Citizens Bank
Reviews and Complaints

Recently, I used my debit card attached to my Citizen's checking account to pay part of my UAlbany orientation fee.

The school made a mistake and initiated an $80 charge instead of the $10 partial payment I'd authorised. They reversed the charge the same day, and charged the appropriate $10.

However the $80 was still on hold in my account, creating a negative 'available funds' balance. I had $31 in the account, to cover the $10. When the $10 charge posted, it posted against the negative available funds.

Consequently, I was charged a $39 overdraft fee. I called the bank, figuring that since no actual overdraft occurred (the $80 was never actually claimed by UAlbany), they'd reverse the fee.

Instead, I'm told since it's not a bank error, they can't reverse the funds. I was told to contact the merchant (UAlbany) to request a refund of the fee. Even the student financial center representative I met with, in an attempt to get the fee (as suggested by the bank in the first call), spoke to the bank. He argued with their supervisor at their customer service phone center on my behalf for close to 20 minutes and got no further than I did.

So Citizen's Bank is making a profit off me. I am a disabled college student, living on SSD and stdent loans. And they are making an unfair profit off me. I willingly pay overdraft fees that are my fault. But this is not my fault, and I'm still out $39.

I just opened an account exactly 27 days ago today and almost from the very start I have had nothing but issues with them! They held my first deposited check for what was only supposed to be 3 days, according to my online info. When I went back into my online banking account my hold date was changed from 3 day to 7! I called and they told me that was strange it should not have been held that long it is probably a mistake it should be released in a few days if not call back. It was not released so I called back and I was told it was held longer because it is a payroll check and it will be held that long for the first time and after that they would release the check in 3 days tops the next time.

I deposited another check and the same thing happened it original showed a realaese date of 3 days so when I went in again the date was changed again to not only the original 3 days but an additional 7 days at total of 10 days! I immediately called and this time I was told oh your account is new we hold all check a minimum of seven days for new accounts until the 25th day. I was furious because they never said this to me in the previous other calls! So now my check is due to be released on the 27 day. Why on the 27th day I said? They said oh because of the weekend. I said you considered the weekend int the 25 day time period they said YES! So I go to the bank and deposit another check on my 27th day since opening my account and I once again check my hold status only to see my check being held for ANOTHER 7 DAYS! I had enough in the account to cover this check completley but yet they held it again so I called again and I was told oh the teller has the discretion to hold for as long as they feel they need to. Can you believe this crap! I called the bank branch to check this status of the teller having the discretion to place holds on the account, I spoke to assistant Manager Todd Bloom in the Warrington PA office and he basically told me that NO the tellers do not have this discretion and that is the policy a 25 day hold BUT there were 2 holidays in there. There is only one holdiay and I have passed my 25 days and he laughed and said there is nothing he can do for me that is policy after telling him I do not appreciate him laughing at my situation because I have bills that need to be paid and DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO MY MONEY and this is completely unacceptable I hung up with him!
I then called the customer priority line [protected] to talk with Pauline and she was the one told me when I spoke to her that new accounts have the 25 day hold status. She gave me the same song and dance! I told her every time I called there I received a different answer or different policy that accommodated them being able to hold MY MONEY! This is the worst bank I have ever dealt with! I am getting out now before the fees start coming. Horrible policies, horrible customer service, horrible bank managers horrible contact info they change their minds like the wind, just to hold onto your money. This is no different then robbing me for a week and then saying oh here you go I will give your money back no recourse! If I took something that wasn't mine and held it and tried to give it back it is still a crime isn't it!

Run while you can got to a credit union or a small local bank for the service you should be getting! I will stop with this write up I will get to Ellen Alemany Citizens Bank CEO if it is the last thing I do!

A $15 transaction was there after I closed my account and cancelled card I cut my card in pieces, they show that I purchased after they cancelled my card, not able to tell the source of transaction yet trying to extort my hard earned money .
Banks cheat you cannot do any thing, they cheat for their lords make them rich when loose money public money save them to let them cheat public for ever.When profit only for few, otherwise curse for all. CITIZENS BANK cheated me we need a credit score for banks so that they cannot blackmail customers

I have also had problems with Citizens Bank. On October 2, 2009 I received my Social Security Direct Deposit. Also on that date there was a check from 7 months ago that was cashed by the bank. This check was to an old landlord that I used to have, and way back he told me that he never received this check, so I stopped payment on the check and got a bank check for the money and sent that on to him. Now after 7 months he managed to cash the check. The bank never called me to tell me that a “stale Check” was being cashed, and I didn’t know that “stop payments” were only good for 6 months, so the bank paid out this “old check”. Now because this happened and I didn’t know about it, it overdrew my account and I bounced a bunch of other checks. It was only after calling customer service that I found out that “stop payments” were only good for six months and that the bank shouldn’t have cashed this “stale check”, but I was told that it was up to the bans descretion.
Now the fees that came in due to this amounted to more than $900. I was frantic. I got hit with fees on top of fees. My wife’s direct deposit ended up going into our account before we could stop it, and it paid all of their fees off and left us very little money for food to feed our family of 5.
Also during this time I was running out of Insulin (I am a type 1 diabetic) and I also have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. Well I needed Insulin for my pump and the bank refused to free up any of the charges that they had on our account. I ended up have an MS flair twice and ended up in the ER. I also received 2 perscriptions that needed to be filled in order to get over this flair.
I called the bank and a very nice customer service representative named Madona helped me out and freed up $78. so that I could get the prescriptions filled, and then when I went to the bank I was told that I could not take the money out because citizens had put a hold on my account and the one person who could take the hold off was not in that day. I was then escourted out of the bank and was told that Corporate Security was going to be I would not get back any of the fees that I have paid if she had anything to do with it.
I then contacted customer service and lodged a complaint with them. Nest thing I know the claims department is sending me another affidavit in the mail, and this time they want me to try to locate my old landlord so that he can sign it saying that he did infact take money from our account. Can you believe that? I’m sure he’ll sign that? right?
I was told by Citizens Bank that I can not close my account at this point because it is now back to being negative again, and when I tried to open another account with a different bank I was notified that because of citizens bank I would have to wait for that account to be settled before I can open another account anywhere else. So now my wife is stopping her direct deposit and I have to call Social Security in order for them to stop their direct deposit.
I’m thinking about not having a bank account at all, I’m thinking about getting a safe, and then just getting money orders for all of my bills.

Thank you CITIZEN’S BANK for encourgaing me to not trust banks!

pay payments by western union so the company can get payments faster always seem to be posted on account 3 to 5 days later, at that time we get a late fee and extra charges for not paying on time.. but westernunion states that payment was received.within 15 min. want to know if there is a way to stop comp from ripping off people this way?

My husband and I have several accts. with citizens bank as well as mortgage accts. We have been with them since they took over commenwealth bank. When we were with commonwealth they used to call sometimes to say heh we know your husband is traveling a lot out of the country you need to switch money into your acct. a check is going to post today. That was without a doubt unusual but that's the kind of service we received from commonwealth.

Then citizens took over. We stayed with them hoping to build the same kind of relationship. We realized there service cannot compare. Over the years we opened and closed many accts. with them and never really wanted overdraft, so yes we paid many overdraft fees which now are through the roof. Last year my husband opened a savings overdraft and sometimes puts money in that acct.

I recently learned that if you do not have enough to cover the full amount of your mistake of overdraft they do not take any money at all from that acct. and you get charged for everything even if you could of covered most of your mistakes. To me they are stealing our money because they will not use any overdraft that does not cover the full amount. That's bull crap! Why should I pay $234 in overdraft fees when I should only pay for what I could not cover.

My husband also transfered the same day $2800 dollars from our ING acct. which to me is cash, but they said no. Before when my husband fought with them over this the manager said why do you have your money in ING instead of here at citizens and was very rude to my husband because he told them he gets higher interest on his money in the bank and only transfer when he needs to. Please help us resolve or expose this bank I am sure other people are also getting ripped off.

After a long string of very frustrating experiences with Citizens Bank, I didn't think it could get any worse until they charged me a fee for a debit when I had the money in the bank. The sequence of events was:

-Two debit purchases on Friday (had plenty of money to cover these)
-Check I had written was cashed on Saturday (overwithdraft charge ensued; I didn't transfer money in time)
-Debit purchase on Sunday
-Deposit on Monday (labor day) to cover the check in case

Result: They processed my Friday debits the following Tuesday, even though I had the money in the account to cover them at the point of purchase. I recieved an overwithdraft on Tuesday, following the labor day weekend, for FOUR PURCHASES... when I had plenty of money to cover my 2 purchases on Friday. I used a DEBIT for my transactions, mind you, but they allowed each charge to go through anyway. Their explaination was that it was because it was after 3:00pm on Friday and it went in the system as next day business. I searched their policies online and it states:

"When you withdraw funds from an ATM or make a purchase with your debit card, the funds will immediately be removed from your available balance."

Not to mention, they processed my check first, the charges in decreasing order of amount, THEN my deposit.

I was charged $39 for every single one, at a total of $156.

This is WRONG and UNFAIR. If you read their rules and regulations, each one is intentionally written to be ambiguous to work in their favor. Additionally, most people who overwithdraw can't afford the ridiculous fees that they are charged. Something needs to be done about this.

Over $400 and climbing for Overdraft/Insufficient Funds that they made happen- Incredibly on a mortgage payment that I ended up paying myself via Western Union. Tried to pay the awful fees and end the horrible stress but was told no- fees are still coming and account must be open to levy them. The "Juice" is climbing rapidly and I need more phone numbers- Already have the Citizens Bank one in Rhode Island and have already talked to State Banking Commission(not much help but to say this is all legal!)

Someone stole my information and charged 2 cameras to my debit card. after numerous calls to citizens bank finally had to go to the main branch and file an affidavit for unauthorized card use. Their employee filled out the form and my wife signed it. After weeks of being bounced around they only credit my account for one camera (148.93). When contacted again and more trips to the bank they state that because the form was not filled in correctly they cannot re-open or refund the rest of the unauthorized use. They Filled out the paperwork! We are out 148.93 and there is nothing they can do about it. On top of that it caused my account to be overdrawn and they charged me another $150 in overdraft fees.

I worked for Citizens in PA for almost 2 years. Fran, the Bucks County Regional Manager, pushes OD fees EXACTLY as described by many posts.

We were forced to open checking accounts that had excessive overdraft fees and monthly charges in order to ripoff the customers. Here's how:

We had to open accounts, lying to the customers that the account has "no fees" and put specifically designed waivers on the accounts so that the customer doesn't realize the scam (the maximum waiver you could use was for 1 year...)

Then, when the waiver expires months later, the customers have their guard down and they don't obsess with every line on their statements, they get hit by monthly fees that will overdraw the account (as most people keep in their checking account only enough money to cover their checks - that's why it's called a CHECKING account). The overdraft fees will overdraw the account again and again and so will the checks you write believing that your account is still good...

I routinely had customers with hundreds of dollars in fees by the time they received their statement - we were specifically instructed to hit high school kids, college students and senior citizens.

Another trick we had to use is open a "Gold" checking account to senior citizens who would come in and ask for a savings account by using a high interest rate as a carot and not disclosing the fees (using the waivers as noted above). Problem is, that "Gold" checking account had a high-balance requirement and the poor people would be hit by unneccesary monthly fees a few months later...

And to add inslult to injury we even had telemarketing days and evenings when we were forced to make telemarketing calls (disguised as "service calls" so that the bank circumvents the do-not-call registry laws). Not only these were clearly marketing calls (as suggested by the program feeding us the leads!) but also we had to open a number of checking accounts over the phone (the daily and weekly targets were set by Fran again, the Regional Manager).

If only homeland security new how many checking accounts Citizens Bank routinely opens over the phone without proper identification or signatures... all the auditors have to do is go to any Bucks County branch towards the end of the day and ask for the signature cards of the checking accounts opened the SAME day to uncover the illegal practice (this way there is no time to mail the signature card and obtain backdated signatures...)

Stay away from Citizens Bank in PA! I quit several years ago and I am still haunted about the things we had to do...

Citizens Bank Master Card. Brand new account. No feels, low interest, sounds good. Wrong! Never recieved a bill. They called me asking where payment was. I was shocked. Told them I never recieved a bill. They said ok, another one went out yesterday, no problem.

Two days later, got another phone call. told them still waitilng on the bill. They said if you don't get it in a few days, call this number 1-8... Waited all week for bill. Never came. Called the 800 number today. They said the bill only went out on Monday, so they weren't suprised that I didn't have it yet. I said The bill went out over a week ago! No no, bill went out Mon. They wanted me to give them my checking account routing number and my husband said Don't you dare! They now had a late charge fee of $39.00 AND, interest for late payment.

The supervisor told me that if I would take care of this on the phone, she could negotiate the $39.00 fee for late payment. Sounds phony to me!

Sent them a check for the full amount and told them to cancel the account. We ALWAYS get our mail.

INFORMATION AMOUNT MY COMPLAINT:

- Feb. 2007: Financed a 2007 Dodge Caliber through Citizens Automobile Finance in my name only.

- Signed loan paperwork for financing; monthly payments of $262.04 per month for term of loan.

- Sep. 2007: Deployed to Afghanistan for 9 months; made monthly payments (on time) in excess of monthly loan amount.

- In order to stop mailing checks from Afghanistan to Citizens, sent Citizens a memorandum requesting "Automatic Payments" be set-up in the amount of $500.00 per month. After receiving paperwork from Citizens, filling it out, and returning request, "Automatic Payments" started; $500.00.

- "Automatic Payments" continued until I called to cancel. Automatic payments stopped.

- Due to the amount I was sending Citizens, either via mail or automatically (when it started), loan was in good standing until May 2009. Did not send Citizens any payments after cancelling "Automatic Payment" option.

- Dec. 2008: My divorce was finalized and ex-spouse was awarded automobile (2007 Dodge Caliber). However, she was now responsible for monthly payments, insurance, maintence of the automobile. Judge DID NOT order her to refinance car in her name.

- Dec. 2008; Day after finalized divorce, called Citizens to have all payment vouchers for loan sent to ex-spouse. Explained to Citizens she would now be making the monthly payments; starting in May 2009 when next payment was due. Also stated to have any and all banking information (my "Automatic Payment" information, billing statemnets, etc... removed and stopped), the onlyreference I wanted with my name is the individual responsible for the loan; the one who signed the loan contract. She (my ex-spouse) will now be making the loan payments.

- Apr./May 2009: Ex-spouse sent check to Citizens in the amount of $262.04 to satisfy loan payment for May 2009. However, my checking was also debited +$400.00 by Citizens in the beginning of May 2009.

- May 30th, 2009: Phoned Citizens to find-out what happened and why my checking account was debited and why +$400.00. Explained to Citizens that my ex-spouse will be the one making payments from now on (as I explained to Citizens in Dec. 2008); which she did the end of April. Also asked why the amount debited was +$400.00.

- Citizens stated, based on my request via the memorandum I sent months ago (to have the "Automatic Payments" set-up to be $500.00 month) my NEW monthly loan payments were now $500.00, not the original, signed, legal loan contract amount of $262.04 per month.

- Citizens stated I needed to send a signed memorandum stating I wanted to change amount back to $262.04. After going around in circles trying to get an answer on how Citizens can change the original loan amount frrom $262.04 to $500.00, they said I asked to do so based on my memorandum I sent months ago.

- Again, I tried to explained to the Citizens representative that the memorandum I sent months ago was for the "Automatic Payment" amount I wanted to send ($500.00) and NOT to "rewrite" the loan agreement and original loan amount (262.04). Got no where with the 2 representatives I spoke with.

- Jun. 1st, 2009: I typed memorandum requesting I wanted my monthly payments to be $262.04, NOT $500.00 and faxed to Citizens.

- June. 19th, 2009: Phoned Citizens to see if the monthly amount was corrected from $500.00 to $262.04, it WAS NOT. I faxed the memorandum again.

- July 16th, 2009: Received late notice in mail from Citizens stating I still owe $237.96. I phoned Citizens to find-out what was going on.

- "Matt, " stated he didn't know what I was talking about. He than proceeded to say Citizens would waive the $20 late fee if I would pay what I owed now. I requested to be transfered to a Customer Service manager. "Matt" stated that since I was late, the called would be "re-routed" back to collections section. I hung-up and called customer service myself; I got through.

- "Tom, " customer service manager, stated the amount was changed, however it would not take affect until Aug. 2009. Again, I tried to get an answer on how Citizens could change the monthly loan amount from $262.04 to $500.00. He too explained that it was done based on the memorandum requesting "Automatic Payments" to be set-up in the amount of $500.00 a month.

- "Tom" is attempting to get Citizens to make the original loan amount of $262.04 effective 1 July 2009, not Aug. 2009. This will put my account in "good standing" and not -$237.96. Therefore, the next payment would be due in Aug. 2009.

In conclusion, I still do NOT understand how Citizens Automobile Finance can change a customers loan amount (which was listed in the signed loan contract). If a customer requests to send more towards their loan, via "Automatic Payments, " he or she should be able to do so; which I did. However, once the automatic payments are stopped (which I did), the amount due should be the original amount depicted on the loan contract... NOT WHAT WAS REQUESTED ON AN "AUTOMATIC PAYMENT" BY A CUSTOMER.

Someone did thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent activity on my checking account over at least a nine month period and I the bank would only reimburse for 60 days of that fraudulent activity and I can't get anyone to help me get my money from the bank not even the fdic or the ms dept of banking and consumer finance. I'm talking over 10k. Can anyone tell me how I can get my money back. All of it.

Last November Citizens Bank hit me with over 500$ in over draft fees on three purchases all equaling less than 10$. They took my direct deposit Social Security Disability Check and canceled out the fees, regardless of the fact that I did not want that. I nearly became homeless because of that.

I left the account to mold while I opened a checking account with a much better (and more popular) bank. Recently a charge of $3.99 was made via paypal for some arbitrary purpose to the Citizens account by mistake. I made a call to their customer service to ask that the fee be removed as a courtesy, which they agreed to. They then stated my account balance was 'fine' and 'in the clear'.

Well, I though they meant the account was POSITIVE in balance, so I did nothing.

I went in today to deposit 50$ to keep it from happening again, and my account was 100$ NEGATIVE.

They will not waive the fees, or even work with me on the fees. Instead until i make the account positive, I will incur another 39.00 charge every 7 days. No one told me this before. The seven day limit to deposit after the fee was refunded was YESTERDAY, and they will not make an exception!

I am on Social Security, I make 637.00$ a month! I cant afford to lose another 100$ of my income!

I called the bank where I opened the account (Willow Grove) since i live 150 miles away from it now, and the manager (Debbie) was EXTREMELY rude and treated me like I am an idiot who cant manage my money. She told me to practice my money management skills and then hung up.

I have NEVER had an account overdraw at ANY other bank. Citizens Bank should be ashamed of its self. Bad customer service and insane fees will make this bank one of the next to sink!

About a week ago I made a return to a P n C from a debt/credit card purchase the same day. I asked the individual if my account would go through right away. She said "most of the time it does". So I tried to make a purchase and it went through. Everything was fine until I went to the bank and asked how much money was in my account. That's when I felt my heart sank. The teller said it was in the negative, by a lot. I asked her to print up a copy of my account history. She said she could, but she ignored me as though she was deaf when I asked her if she was going to print up my history. Before they have always done this. I explained the situation and she promised that my account will be corrected as soon as the refund displayed into her computer. The next day I signed into the account on the internet to see if there were any corrections made by the bank. None were made, in fact the amount in the negative greatly increased. So I called the number on the back of my card and spoke to a lady from the bank and she said the account would be in positive and that the bank would have my money available as soon as the refund went through. The next I checked and it didn't go through and amount again increased. I was being charged for purchases made after the refund at the P n C. Since the money was never really deposited that moment back, and my account was being charged even without the money in my account, after being told chances were it would be. Anyways I called the number again on the back of my card. To make a long story short I went through about 14 different customer assistance employees, including supervisors all to find out that they would only to erase a portion of the money the internet was saying I owed back in. Not to mention I had to file a complain against one of the supervisors I spoke with. I told him what the lady said the previous date about 11 dollars being back into my account after the refund was shown to have gone through. (That was another thing that tried to upset me. The groceries were returned two days before the bank said it did according to their internet website.) Anyways the man I spoke to name was spoken harshly so I couldn't understand what he said. He sounded the way a shocked criminal sounds when an officer catches them in the act of committing something unlawful. I did speak with another supervisor who told me he could only return 117 into my account ( a different person than earlier) and he was an excellent listener and a pleasure to have a conversation with. I feel like a child would if he were given a lollipop at the bank and then on the way being told that would cost him/her more than they would pay for.

On November 24, 2008 Cole Chevrolet in Bluefield WV mailed the payoff to our Nissan Exterra. It took 11 days for this check to post. In the mean time Citizens automated withdrew my November payment from my checking account after we had called to cancel this service. I spoke with an Ashley B who informed me it would be 2weeks before my reimbursement check with be cut. I am filing charges against this company with the WV Attorney Generals Office, Secretary of States office, BBT Bank and WV State Police for the illegal transfer of money from my checking account.