Consumer complaint received 2020-11-26
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not received from closed account

Complaint:
XXXX Remediation Department : XXXX Citibank Business Account Department : XXXX The check issuer : XXXX XXXX  - Customer Remediation The check amount : {$3900.00} XX/XX/20 XXXX : Deposited check into citi business account through banks mobile app XX/XX/20 XXXX ( 17m ) : Called citibank business regarding the sudden account closure. Explanations was that the business account maintained negative balance and the bank made a decision to close out the account Requested the account closure statement showing the final balance of the account Requested the information regarding the mobile check deposit made on XX/XX/20, the representative informed me that because the account got closed, the requested check deposit will not proceed into the business account XX/XX/20 : With the assurance from Citibank representative, deposited the hard copy of the check into XXXX XXXX  XX/XX/20 : The funds became available in the XXXX account XX/XX/20 : The deposited check was returned. Spoke to XXXX XXXX  and requested the exact reasoning of the check return, the reason was not provided during the call. The status of the transaction was marked as pending. 

XX/XX/20 XXXX ( 20m ) : Called Citibank business office to understand what happened with the check deposit, provided the deposit amount, the representative informed me that because the account got closed after the check deposit, Citi will reject any deposit attempts made to the account. Rep. furthermore iterated that typically the large check deposit takes 5-7 days to get it cleared from Citis bank and assured me that the Citi did not cash the check. 

XX/XX/20 : Called XXXX Remediation Department requesting reason for the check return. The representative informed me that the check has already been cashed. Spoke to manager XXXX and learned that the XXXX Remediation Department is operated by 3rd party company called XXXX, reported the mobile deposit attempt with Citi, and informed her that the citi bank verified that the check is not cashed from there end because the account where the check is deposited had already been closed. Requested further reasoning why the hard copy of the check was returned from XXXX. Since XXXX does not have banking information from XXXX, she was unable to assist me the exact reasoning, escalated with escalation ID : XXXX XX/XX/20 : Visited XXXX branch in person to investigate the reason why the check was returned, provided the photocopy of the letter, check #, routing #. Spoke to the manager of the branch and she informed me that I need to wait for the letter from XXXX clearly stating the reason why the check was returned. 

XX/XX/20 : The chase completed the processing of the check return. The check return reasoning was Refer to Maker ( RTF ). Visited XXXX branch in person again with the return reasoning, provided the photocopy of the returned check, and the original letter where the check was contained. The manager assisted me with the lookup of the checks and provided me with the photo copies of the cashed check deposited via CITI mobile banking application ( refer to page 3 of the check prints provided by XXXX branch manager ). 

XX/XX/20 : Logged into Citis closed bank account and found the research investigation correspondence and confirmed that the check question was indeed cashed from Citibank. The followings were discovered through the report : On XX/XX/20 ACCOUNT IS BLOCKED XXXX XXXX XXXX On XX/XX/20 ACCOUNT IS BLOCKED XXXX XXXX XXXX On XX/XX/20 ACCOUNT IS BLOCKED XXXX XXXX XXXX On XX/XX/20, Citi cashed my check deposit {$3900.00} On XX/XX/20, Citi credited {$200.00} to bring the negative balance to {$0.00} On XX/XX/20, Citi placed hold for 00 day ( s ) for {$220.00} On XX/XX/20, Citi placed hold for 02 day ( s ) for {$3700.00} Since the account is blocked as of XX/XX/20, Citi should have never allowed my mobile deposit attempt made on XX/XX/20 through my mobile device. During the time when the deposit attempt was made, the account was still in open state, allowing me to deposit the check through the banking application. 

Despite the communication from business banking representatives ensuring that the Citi will not cash the check, the check was clearly cashed from the Citis end causing further complications with physical copy of the checks being deposited into other bank resulting the block of the funds, NSF fund fees, check return fees, hours of conversations with representatives from XXXX and XXXX and visits to the branch multiple times. 

As of XX/XX/20, Citi has never made any attempts to refund the cashed check amount which was not settled or deposited into the account. Not even a single Citi business representative contacted me although the investigation completed as of XX/XX/20 holding the entire fund hostage causing my entire business money flow to shut down. It also resulted the entire personal account to be overdrawn with XXXX as well.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation