Consumer complaint received 2023-10-03
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: PA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem caused by your funds being low
Sub-issue: Overdrafts and overdraft fees

Complaint:
My mother and I have shared two checking accounts with Citizens bank, one of which has been established for nearly 30 years. We have had occasional overdrafts throughout usually due to an oversight on our part. We have fortunately avoided that vicious cycle that many people fall prey to when it comes to being charged overdraft fees until recently. 

As you will see in the documents I have included for your review, we have been charged nearly {$600.00} in overdraft fees since XX/XX/2023. In other words, in two short months due to the way Citizens bank has slyly, but I also believe deceptively set up their overdraft coverage policy, we have been gorged with {$600.00} worth of fees which made it impossible for us to bring our account into positive territory. 

We are not enrolled in their farcical overdraft protection coverage primarily due to the situation that the only source of income which gets deposited into that account is a monthly payment that my mother receives from the XXXX XXXX for survivor benefits for my father 's XXXX service in XXXX. That amount is a meager {$820.00} she receives monthly, and we are quite grateful for it. That amount though does not provide her with any funds that could be held in a savings account which could then be used to cover any overdrafts that may happen in the checking account. 

I tried to stop the endless spiral downward of these overdrafts fees from compounding by visiting 2 of Citizens Bank branch locations. One if the Branch managers was kind enough to refund me {$70.00} of the fees, but the other person basically never responded to my requested inquiry. I also spoke with a manager at their XXXX customer service number who listened to me but responded that the one branch manager already did as much as could be done by refunding us {$70.00}. I explained that basically Citizens bank is charging the XXXX XXXX the {$600.00} in fees because that is the only income that gets credited to these checking accounts. My comment did not receive aby acknowledgement by the 1-800 manager at all. 

This is where I believe the deception can readily be detected. 
According to Citizen Bank description if you are not enrolled in Overdraft Protection- debits made to your account that would overdraft your account due to insufficient funds will be turned away and the holder of the account will NOT be charged overdraft fees. This description can be found on the same website where I login to my account. I have included a screen shot for your review. My question then was if I am not enrolled then why weren't my debit transactions turned away by the bank as the description states. I asked this question at my most recent 3rd visit to a local branch. I was told that since they were pre-authorized debits that is why they were not turned away. This not not what the description of what NOT being enrolled states on the website where I login to our checking accounts as you can see from the screen shot... it states DEBITS will be turned away which includes both pre-authorized debits and POS debits. It does not say only POS debits will be turned away. This is deceptive. 

In fact when I did have a POS debits along with pre-authorized debits overdraft my account conveniently Citizens bank rearranged the debits to withdraw the POS debit fund before they posted the pre-authorized debit so that they could charge me a {$35.00} overdraft fee. Please see transactions on XX/XX/2023. 

I believe due to the description as it can be seen on the same website that I login to our checking accounts of what NOT being enrolled in their overdraft protection entails, we have been charged {$600.00} in overdrafts fees wrongly. 

As will also be seen in our included statement, Citizen Bank can turn away pre-authorized debits. Please see dates XX/XX/XXXX ; XX/XX/XXXX & XXXX, 2023 for examples. When our account was overdrawn by nearly {$500.00}, Citizen Branch reversed pre-authorized debits, in other words they turned them away after their deceptive practices severely overdrew our account. Why then did they turn away the pre-authorized debits and not turn them away when I did not have the funds to cover them in the first place when they were first submitted to my bank before they piled on their overdraft fees.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief