me after I made the payment and the account was up to date in regards to the late payment. I was told that the company is not in any way obligated to notify the customer ( other than in the letter ) that the payment is late and that I would not receive any communication in regards to the credit line decrease and that my only option was to have a manual balance increase request done which would add another negative impact to my credit. When asking to speak with another supervisor I was notified that I could but I wouldn't get anyone on the phone as they are busy. A letter was sent out in regards to the late payment after the payment was rectified. The letter has not yet been received by me and it is now 4 business days later.
Company Response:
State: RI
Zip: 028XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-07-09
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-25
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Subissue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Consumer Complaint: Citizens Bank levied 3 overdraft fees against my checking account on XX/XX/2021 ; they were {$37.00} each, for a total of {$110.00}. My actual balance, in terms of completed/posted transactions, was NEVER negative ( until the fees themselves, of course ). The eNotice for the overdraft lays out the rational, and it comes to the conclusion that I overdrafted because of temporary authorizations. Technically other transactions are accused of being the overdrafted ones, but again, the posted balance was never negative, so the 'negative ' temporary balance was calculated by including these temporary authorizations. These temporary authorizations never completed - they completely dropped off ( 1 business day later, conveniently .... for the bank, that is ... ) ). I knew they would drop off because I had not authorized any such payments to be made. If they HAD completed, I would have demanded a refund because, again, I had not authorized any payments to be made. I called and explained the situation, and the first low-level rep I spoke with was understanding but unable to help me because of the system. I asked to be escalated to a supervisor, who also could not help me ; he was not sympathetic and defended this practice of the bank. Every level of the system is set up to incur the maximum number of overdraft fees. There are multiple issues outside the scope of this particular case - the way the bank cynically re-sorts transactions in order to maximize the number of discrete transactions it can accuse you of 'overdrafting ' on, the disparate ways incoming and outgoing transactions are handled, etc. But most relevant to this specific case is the absurd way pending transactions are handled. I am not in control of pending transactions - various merchants are authorization-happy and make ridiculous authorization checks whenever they feel like. I have no insight into when such an authorization check will be made, nor can I cancel an authorization once it has been made. I can't even see what date it will expire on! The particular authorizations in this case were made on XX/XX/XXXX and somehow lasted until XX/XX/XXXX! I don't think even the merchant can be blamed for that length of time ; that is the fault of Citizens Bank. So the bank gets to say that temporary authorizations count against my balance, and the bank gets to determine how long the temporary authorizations last ( and keep this information secret ), and the bank gets to charge me overdraft fees on the basis of how they've secretly determined temporary authorizations work? I understand the first part - you can't allow infinite temporary authorizations because of the obvious potential for problems. But the latter two are completely unfair to the consumer. You can't even plan without information on when temporary authorizations will drop off, and I can't see any scenario in which uncompleted authorizations should participate in triggering an overdraft fee. If they complete and cause a negative balance, THAT is when you've overdrafted. Not when an imaginary number that has little correlation with what money is actually coming into or leaving your account is transiently negative, an imaginary number that the bank has full control over and demonstrably applies cynical algorithms to in order to maximize the number of fees they can extort from the financially struggling.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 152XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-23
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Standard 30 yr morgage, never missed a payment, escrow attached to mortgage. XX/XX/2021 - Received letter from a XXXX XXXX about our unpaid school taxes. XXXX : XXXX XX/XX/2021 - Notify Citizen Bank via phone call about the missed tax payment ( https : //www.citizensbank.com ) *Per Citizen tax payed from escrow account *Per Citizen payment is filed through a 3rd party provider *Per County tax office taxes NOT payed XX/XX/2021 - XX/XX/2021 XXXXCall citirzen bank 20+ times ( 1-2 times a week ) trying to give this issue resolved XX/XX/2021 - XXXX XXXX Notified us they would put a lean on the house XX/XX/2021 - We wrote a personal check to pay the taxes. This action was taken after we called citizen and they told us to pay the balance due of $ XXXX+ in taxes to avoid the lean. XX/XX/2021 - Citizen will not refund us the $ for our personal check until the issue is fixed after telling us to pay the balance. We have tried to fix this issue for 4+ months and have called them over 20 times. They have not done anything refuse to refund us our money. They have now lost or stolen $ XXXX+ from us. How can they not be held accountable for fixing a accounting error they made. I just want my money back and to switch to any lender but them. Never do business with Citizen Bank.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 150XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-21
Issue: Managing an account
Subissue: Banking errors
Consumer Complaint: they charged me three fees illegally. I told them if they didn't put the money back into my account I would pursue the matter into court. they refused to contact me. When they did finally contact me they knew it was a day I would be at work and could not talk with them.
Company Response:
State: NH
Zip: 030XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-06-21
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: My wife & I refinanced our house for a 15 year mortgage through XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX which was great. They said we could pay off out home in 12 years if we paid Bi-Monthly in which we took advantage of. Our new Mortgage Payment with Taxes & Insurance came out to {$1500.00} a month. Our bi-monthly payment was {$770.00} every 2 weeks. Citizens One Mortgage bought out our loan after two months. In the begging they tried saying I owed something like {$2000.00}. I said I pay on time every two weeks. If there is any money outstanding then XXXX has my mortgage money. Now again, Citizens One Bank is accusing me owing over {$3700.00}. I have been paying Citizens One every two weeks like clock work to pay off my home mortgage faster than 15 years. They also are trying to automatically raise my Monthly Mortgage Payment from {$1500.00} to {$1800.00} a month which isn't the new monthly payment that I refinanced for with XXXX. I have proof of physical documentation for my new refinanced monthly payments. I have never ever missed a mortgage payment in 30 years. Citizens One is collecting my mortgage payments and not applying it to my home loan. I have called into Citizens One and got a Customer Service Rep that I didn't get anywhere with one the telephone. I told the CSR that I show my bank payment history to Citizens One Mortgage with every single payment to them with no missed payments. I even told the CSR that you just received another payment from my bank the day before. I was on hold for a very long time waiting to speak to a Mortgage Supervisor. The Citizens CSR told me that he would have a Supervisor call me back that same very day. Until now, no Supervisor has called me back from Citizens One Mortgage. I want to make a federal complaint against Citizens One Mortgage taking my money and not applying it to my Home Loan Account. I want them to be held accountable for and late fees, missing principal payments to my home loan. I also want them to be held accountable for any credit reporting errors on their part. I have excellent Credit History built up and I don't need it destroyed by their horrible accounting records. I have never ever had any problems with a Mortgage Company like this in 30 years of owning a home mortgage. Please hold Citizens One Mortgage accountable for their very bad records. Most of all they keep taking my money every two weeks from my bank as I have a recorded history of payments to Citizens One Mortgage.
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 339XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-06-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A