Citizens Bank
Reviews and Complaints

As someone who has had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Citizens Financial Group, I must say it has been nothing short of a nightmare. The level of service provided by this bank is abysmal, to say the least. From hidden fees to unexplained account discrepancies, the entire banking experience has been a rollercoaster of frustration and disappointment. It's disheartening to see a financial institution operate in such a manner, leaving customers feeling helpless and undervalued. My advice to anyone considering banking with Citizens Financial Group is simple: run in the opposite direction. Your hard-earned money deserves better care and attention than what this bank is willing to offer.

Today, on 4/6/2024, I experienced annoyance and embarrassment ar the local Walmart when my debit card was declined during multiple attempts to make a payment. I immediately accessed my account online to make sure the balance was right. The balance was in order, so I then called the number on the back of the card. [protected]. The automated system notified me that the wait time would be longer than 10 minutes. It turned out to be 20+ minutes. No problem. The gentleman finally answered on the other end, and he was very polite. I provided him with my 16-digit card number and the last 4 digits of my social security number. He then notified me that in order for my debit card to be unfrozen, he must transfer me to another department. (? imagine how it feels after 20 minutes on hold being told that the line you were given cannot fix the simple problem). Ok, more dysfunctionality to come. I was transferred to another department, and a lady named Arolin picked up. This time, she asked me for my phone number, and I provided both ( I have two numbers attached to my account). She told me then, listen to that!, my phone number does not match one on the file ! So, she refused to help me on that ground and suggested I go to the bank directly to speak in person. Now, the problem is that my work hours allow me to visit local brunch only on Friday, and I explained it to her, asking her not to leave me without access to my funds for 6 days (since I was calling on Saturday). I offered to provide her with my total SSN number and account number. She was adamantly cold, inhumane and repetitive, repeating the same sentence repeatedly. I felt like talking to a machine, not a human being. I decided to talk to another representative and called again. This time, it was Natalie. I have to admit she was polite but could not help me either. I asked her to please connect me to her superiors or top manager since I refused to believe such a simple issue could not be fixed by a click of a button, considering I have all the verification info available. According to her, Mr Lee (no last names are ever given, so I guess no accountability for being a lousy manager), her manager from the supervisor department, was in no power to help me and consequently suggested I must go to the local branch to resolve this problem in person. Of course, I will survive until Friday by borrowing money for gas and food, but the amount of time spent on the phone and all the inconvenience caused by some mishap within the system is not going to be compensated. I am just expected to swallow such a lack of service and move on. Of course, I will. But I must point out the declining quality of customer service, sheer idiocy and inadequacy of both policies and their human enforcers. Shame on Citizens Bank. It made me feel like I was back in the USSR, dealing with heartless socialist beaurocracy.

We sold and paid off vehicle a 2013 Ford Explorer in Mar. 2022 Dealer sent back to Bank and Zurich Insurance hung up on me 5-6 times, got n

owhere.

About the same with your bank. The acct# is [protected] I think purchaced1-18

We received a letter said we should be refunded $406.92 from your bank, you can call us [protected]

Once again, I find myself unable to login to their website or app. This happens WAY TOO FREQUENTLY. I've been trying to access my account all morning and calling their customer service for help but no luck. Finally after 7 phone calls to their 866 number and one absolutely useless call to my local branch, I get a recording stating they are having issues with mobile and online banking. This is enough for me to move all my money elsewhere. Been a customer since 1991 and the time has come to move on. Online and mobile baking issues should not be a WEEKLY problem, once or twice a month maybe, but this is absolutely ridiculous.

The below email was originally posted under Citizens Bank reviews and also emailed to multiple email addresses within Citizens Bank on September 27, 2023. On September 28, 2023, I received a Citizen's correspondence email from Tonya Lariviere who claims to be the Senior Advocate in the Chairman's office. We did exchange a few phone calls and emails after she claimed she would be able to help me but then she stopped responding. I have emailed and called her multiple times leaving voicemails but have not heard from her in several weeks. This is extremely frustrating as it has been for several years now dealing with your company. Your bank has screwed me over and I can't even get decent customer service to help me with a multiple hundred thousand dollar loan. The person who claimed could help me and supposedly the highest customer service rep had no power to assist me with any of this or get any answers. She literally knew nothing. I had court a month ago to remove my ex wife from the loan which still has not been done after being told several times by multiple people that she would be removed through the loan modification process. I will continue to share my story and how horrible of a company Citizens Bank is until I receive the help I have been requesting for over years... removing my ex wife off of the loan ordered by a judge in the court of law. I expect a response from someone who actually has power in your company that can help me with this. I will be happy to show the paper trail and call logs of all the time your company has stolen from me.

During covid we were offered the forbearance plan and told that there are no penalties. We were also told that when it came time to start paying our monthly payment again that the missed payments would be added to the end of the loan. So the promise was that they extend the life of the loan, the interest rate goes down and that the monthly payment would go down too. Years later after dealing with them claiming they supposedly didn't receive my "complete" loan modification packet (which was confirmed via email AND A LETTER WAS MAILED TO ME STATING THEY RECEIVED THE COMPLETE PACKET & I WOULD HEAR FROM THE PERSON ASSIGNED TO ME) all of this was a lie. My payment has gone up, my interest rate has gone up. On top of this due to a divorce I need to remove my ex wife off of the loan and originally they told me they can do so during the loan modification process with a divorce decree. Again another lie! Every time I try to get answers no one can help me! Customer service can't help because the loan is still in loss mitigation. Not even "supervisors" or "managers." They can't connect me to someone who can help either! When I speak to loss mitigation they repeat the same script over and over again and refuse to connect me to a manager or say that they are unable to help too. So please tell me how a company this large dealing with thousands and millions of dollars cannot help! How are all of these employees so incompetent and how can I not be connected to somebody who does have solutions? Who is running the company then? Not only have they messed with my financial stability but they have worsened my mental and physical health. This message is the least that’s happened so I hope this email finds it’s way to the right person who can help me.

As per home equity account number [protected]

To whom this may concern. It has been brought to my attention that my original loss mitigation application submitted back in May 2023 was rejected because of a lock on my credit report. I was told by a rep in loss mitigation to remove the lock on my credit report and submit all of the info again in order to start the process all over again. All Citizens Bank had to do was call me or send me a email or letter requesting me to remove the block on my credit report so we could proceed with the application. No one has contacted me and requested removal of the credit block. Instead, Citizen's loss mitigation department put my loan into foreclosure, ruined my credit and tacked on late fees since the month of my original loss mitigation application. May of 2023. Who is Sherlita Fox? She provided me with a phone number that leads to the collections department and no one knows Sherlita Fox. I was also in contact with Stacy Swett at [protected] who works for the Office of the chairman. I have left her several messages and sent her several emails regarding this issue and and she refuses to respond.

As per this Loss Mitigation case, It was my understanding per letters I received, that Sherlita Fox is my “relationship manager” and “single point of contact” Unfortunately this is not the case. I sent all of the required documentation last May for my loss mitigation application. No one contacted me after all of my information was submitted and I was told the application review process would take 3 to 5 months. No one ever contacted me after that even though I received a letter dated May, 2, 2023 that a single point of contact "would call me to discuss options" No phone calls, no emails, nothing. My application was then cancelled because I have a block on my credit report and no one sent me a letter or called me to work with me and request that I lift the block so Citizens could move forward with the loss mitigation application. Instead, Citizens cancelled my loss mitigation application, put my loan into foreclosure and ruined my credit. I am now reapplying for Loss Mitigation and I have submitted tons of information to Citizens loss mitigation. Every time I email Loss Mitigation forms and information I am told something else is missing. There are too many people involved and one single point of contact would be the way this should be handled. Why am I receiving letters and emails from Sherlita Fox claiming that she is my single point of contact? Why do these letters and emails say at the bottom “If you have any questions, please contact your Relationship Manager below” and Sherlita Fox is the name is on the letter with this phone number. [protected]? When you call the 7364 number you get a loan counseling department in a foreign call center and no one knows who Sherlita Fox is. Why is a direct number to Sherlita Fox being provided when she actually has no direct phone number? This process is broken and Citizens bank is playing games and setting customers up for failure. This has been nothing but a nightmare. I need upper management to call me please. I have requested a supervisor call back 6 times in the last 2 weeks and as promised the call back never comes. More games. My contact info has been sent via email dozens of times with no response.

Brad Worsfold [protected]

Facebook pay back in June lost my rent money, I got refunded twice, third time no refund. The branch manager saw this and gave me a refund, on November 14, the claims department which needs literacy volunteers took that refund out of my bank account, resulting on me not being able to pay my power bill resulting in upcoming shutoff, and me not being able to pay car insurance or utilities this month

4th time this year Citizen Bank has had their online and mobile serviced shut down over "planned system maintenance". being disabled it is very iimnportant for me to verify my SSI check was deposited before i can buy groceries and medicine. i called citizens mobile banking customer service after 14 hours of their online/mobile system being down [protected]). i asked to speak with a supervisor, waited over 25 minutes. Daniel asnwered. would not give me an employee I number, but dod identify herself as a supervisor, from team #2 based out of pittsburgh. Daniel was short with me, threatened me and hung up the phone on me after 34 minutes.

there was no warning they were going to be doing scheduled maintenence, in fact i logged on several times after 10pm as i NEEDED to get my account balance. when this downtime started approaching midnight, there was no message about scheduled maintenence either, just said cannot log on at this time, please try again later. i am, or was a customer of Citizens Bank for over 55 years (Mellon Bank, Eaton Road Branch)

I have $1M in equity in my house, my business was devastated, forbearance during Covid, accepted modification, and paid the 3 payments considered probationary to make the modification permanent. About 45 days later, I received a check back from the bank with a note saying it couldn't be accepted - no reason at all. Just a one-liner to appeal, which I did, and then I called and emailed incessantly and nobody responded. The only people I could get were in collections, and they couldn't do anything. Then the intent to foreclose letters started, I had an attorney (loan modifications, not a litigator) on the phone with me, and they agreed to forward all information from then on to the lawyer, which they didn't do. This went on for 18 months until they filed for foreclosure. I've been fighting it since, and I'm up to $16,000 in legal fees, and my credit has been destroyed (780 to 560). It's a principal thing. I'm beyond being upset, worried, etc. It's changed me as a person. It's impacting my marriage, my family, my business, and now my health. I don't know what to do. Why not honor the modification?

I went in on 10-13-23 and it was my turn in the line and she waited on the customer who already had a teller waiting on him and said nothing and I asked how long she would be because she was very rude and should not have not taken me and just ignored me and started waiting on him and when inquired she said without looking at me she didnt know or cared and I heard debbie getting done with her customer and him leaving and I asked and called out her name before approaching her desk in the back not to get or miss my spot in the teller spot since she already skipped right over me and this is why no one stays there and leaves or whatever the case may be and info is given wrong; no one calls you back to make nice like her and I specifically had called her the other day and explnd to her that I had a death in my family and I d be in frid the 13th and she said she would help me and didnt! She is a horrible unfair person and despicable manager if that is her so called sad to say manager of whom represents citizens who always tells you about her ex fiancee crying and chattering and then wait took another customer and dodged me after I told her I was still waiting and had to return to work she then shut the door to the office on me and the man opened it the customer said please take her if she was waiting thats not fair said the customer and she said I dont care let her wait! I still do not have all the info I nee d and I and my husband are going to go elsewhere because of poor managegment on her part and the new tellers are incapable of the job do not understand and are as rude and arrogant as her.

This is my second go around with this loan. First, I had a terrible time trying to close this loan. I finally filed a claim with the BBB. When it was finally closed, the attached check was sent to me. I thought it an error that it was sent to me. So, I returned it. Weeks later, it was sent back to me with a letter stating that the loan was closed. So I deposited it in my bank account. Now it was returned to me as insufficient funds. So now I will have an insufficient funds charge.

I changed my credit card. For the second time in my loan, I am getting emails that my payment could not be processed. As well as calls and texts.

My emails from vivint do not show my loan number, so I can not make an account or log in online to take care of it.

When I answer the phone, use the prompts and say that I want to pay now, it says now going to automated payment system. It then starts over on the whole new set of prompts and menus and eventually lands on the part where you have to enter your 16 digit account number.

Since I do not have that, I then have to sit on hold for god knows how long, trying to pay measily 72 bucks.

For the love of god. Who designed this? This could be resolved by your including the account number in the app, or in the emails your send, or even in tying your automated payment system to the account, when you call the person, the system knows my account. Knows what I owe, why can't it just transfer me to where I can enter my card number and all that info and move on with my day?

Did someone's child design this, Christ. Such easy fixes for you to get your money easier, yet you won't do them.

There is no way for a person to change their password and despite wasting 1 hour of my life calling them, they say they can't help me unless I give them my account number (X'd out on my statements) or my FULL social security number which there's no way in hell I'm giving out over the phone so I'm stuck with a password that was compromised in a data breach. There's no excuse for this in 2023.

I am writing to file a complaint about the poor customer service I received.

I called citizen bank on September 4th to make a deposit into my checking account due to a low balance I was told I had to reach out to my bank where the transfer was coming from. I finally made a deposit into my citizen account to later realizing I made a deposit Into my credit card on 9/4/23 instead of the correct account. my intentions were to deposit into my checking account # [protected] Usually I have a direct deposit due to an injury I have been out of work unable to make it to a branch . on 09/06/23 when I realized my citizen checking account was in a negative status I called the branch,Explaining to the customer service rep on 09/07/23 about the confusion and the fee of $35.00 . the customer service rep explained due to a one time courtesy in the past that I was not eligible for a fee reversal. I explained that 08/10/ 2023 the branch computers were down and I could no deposit any monies into my account and a transaction posted and I should not be liable due to the system being down and I should be able to dispute the fee made on 09/06/23. I informed the rep that this is poor customer service , and I would like to close my account, the rep said ok and closed my account

My name is Anthony Giardina. My account number is, [protected]. My debit card number is [protected]. I called customer service to report a charge on my card of something that I did not recognize. The gentleman on the phone said he would file a claim. When he told me my card would be deactivated, I said I would rather not do that. He said it was too late. I asked to speak with a supervisor. Jessica eventually came on the line. I explained the situation and she said she would get an emergency reactivation. She would notify me when it was done. Three hours later she called and said it was done. This morning, Monday August 28th I called customer service top make sure my card was good as I was taking 2 clients out for lunch. When I tried to use my card, it was rejected. I was embarrassed. After two people in your bank said it was good. I called customer service today and was told by supervisor Ashley. that the card was no good. I have about $40000.00 in your bank, and it means nothing to your customer service. Either they were lying to me or just incompetent. Either one tells me to find another bank. I also just paid off a $129000.00 mortgage with your bank. I was told by Ashley that she was as high as I can go with this complaint. Amazing.

Citizens Bank FEIC # 14851

RE: Fraudulent Debit Card (Card ending in 0739) Transaction Made 7:56 AM 8/21/23

Reported by me 11:04 8/21/23

Claim #C-2176193

Amount $454.00 to Amazon

A provisional credit was supposed to be issued within 2 days of reported fraudulent activity, it has not nor is the bank working to resolve this issue in a timely fashion.

funds taken out of my account by unknown entity: staff at 2 branches could not explain new statement location for finding problem.

Don't listen to customer's question before interrupting and talking non stop to distract from problem solving. When they don't know an answer due to not listening, they accused cust. of 'yelling': poor ESL skills by staff.

Citizens Bank will not allow me to access my accounts, either through their web site or through their app. I have NO ACCESS AT ALL to my money. Their systems only ever respond "this account is inaccessible/'unavailable". I am unable to login or perform any management of my accounts. THIS NOT A PASSWORD PROBLEM. The account is not "locked" from fraud or login attempts. It is NOT a technical problem on my end. I've tried everything, from various browsers, rebooting, clearing cache and cookies, all that stuff. I have been a systems administrator for 30 years, and I know what I'm doing. I have spent hours and hours on the phone with their technical support. I have tried EVERY POSSIBLE WAY to make sure the problem is not on my end. The account is always "unavailable" or "inaccessible ". Their support people have freely admitted that this is a well-known problem that is affecting many of their customers. They claim it is due to "updates" they are doing to their systems, but refuse to give even a rough estimate of when the problem will be fixed. This has been happening for MONTHS. They are breaching their contract with me. This is critically affecting my finances, especially since one of the accounts is a large loan (HELOC) which I desperately need access to. I have worked endlessly with them to get this resolved, but they haven't, and show no signs of caring about the issue. Please do whatever you can to resolve this.

I have a 14 month CD. It matured 07/10. Called next day to closed my CD. They told me that someone would need to talk to me in 5 days to talk to me. I called back today. They told me of no record of me calling 07/11. I do not want my CD to rollover for another year. I was told i have 10 days after it maturity. I have also a saving account. I want to transfer CD to saving. I in need of my money from CD now. Your agents are not very helpful. Need to retrain personal.Put me on hold many times to find right department. I will be closing all my accounts with once Cd is closed.

Today, Wednesday July 19, 2023

Online banking has been unavailable for several hours this morning. This is completely unacceptable.

The "rain check" message is not appreciated. When this happens, the message should clearly state that the website is not functioning and, if possible, give an estimate for it's restoration.

When will the website include images of checks drawn against our account?

When will the website allow you to search checks by number?

In 2023, online banking needs to work 24/7 and 365.

My organization used Investors Bank for many years and we did not encounter these problems.