Date Received: 2021-05-19
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Subissue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees
Consumer Complaint: There are about 4 checking accounts that where closed over the past 4-5 years due to overdraft! I made agreement with the banks for a payment that is owed, I would need a removal off XXXX XXXX an credit report! And the did not honor that! Banks : XXXX XXXX XXXX, citizens bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX!
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 19141
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-19
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I recently had a issue which was resolved and everything was good for 3 months now it looks like it is going to happen again with citizens one mortgage where they charge me my taxes triple in one year they just charged a tax disbursement again ( 2 ) already this year dont know why or the reason
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 109XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-19
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: In XX/XX/XXXX I filed bankruptcy to save my home from Foreclosure. My mortgage was sold from Franklin American Mortgage to Citizens One Home Loans later in XXXX. I was not made aware of this sale until aboutXX/XX/XXXX. I was advised to set up an account with their site XXXX. This site does not allow you to make payments. But to apply for relief. Which is fine. I applied for relief for a loan modification at this time. I did not here back. Instead I believe I was out into a forbearance plan without my knowledge. I did not receive a statement for my mortgage until XX/XX/XXXX. At which time I was advised to set up another option for mortgage relief. I again applied for loan modification and received no information. In early XXXX I applied again and again was placed into a forbearance without my knowledge due to COVID. I applied again for mortgage relief at the end of XXXX, and in XXXX of this year and XXXX. To date I have made 4-5 applications through either mail, fax, and uploading to Citizens dedicated website. I have made several calls to their collections department and am consistently told the department I am looking to speak with is not in and they will call me back. At this point I have been placed in several forbearance Lis without my knowledge and every time I call to correct this and set up a repayment plan to begin repaying my mortgage. I am told someone will call me. I have never received a phone call. I believe Citizens Bank is actively ignoring my requests for mortgage relief weather it be through a loan modification, forgiveness, or simply setting up a repayment plan that is sufficient for both Citizens and myself. I simply want to begin to repay the serious past due amount. So that this situation gets rectified. As of this date I log in to the XX/XX/XXXX website and it has all my documents uploaded for 5 months and none of them have been reviewed.
Company Response:
State: NY
Zip: 121XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-19
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-18
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Subissue: Transaction was not authorized
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/XXXX Citizens bank stole {$850.00} from a newly opened checking acct. When i called and asked about it i was informed there was supposedly a debt from 2016? That they had stolen 2 weeks of pay to recoup. Well I manage my credit report through 4 diffent methods and have not ONCE, EVER seen anything from Citizens bank regarding this debt at all. I have NO clue wht it is for. Nor why i was never notified about it. It was not clarified to me why when i went in the branch to re pin my new atm card this wasnt mentioned to me. I opened the acct with no issue whatso ever. 2 weeks later without notification or due process of ANY sort. Without a chance to dispute or even to report fraud. They just stole my money. I have bills to pay. I have a near perfect credit score. I have never even HAD citizens acct in the past. Now if someone ELSE used my info to open one thats another story, but none yhe less I was never notified about it in any way shape or form. Now i have NO recourse in recovering my funds. This is not right. Its not.
Company Response:
State: DE
Zip: 19810
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-18
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-18
Issue: Problem when making payments
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I've registered for an account online and successfully registered auto pay with them. They can't confirm the account details I used to schedule their autopayments - they say that the first payment scheduled was denied. Their online portal contains significant issues. If I attempted to register a bank account for payment, I receive registration errors. Their auto-pay service windows tells me my next scheduled payment is for XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I attempted a payment to bring the account current but the payment was immediately returned ( I can not verify what account numbers they are using because they say they can not access them but I verified them multiple times before submitting ). Their system is not reliably scheduling payment or executing payments to the account I requested to pay from. I have checked with my banking institution and they say they haven't received any payment request from Citizen 's One. They didn't notify me that my payment failed and it doesn't reflect in their online portal. I have spoken with them and am attempting to bring my account current but my biggest issue is that they are now going to report delinquent marks on my credit report for a failure of their payment services. When I spoke to them, I learned that their website doesn't successfully work with the browser I was using, XXXX however there is no messaging anywhere indicating that.
Company Response:
State: CO
Zip: 80204
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-18
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-18
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: We settled on a construction to permanent residence loan with Citizens Bank on XX/XX/XXXX with a 12 month construction period. Even before settlement we were diligent in starting the processes that are needed to get construction underway. We signed a construction contract with XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and hired an engineering firm, XXXX XXXX, on XX/XX/XXXX to assist with all aspects of site engineering in preparation for permitting and construction. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we encountered delays in all aspects of the project. This included limited hours at county and township offices, understaffed third party entities, and delays in receiving communications from Citizens Bank. Despite these delays, we continued to move forward at a consistent pace in an effort to complete the construction of our new home as laid out by the attached timeline. On XX/XX/XXXX we received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX from Citizens Bank warning that we were approaching the construction completion date of XX/XX/XXXX. The letter stated the following : " lf the construction and full disbursement can not be completed by the completion date, then the completion date of your construction loan must be extended ( subject to approval ). Please be advised of following : 1. We will not make any further disbursements to you or your builder after XXXX XXXX unless the Completion Date has been extended, 2. ln order to extend the Completion Date your request must be approved and you will be required to execute an Extension Modification Agreement and pay an extension fee, 3. The required extension fee will be {$930.00} per month. To request an extension of the Completion Date, please call our XXXX XXXX XXXX Department at XXXX, no later than 45 days before your Completion Date. '' We made a call to the number above on the following dates without a return phone call : - XX/XX/XXXX and left a message. - Twice on XX/XX/XXXX and left a message with each call. - Once on XX/XX/XXXX and left a message. - Once on XX/XX/XXXX and left a message. - Three times on XX/XX/XXXX, and left a message with each call. We finally receive a message from a loan officer through Citizens ' construction management website asking us our response the XX/XX/XXXX letter. We responded and were asked to provide a timeline of events for their reference to consider a loan extension for our project. After consulting with our builder, engineers, and third party assistance we provided Citizens Bank with the timeline of events on XX/XX/XXXX. We did not hear from Citizens bank until XX/XX/XXXX after We reached out via email requesting an update on the decision regarding the approval of the loan extension. We received a call from another loan officer asking us to refinance the loan and start the process over. The loan officer stated that we would be responsible for closing costs and would be subject to a full credit check as well. We were not happy with this option and asked when we would hear about the decision on the loan extension. He stated that the extension was no longer an option. On XX/XX/XXXX we received an email with an attached letter stating the following : " I wanted to get back to you, to follow up our call. I heard back from the Construction Manager assigned to your file, in regards to the fees for the refinance option, and our conversation. The only credit that we will be given is a {$1000.00} credit given for inspection fees that were already given. The refinance would have the other costs associated with the transaction that are required lender, title, appraisal, etc ... .. From my conversation with the manager, at this time, there are 3 options : - Go into default and subsequent foreclosure because he has not met the terms of the loan - Refinance the loan internally - Pay Citizens off with an external refinance, or outside funds '' There is no mention of the loan extension and this timeline would leave us about 3 weeks to refinance the loan make settlement. To find another lender that could settle in 3 weeks is impossible and to threaten us with foreclosure is absurd, since we have met all of our financial obligations. With the global pandemic and our diligence, would it be so hard to grant us a loan extension? Especially since we requested the extension before the 45 day deadline from the loan maturity date and continue to wait on permitting from the county and township. Lastly, the loan officers with which we had verbal conversations were unsympathetic, nasty, and could care less about our situation. They would raise their voices and and state that they could do nothing to help because " the board '' made the decision. When we asked if we could speak to a superior or a " board member '', we were told there is nothing that they could do. This has been one of the most disrespectful and disgusting transactions we have ever experienced and Citizens Bank is clearly not interested in customer service.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 19064
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-18
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-14
Issue: Managing an account
Subissue: Banking errors
Consumer Complaint: Half year ago, I want to transfer some money from one bank to another ( mainly to diversify investment ). I was considering which bank to choose, and I received an advertisement from Citizens Bank. The information on the advertisement is : Open a Saving account, deposit {$15000.00}, save for three months to get a {$200.00} bonus ; Open a Checking account, you can get {$300.00} ; Open a Saving account and a Checking account at the same time, you can get {$600.00}. Therefore I went to Citizens Bank Office at XXXX MA. A clerk named XXXX XXXX XXXX received me. I explained my intentions. I said : I just want to open a Saving account and deposit {$15000.00}, three months later Is it possible to get a {$200.00} bonus. XXXX XXXX XXXX checked my information in the Citizens Bank system and confirmed that I am eligible for this benefit. I have repeatedly confirmed with him : If I do not open a Checking account, there will be no impact. He also repeatedly assured that there was no problem. Then I opened a Saving account on XX/XX/XXXX and deposited {$15000.00}. ( Please see the attached record of the original conversation. The XX/XX/XXXX date was added later ). Three months later, I went to Citizens Bank Office at XXXX MA. A man sitting in the office received me. I asked why I didnt get the bonus after three months. He checked my information in the system and told me : 3 Month is the minimum. I have to wait until XX/XX/XXXX to get the bonus. And said he promised that I would get it. I believed him. ( Unfortunately, I didn't get his business card at the time. I don't know his name. ) However, I thought about it later and found it very strange, why did 3 months become 5 months again. So I went to their office in XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX. This time a woman named XXXX " XXXX '' XXXX sitting in the office received me. She also checked my information in the system and also said that I will be get bonus on the XXXX. I asked her why told me was 3 months before it became 5 months. She said she had to contact their manager to answer me. She said she would call me. But I never received her call afterwards. XX/XX/XXXX has passed and I still haven't received the {$200.00} bonus. After a week, I went to the bank and met clerk XXXX XXXX XXXX who opened the account for me. He still confirmed that I can get the bonus, but after some operations in the system, he told me that he could not handle it and asked me to see their Manager next Monday. I saw their XXXX XXXX XXXX Monday ( XX/XX/XXXX ). She checked the information of the system : Then she told me that they only give bonuses to Checking account, not saving account bonuses alone. I dont have a Checking account so I cant get this bonus. I said why several people all told me that was OK, if just open a saving acount. If it doesn't, why didn't you tell me at the beginning, or after XXXX months? You hold me so much money, so long time in your bank, what do you want to do? She didn't answer me, just said that she can't give me this money. I have no choice, then to ask to close the Saving account and withdraw all my money. XXXX XXXX and I checked the amount of all the money in this account, and I signed it. But when she gave me the check, I found that the money was less than the amount of money we have confirmed. I asked why? She said : Because I took away a lot of money, they have to deduct the handling fee for my Checking account. I'm very surprised : They said that because I didn't have a checking account, they couldn't give me a bonus, and now they said that the handling fee of my checking account was deducted. Where did this checking account come from? I fought hard, and they re-issued a check based on the amount of money in my account.
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: 014XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-14
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-14
Issue: Closing on a mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: On or around XX/XX/XXXX, I consulted XXXX XXXX @ Citizens Bank about getting a home loan. I let her know that I worked in the XXXX industry and was worried about getting approved. She let me know that it would not be an issue and we started the loan process. I put a down payment, I paid for an appraisal, and even got loan commitment. The underwriter approved my application. Then, 4 hours after I was scheduled to close, I found out that the bank would not approve my application due to me being employed by a XXXX dispensary.
Company Response:
State: MA
Zip: 01085
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-26
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-14
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I applied for a conventional refinance loan of my existing mortgage with XXXX Bank, XXXX. that was initiated in XX/XX/XXXX. I paid {$750.00} for an appraisal fee. I responded within XXXX hours each time the loan officer, XXXX XXXX, requested documents. This included my income verification in the form of my XXXX most recent pay stubs, retirement account statements to substantiate that I had at least 6 months of PITI ( Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance ) reserve ; and my mortgage and bank statements to further substantiate my assets qualification. I provided all those documents that was requested on time and as expected per the bank 's criterion. The next key item to execute was my home appraisal. The loan officer took almost three months from the application initiation date to order my appraisal report. I kept emailing, calling and requesting for her to order the appraisal in the interest of time so that I could take advantage of the historically low market interest rates. XXXX kept making all sorts of excuse on those several occasions telling me that due to covid-19 their company was unable to request an appraisal report and that she would get back to me as soon as possible. An appraisal was finally ordered in XX/XX/XXXX almost 3 months from the application initiation date. XXXX then received my appraisal report which came in significantly higher than expected and of course, this was favorable on my end. The loan officer and her manager then came up with a new rule stating that my basement that was included in the house when I first bought it in XXXX needed to be removed completely in order to move forward with the application. They indicated that this was a new guideline that they received from XXXX XXXX. I contacted XXXX XXXX directly to find out more about this guideline. A representative at Fannie Mae indicated that given my house type ( a XXXX-unit home ) and the fact that to access the basement XXXX must go through the primary dwelling ; and I quote, it would not be classified as an Accessory Dwelling Unit ( ADU ) and thus, my basement does not need to be removed to qualify for a refinance loan application given that I meet all other required criterion. I emailed this message including the supporting documentation from XXXX XXXX to the Independent Appraiser ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, the Loan XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and the Loan Officer 's Manager ( XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX called me on an unrecorded line XXXX days later after that email was sent indicating that the bank could not move forward with my loan with no further explanation as to the reason why. I then escalated the matter to his Manager, XXXX XXXX who did not respond or reach out to me to hear my concern or even respond in an email. XXXX then emailed me back a day after and said that he would get back to me in early XX/XX/XXXX. I haven't heard back from him since. Additionally, the bank has not mailed me any formal correspondence as to the rationale for the denial of my application. As a result, I am filing this formal complaint as I firmly believe that I am experiencing Financial and/Other Discrimination by the bank given that I have met all the required criterion for a mortgage refinance of my existing home. Furthermore, the appraiser, XXXX XXXX told me that the appraisal fee was {$600.00}. I was told by XXXX XXXX that I would be reimbursed for the {$150.00} excess amount that was charged upfront. I never heard back from her and she has not reimbursed me for the overage to-date. I am kindly asking the CFPB to conduct a thorough and complete investigation into the lending practices and in particular, the loan refinance processes of XXXX XXXX Enclosed, are a copy of my supporting loan application and the appraisal report that were received. Please let me know whether you have any questions. Sincerely, XXXX XXXX
Company Response:
State: CT
Zip: 06053
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-14
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2021-05-12
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Subissue: Late or other fees
Consumer Complaint: To Whom it may concern : Hello, it was suggested I contact this bureau about a recent issue my wife and I had with Citizens bank. I also have contacted XXXX XXXX office about this matter. My wife co-signed on our son 's Student Loan with XXXX, and it turns out he had not been paying his monthly payment for a while. He thought money wasnt coming out anymore due to Covid. The bank had sent the account to a law office, who said they tried to contact him about it, and sent a letter, which we can not find ... the only phone messages we had were so generic they sounded like they could easily be a fraud call. My son received no e-mails from the bank about the past due account, neither did my wife. The bank did an offset, but not for only what he was behind XXXX approx. {$2400.00} XXXX they took an offset amount of everything we had in our checking accounts, a total of {$14000.00} ... leaving us {$50.00} in each of our checking accounts ( 2 ). When we called to work this out, get the account current / have our son reset up his payments ... they said there is nothing they can do to return what they took ... even though it is all internal to Citizens Bank. After speaking with 3 agents, they said they escalated to the Office of the Chairman, their highest level they would contact us within 10 days. Meanwhile we had an extraordinarily little amount of money left in our accounts. We did receive a letter in the mail from Citizens Bank on Monday XX/XX/26 ( over a week after they took the money from our accounts ) informing us that they did the right of offset. I also called my local bank on Monday the XXXX ; they could see that someone was assigned to our case, and we should receive a call soon now that someone was assigned. I called the local bank back on Thursday, the XXXX, as we had still not been contacted yet from that department. I spoke with the local bank manager, and he was going to see what he could find out. I called again on XXXX, and spoke with the local bank manager again, he was going to reach out to that dept again to see if he could get them to call me. It has now been over 3 weeks, and still no call or contact from the Office of the Chairman. To compound this issue with XXXX, we just recently XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ) had major fraud happen with our Citizens bank account. We received a call on a Friday afternoon XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ) from a number on our Caller ID that is the XXXX main number / ID, saying they saw fraudulent activity on our account. They asked if we had made some recent purchases, that we did not, and they asked all the 'right ' questions for someone who already had access to our account. This has happened to use before. They said they would remove the charges and send out a new debit card. When I checked my bank account online on Monday, I found that we had a negative {$5000.00} balance, and many new accounts ( 30+ ) had been opened in my name and money had been moved around and spent at XXXX at a time on XXXX gift cards. I had to call XXXX to report it, I never received a call over the weekend from XXXX saying they were seeing all this activity happen on my account, No Fraud Notification of actual fraud happening. We worked with them for over a week and a half on this, and they did finally untangle most of it / recovered our money. We did also file a police report and freeze our credit with the various credit bureaus. During all the work on fixing our accounts due to the fraud, the bank never told us about the past due Student Loan that was also in my wife 's name. If they had let us know then, we could have brought it up to date when all this was happening ... not having the offset occur at all. We also have a car loan and credit card with XXXX, which have all been paid on time since we have had each of those. We also check our credit reports regularly, and there are no items showing she has an account past due. I contacted XXXX XXXX office hoping they could help with getting a fair assessment from the bank on what was past due for the offset to bring the account current XXXX {$2400.00} XXXX. We are not expecting back the full {$14000.00}, just the difference, {$12000.00}. The fact that we have been a customer with Citizens Bank for over a decade, having multiple other accounts that have been kept up to date, and allowing that level of fraud occur on our accounts without any notification that it was occurring, prompting a deep review of our accounts to fix it, not notifying us about 1 account my wife was co-signed on that was behind, and then to take {$14000.00} from our accounts leaving us basically broke ... adds up to some very bad business practices for a bank that is supposed to be protecting your money.
Company Response:
State: NH
Zip: 038XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2021-05-12
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A