Consumer complaint received 2022-12-06
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: DE
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2022, my wife and I opened our first joint checking account at Citizen 's Bank. We deposited {$20000.00} into the account. During our initial meeting, we were told the benefits of the account, which included fraud protection and alerts. We feel that other disclosures were quickly flipped to the " signature '' page and no other information reviewed. 

My wife and I made little to no transactions on the account, as we explained when opening the account that we were putting our this money aside for sort term savings for the future and we wouldn't be frequently using the account. We made two small deposits and one withdrawal, all within the state of XXXX  where we are located. 

During this time, we received no statements, alerts, or notifications to our home address, either of our emails, or our cell phone numbers. 

After a busy period of time ( we are both public school employees ) and I work several additional jobs to make ends meet, I went into the account to deposit a check, and found that a few months prior right after I had last checked the account almost all of our money was transferred out. We called, alerted the bank to this, and met with a branch banker the next day. We were repeatedly told to not worry, that the funds would be in our account within 10 days. 

After ten days, Citizen 's Bank was unreliable with communication attempts. My wife struggled to get information and contact back from the bank. Communication, voicemails and emails went unanswered. Finally, when my and I went into the bank, a bank employee read off her screen a completely incorrect address for my, one was not provided during the time when we opened the account with any of the identify information on her license or certified mail. She told me that sometimes old addresses, previous addresses and can " auto-populate '' on their end, and that correspondence with private information could have been going to this address. 

My wife was told that because we did not report the fraud quickly enough, that we may not get my funds back, which conflict with what we were originally told when we reported the fraud. While we understand there was a lapse in time in when we found the error, we are trying to get answers from Citizen 's Bank as to why there is not any responsibility on them to provide us with the services we signed up for, particularly the fraud alerts and communication. 
-We were told our money would be safeguarded in a Citizen 's account -We were told we had fraud protection -We were told we had 24/7 fraud alerts -We did not even leave the house with our debit cards, so the security breach of our account accessed with a failure within Citizen 's security system -Who approved at Citizens these ACH/wire transfers from our account? 
-Why were we not notified of {$19000.00} being transferred out in a day? 
-Why was it brushed over that they had an address attached to my name that I had never given to them, nor is on the drivers license I gave them? 

We have also asked to speak to higher up employees at Citizen 's Bank, and the regional manager has never responded to voicemails. When we asked to speak to whatever " back office '' has our claim, we are told that they can not give us this information and they themselves do not even have it. When we said that we were not confident in using our Citizens account while this was being resolved, we were told that we must continue to use our Citizen 's account in the meantime, or else they will charge us {$12.00} in service fees a month. 

Timeline : XX/XX/2022 : Open Account XX/XX/2022 : 1 fraudulent deposit totaling : {$150.00} XX/XX/2022 : 1 fraudulent deposit totaling : {$1300.00} XX/XX/2022 : 8 fraudulent deposits totaling : {$1.00} XX/XX/2022 : 11 fraudulent withdrawal transfers totaling : {$19000.00} XX/XX/2022 : 4 fraudulent withdrawal transfers totaling : {$1.00} XX/XX/2022 : 4 fraudulent withdrawal transfers totaling : {$380.00} Since my wife filed a CFPB report herself, Citizens has reached out only one time. The called the Wednesday before XXXX minutes before the bank and offices closed for the day. We have returned and called back multiple times, leaving messages each time, with no response from the bank official. 

Left Messages on XX/XX/2022 XX/XX/2022 XX/XX/2022 XX/XX/2022

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief