Citizens Bank
reviews and complaints

Hello, here is a brief description of my issue: today, as of Apr.21 I
went to CitizensBank's branch in Cambridge, MA, Harvard Sq. I wanted to
ask about fee refund since I overdrew my balance.I explained that I am
disabled and have some difficulties with concentration when dealing with
finances.I was humiliated, ignored, they made me wait for 40 min to talk
to the manager, and finally same person (E'atimad Rizk) called me in her office just to scream that she doesn't not want to talk to me
that she is going to close my account. Some banker next to her said that she was a manager, even so when I asked to talk to the manager in a first place she said that the manager is not available. I asked for her name and she got
hysterical, telling me that she doesn't want to talk to me and that because i used f word (i said I am sorry) but she said 'No!' and that i
need to leave or she calls the police.I asked for her name again, she
screamed that it's on her tag and that I need to leave.I said she can
call police if she needs too.She did.I was told I made her feel
uncomfortable and that I must never enter this branch or I will be
arrested.I hope the whole conflict is recorded by bank's camera's and am
sure I was treated badly. Though I am with this bank for 6 years, and
was never treated with anything by respect before.Also, what might be
helpful she kept saying she knows me.I never met her in my life.And I
thought she meant she saw me at the bank before.I have no idea what all
this was about.But what is worse that even so I was asking her and other
bankers to talk to the manager I never got too even so I spent there at
least an hour. All this is very very upsetting. Please advise.

I have a mortgage with Citizens Bank.
When I first got the mortgage I was required to maintain flood insurance on the amount of the loan.

Shortly after the big floods in 2010 I was contacted by Citizens and told that now I had to maintain flood insurance for the 'replacement cost of my home' which is much higher then what I owe them on the mortgage amount.

The increase in Flood insurance premiums is now costing me over $1000 dollar more per year and rising.

I don't think it's right for Citizens to change their mortgage contract policies mid stream.

In 2010 my house got flooded real bad. I got over 9.5 ft of water damage meaning I had to completely re do my entire house.
Everything had to be ripped out from the foundation up. Everything except for the bare walls and roof. All outside siding had to be removed, all electrical, heating, a/c, furnace, domestic hot water system, all hard wood oak floors ripped up and replaced.. everything in the entire house including all appliances and furniture.

At that time I had a $150, 000 dollar policy for flood damage and EVERYTHING in the entire house was replaced without a problem for just $133, 000 so I do not understand why Citizens changed their policy on flood coverage requiring me to maintain a new policy for $250, 000 dollar coverage.

No One from Citizens bank underwriter department will talk to me in person about this situation. It just seems that they do not care what my concerns are and only their own.

Patrick Bonanno
Warwick, RI

Back in March I had received an offer in the mail to open an account and if I made certain transactions by a certain date, I was receive $175.00. Well let me tell you, it is October, my account is still open, I fulfilled the requirements and I am being denied my $175. It has been a long battle, several phone calls and trips to my local branch and I am told that since I was not on the mailing list of customers targeted, I could not get my money. I have moved 3 times since then due to a sick parent and cannot find the letter, so I am being told too bad. I want to add that everyone that I talked to about this, put my concern on the low priority list and I had to force them to follow up. I am disgusted with the service and am closing my account.

My husband has been a loyal Citizens Bank customer for years. 2 years ago he took out a personal line of credit. We should have known something was wrong with the bank at that point. They called and told him his payment was late when they never even closed the loan when the call came in. Then they said it was mix up. A year later, I took out a personal loan with automatic withdrawals to pay my loan back. At this point we decide to refinance our house. The loan officer from Citizens took 3 months to get back to me with the completed application. He kept saying since we had 2 houses on our property - a Carriage house (2 car garage with apartment over it) it was a problem with securing a loan. The next company never said a word about it, so again it was just a lazy loan officer trying to find excuses for not doing his job in a timely fashion. I finally gave up on them. I called another company. Within 5 minutes of filling out an application over the phone and them pulling our credit, the new company said "This is very strange. You have excellent credit but yet the day after each of you took out a loan with Citizens Bank, you filed bankrupt." I of course could not believe it. Sure enough they supposedly "hit a wrong code" and our credit rating on all 3 major credit bureaus had us bankrupt. If I wanted another month on the first inefficient fool, I would never have known. My recommendation is to find another bank. Once we notified them of the mistake - the local branch blamed the corporate branch. It is close to impossible to find a email address or phone number for anyone at the top to rectify the problem. They said it would 3 weeks. They did fix it, but it was their fault and we felt that it should have been resolved immediately. Of course I just got a survey to fill out and blasted them but little good that does towards the mess they made of our credit. Then they acted like it was not their fault. I've never seen such a poorly run bank.

My husband and I are middle aged citizens and we're trying to refinance our home with my husband working full time and me as a part tine worker were offered by Citizens bank a refinancing option to our current home. Since we maintained accounts with Citizens bank, we trusted their offer and began the loan processing in July, 2012. I've to let the world know that, It was nothing but a nightmare process and now after six months, still they didn't close the loan and we lost the deposit $450.00. Citizens bank's loan dept literally taken us for a ride.

We've submitted all the long list of documents within two weeks of the initial processing. Then started following up...Then 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 weeks passed by...After 4 months they started asking the same documents we've submiited earlier...We're helpless and the worst part about this was, there was no explanation from the Citizens bank side, why it took so long for responding and queries and what they were doing with our files...For them, the customer satisfaction has no value in it.

We did not understand how such a huge mistake could have happened. Almost six months later they started requesting the same documents and other list of verifications again...we kept on requesting them really humbly to stop this processing fiasco and refund our hard earned $450.00. The Citizens bank simply replied NO...We lost our deposit money as well as 4+ months of reduced monthly mortgage payment. The Citizens bank dragged us to this nightmare went with no remorse or apology. It's hard to believe such bank can do to the long standing customers.

If you are considering Refinancing/Financing loan with Citizen Mortgage, our humble request to run away from them and don't ended up a prey like us. Please stay away from them for loan purposes.

I overdrew my account by $8.66. the same day, I deposited an amount sufficient to cover it. the next day, I saw an overdraft fee of $37.00! I called and was told they would "give me the courtesy of a rebate of $37.00, which they did). the following day, I looked on line and saw that their computer reconfigured their posting order. the $37.00 overdraft fee was there, followed by the original charge of $8.66. this caused my account to be overdrawn again!. so. long story short, they did rebate me the $37.00, but because they posted the original charge of $8.66 before the rebate, they charged me again - $37.00. this bank is a scam and fraudulently treats their customers like #s. apparently the $137 million dollar settlement for doing the same thing means nothing to citizens.

My home was in short sale for several months when my husband died instantly in a car accident on 8/31. CBRI stopped the short sale, foreclosed on my home and just today withdrew the majority of my personal checking account because of an outstanding joint loan with my dead husband. They never informed me of this seizure. I don't understand how I am supposed to pay bills and move out of my home with no access to my personal savings. I quit my job so I could move out of the home. I have asked them for proof that they even informed me of the foreclosure. My attorney, the short sale legal rep, my realtor, and myself did not find out until the night before there was a foreclosure auction at my door. I now have to take legal action to try to get money so I can leave my foreclosed home. It's approaching Christmas. Citizens Bank, if you want my house, please give me my money back so I can leave it and move on with my life.

I walked in the bank to get a bank statement for my dad and to my surprise the banker told us that there is a 7$ fee per monthly statement. I was disgusted with this new fee and voiced my concern but he said there is nothing he can do. This bank is getting worse and worse with all these unethical fees. My whole family use citizens bank but after this event I am stopping all business with them. Their corporate leaders need to learn be socially responsible and stop ripping their loyal customers off.

Long, drawn out story...I applied for a refinance and was told I would be locked in for 90 days (beginning of July), I sent everything requested around July 9 (income, homeowners ins., deed, etc. etc) I got a call from the Underwriter asking about the income change (my hours were cut from 40-32) I wrote him about this the day he called (July 29) and he said he was waiting for a letter from my insurance agent.
I waited and waited, finally, on August 29, I called again and he said he never got the letter from my insurance agent. I called her and she said she never received any form from him. I e-mailed him and told him this, so, he faxed the form and she filled it out and faxed it right back. He then told me that it "looked good"...he also said not to expect anything to get done at the beginning of the month because they don't give mortgages at the beginning of the month. I waited a few more weeks and e-mailed him and asked what was going on and he was on vacation, so, I e-mailed the first person with whom I spoke. He must have gotten in touch w/the underwriter who then sent me a short e-mail that it looked like I wasn't getting the refi. (due to income change and a loss on last years taxes, ...which they HAD since July 9)
I told him about the loss and explained that I now have a tenant who moved in on August 1. I then got a quick telephone message from the original gentleman who said "Sorry, you aren't getting the mortgage"...that was it.
They knew of my income since July 9...on August 29, the underwriter said it looked good. I think they were put out because I questioned them and asked if they were waiting until my 90 days were up so they could up the interest rate.
I received a copy of the inspector's report and in it he said that my first floor was vacant. He did the inspection on August 1, I told him a lady was moving in that very day, and, he put down the apartment was vacant. It isn't.
I then got a "reason" for the decline of the refinance stating that my credit report was bad. (My credit is over 800) ...but, due to too many inquiries, it was declined. The original person checked the report at the beginning of July...I was told the second week of September. They hindered me and gave me false info that the application looked good.
Also, the inspector said the house was worth over $400, 000 and I was asking for $215, 000...the property is located in an area that was never affected by the housing decline. I own a large multiple family, which, modestly could easily sell for over $600, 00 and the investor would gut it out and turn it into 2 or 3 condos with parking in the back and a large roof deck.
Being that I rented the first floor, I now cannot sell this house and pull such a dirty trick on the person who rented thinking it would be for quite some time.
The Citizens Bank have not only lost me, but, two people I work with, one was going to refinance w/them and decided not to and the other was going to go for a mortgage and decided not to go there.
A boss called and told me that they would refund my application fee...what does that tell you? They know I have intentions of seeking advice on their tactics and hopefully having the City of Boston know of them as well.
So folks, do not trust Citizen's Bank...their pathetic commercials are all false.

I have been banking with Citizens for a while now, but just in the past year, I had to fight to get my money back from them multiple times. I was unfortunately a victim of debit fraud months ago - somehow my card information had been stolen - and all of my money was spent at a Walmart in Ohio. I called immediately and they were helpful at first. However, my new debit card was sent to the wrong address, and I had to waste a day chasing after my package due to their incompetence. My paperwork regarding the incident (that I had to fill out to get my stolen money back) was also sent to the wrong address and I did not receive them for weeks. Citizens did not credit my funds back until OVER THREE WEEKS LATER! As if that wasn't enough, Citizens charged me $74 in overdraft fees for the unknown charges and refused to refund those fees until after the investigation was complete (I had to call and pester them to refund the fees anyway, because they never did). When I asked a representative how Citizens could help me pay for my life now that all of my money had been stolen, I was told to take out a loan! The bank's policies regarding fraud, the way in which they handled the situation, and the representatives' complete lack of sympathy put unnecessary stress on me while I was already freaking out about my money being stolen. It was a horrible experience, and I knew at that point that I needed to switch banks.

More recently, I was charged over $100 in overdraft fees despite the fact that I am enrolled in a savings overdraft protection program. This program allows for overdrafts to be removed from my savings in the case that my checking has insufficient funds (I'd like to mention that this program costs $30 annually - yes, just to take money out of my savings instead of my checking- and they withdrew this fee from my account at random with no warning whatsoever). When I noticed the huge charge on my account, I called up customer service immediately. I was told that my overdraft protection had "not been set up correctly, " and couldn't help but feel skeptical after being charged sneaky overdraft fees before. Citizens Bank will jump at the chance to charge overdraft fees, and occasionally contrive ways of causing overdrafts to occur on purpose. My mother has had the same problems, and we are both switching to other banks!

We obtained a construction loan from First Citizens Bank for the building of a home on property we owned in Hendersonville NC. Shortly after the project began our initial builder was bought out by another company. When the new concern brought the contract to the Bank in the name of RAD Construction, the bank asked him for his license. RAD'S owner, Ronald Aderhold gave them a license belonging to his friend's brother in the name of Boston South Investments. When the bank asked him for his insurance he gave them insurance in the name of Double R Windows. The bank did not question any of this or alert us to the name differences. They proceeded to issue him money from the loan whether we authorized it or not. Since this guy was not licensed you can imagine the building was below substandard. The bank paid him for stuff that was never done. Since they have our name on the loan note we are on the hook for their lack of competence. Follow my blog at tarider1.blogspot.com This is a nightmare that we don't want to happen to anyone else.

If you dont have 5000$ total with all accounts put together this bank will charge you 17.50 monthly fee. I dont understnd the concept of "because you do not have enough money we will take some more" This is absolutely rediculous. We put our money in there thinking it is safe and you get robbed blindely. Not only that i was charged a overdraft fee when charges were still on hold and i clearly had enough money to cover the charges without going into my overdraft 10$ there. On top of that when for some reason i have to use another Banks ATM i get charged 3$ not only by the foreign ATM but also through Citizens Bank for a fee of 3$. No wonder the banks are doing great in this economy.Robb from the poor

This is an example of the height of stupidity. With a valid state issued, Mass ID I was still not able to go to the teller to take out money at one particular branch. There was a question of how I signed my name, no security questions were asked or anything. Instead, I was asked to leave and go to another branch. I actually had to use the ATM machine and go to another branch to get the rest of my money. Good luck with your "zero loss" goals. Then a few days later, I receive a letter in the mail stating that they were going to close my account because of my "outburst." How would you feel when you go someplace with correct identification and are still denied service. When on payday, you can't get your money to pay your bills that are due and past due...no food in your house...how calm would you be? Worried about your "zero
loss" bonus then have the audacity to think if you threaten to "close" my account that I would "go away." Think again!

Citizens Bank has been the worst banking experience of my life! Frist of all I have never had a bank where I had to have so many debit cards in my life due to bank error and wait almost 2 weeks to get a new card. Constantly I had “debit card fraud” ok how is it that your customers information is constantly leaking out! So after a number of events the bank advised me to open a new account and I did. I opened the new account but, in the meantime fees accrued on the old fraudulent account and the bank said that they would only give me back half the fees and I was responsible for the rest. WHY? I had nothing to do with fraud on my account, and I had no idea that the customer service representative would not be placing a to be closed status on my account to stop all activity and fees. To be honest I think that all she was concerned about was opening a new account to make her quota, not at all being concerned about her customers wellbeing. So some weeks go pass, and I see that fees are being accrued on an account that I thought was inactive. I call the customer service number and I speak with a lady that says well we will give you some fees back but it was your responsibility to keep track of your account so we will not give them all back. OK when I went to the branch and spoke with the customer service representative I felt comfortable to assume that she would do her job and handle both accounts in a manner that would be the most beneficial to me. So the account was placed on a “credit only status” so that I could make periodic deposits to clear out the negative balance.
In the mean time I kept receiving letters in the mail so I called and spoke to a lady in the recovery department we go back and forth on payment options and she explains that the account has been 43 day in the negative and at 60 it would be charged off. I tell her that I do not have the money right now and I did not know that I was on a 60 day timeline to pay off the account. She says “well pay what you can and if you get any money between now and the 60 days you should pay it off” I end the conversation with ok well I get paid two times before then I will see what I can do. She says “ok I will make a note of it” . I explained to the representative that is was very important to me to pay off the debt and the money that was in my account was already accounted for with pending checks and check card authorizations. She said she understood but if the account was still in the negative after 60 days then the recovery department had the right to pull any money that was available I said ok I will work on it before that date. The next morning I sign into online banking to see that my account had been debited to clear out the negative balance in the old account. Words can’t describe the emotions that I am feeling now, all trust has been broken. I now have checks and check card authorizations coming in on top of the fact that I have personal living expense that I have to handle. I can’t believe that a bank that I have direct deposit set up in and other automatic reoccurring debits would do something so underhanded. I had two pays that they could have taken from but they chose to make it hard and make themselves more money by possibly getting more fees from other NSF checks . It is really sad what banking has come to in order to make money, no concern for customers or having a long last banking relationship with their customers, just how much money in fees can we get! Well there are not many options for 5 star banks today but I will make sure to share my story with every person, bank, review site (BBB, etc) that will hear me!

I received a check from an individual drawn on citizens bank. When I went to cash the check at citizens bank, I was told that I would be charged a fee of $7.00 to cash a check drawn on citizens bank because I did not have an account with citizens bank! I spoke to the manager and stated that the person who sent me the check instructed their bank (Citizens) to "pay to the order of" me. They refused to cash the check without charging me the $7.00 fee. This is a complete rip-off! I would suggest that you boycott citizens bank until this unfair and possibly illegal fee is removed.

Citizens Bank is without a doubt the worst bank I have ever worked with.

They have been charging me $7.95/month to allow my Intuit Quicken software to synchronize with it. I've never heard of that and neither have any of my friends. Further, they never warned me that there would be a such a fee. And to top it off, it doesn't even work - Quicken always gets an error when it tries to synchronize so I actually disabled it.

After paying the false fee for ~5 months, I finally gave them a call. The person on the phone said they would escalate it to a manager to see if they could give a rebate. I didn't hear back from them for 2 weeks so I called back. This time, the person on the phone said the account doesn't show a records of the previous conversation so he put in a formal note into the system and again said they would escalate it. Still no word for 2 weeks so I called them a final time. This time the person said he sees a record of the previous record but the issue is still open... he promised either he or the manager would call me within 1 week. It's been 2 weeks and I never heard back from them.

Between the charging fees like thieves and handling customer complaints so poorly, I'll obviously cancel the account. But if you are reading this, I highly recommend that you don't bank with Citizens. I'm telling my friends the same. It's no wonder that these big banks are in such trouble and need us to bail them out (through the government and the fees!)... really amazing.

Ranjit

If your account becomes overdrawn for any reason(including only because of their maintenance fee) they will charge you $6.99 A DAY and only notify you about it whenever they feel like it(in my case, 3 weeks later).

After a phone call they did me a favor and rebated $40 of it and told me I was responsible for the rest. Does not matter how many accounts you have with them or what your history is - you will simply get a letter threatening to inform your credit agency.

Nice - my accounts are now somewhere else and I hope Citizens is the next bank to crash and burn - and I'm from Pittsburgh where Mellon is the original parent of Citizens- which is why I stupidly opened accounts with them.

Citizens bank is one of the worst offenders of hidden fees. Over the last couple of months since the whole banking drama has unfolded over the Internet and news I started to pay closer attention to the fees I was being charged. Every month it seemed I was paying upwards of 50-60 dollars in fees. When I went to my local branch to ask about these fees I was given ridiculously long winded answers loaded with banking terms which in my opinion are tactics use to confuse its customers and deter them from following through with there complaints. The straw that broke the camels back came today when I went to order food and my Citizens bank debit card I use to order food was cancelled for no apparent reason and I wasn't even given notification. After calling my local branch again another clandestine answer was given to me. They might as well have said "oops" which in my opinion would be a better portrayal of the shallow, greedy, slimy people who own and run Citizens bank. How do we as a country let these banks continue to walk all over us as if we were doormats. From the bottom of my heart Citizens bank F%$k off!