Consumer complaint received 2023-01-27
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Privacy issues

Complaint:
I used to be an XXXX XXXX from XX/XX/XXXX until XXXX XXXX, when XXXX sold its customers to Citizens Bank. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, was my last credit card statement with XXXX, my bank account with them was closed and I did not wanted to be a citizens customer. 
I started to receive mail from Citizens bank as if I was their customer. I called them to make sure they knew I would not want any relationship with the bank.They explained to me over the phone that was an automatic procedure and every XXXX customer would receive that and all I had to do was ignore any information from them. 

A few automatic payments I had used to be debited from my XXXX credit card. On XXXX and XXXX, i had to change the payment method as obviously my XXXX card was inactivated. 

Anyway, I used to pay my XXXX  using my XXXX account. Around XX/XX/XXXX, I received a Citizens statement charging me some a balance without describing the service purchased. I called them and they said it was related to XXXX expenses from XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. I said that was definitely a mistake as I had never had any relationship with Citizens Bank and never ever activated any credit card from them. They gave me the final XXXX digits of their credit card : XXXX. I assure them I never touched a credit card with that number. 

They kept sending me billings for this and I kept calling them trying to understand what was going on and they told me to speak at the fraud department. I called Fraud department and we went over the amounts and they explained that my XXXX card Final 4 digits XXXX was the same as XXXX. That blew my mind. The XXXX amounts matched my XXXX rides and so I checked the payment in my XXXX account and for my surprise XXXX was charging my XXXX rides on my XXXX card final XXXX, wich was activated again in XXXX XXXX without my consent and sent to Citizens bank that I explicitly said over the phone I wanted no relationship with. I have been trying to pay my XXXX balances with them but they are charging me XXXX dollars od interest charge that I told them I refuse to pay. 
I Today, I called XXXX to understand why they did not cancel everything as I closed my bank account with them. The attendant said it could have been the system. I reply then fix it. After more than XXXX hour with XXXX attendant she transferred me to her supervisor. All they can say is that they are very very sorry but they no longer can access my credit card with Citizens Bank. Citizens bank refuses to take away interest rates. 

I feel unpowerful and cheated by two gigantic institutions that abused from people 's naiveness to make money. I am a single mom in a middle of a litigious divorce, meaning every cent spent in my life at this moment counts. Because of this my credit card went down almost XXXX points and it is impacting my financial life in every possible way. 

I do not know what else I can do to make this be at least fair. I am sure if I had XXXX XXXX dollars in my bank account both banks would be apologizing for their mistake. This is so frustrating and I believe it is worth fighting for as I am a very correct person with my debts.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation