Consumer complaint received 2021-05-14
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: MA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
Half year ago, I want to transfer some money from one bank to another ( mainly to diversify investment ). I was considering which bank to choose, and I received an advertisement from Citizens Bank. The information on the advertisement is : Open a Saving account, deposit {$15000.00}, save for three months to get a {$200.00} bonus ; Open a Checking account, you can get {$300.00} ; Open a Saving account and a Checking account at the same time, you can get {$600.00}. Therefore I went to Citizens Bank Office at XXXX MA. A clerk named XXXX XXXX XXXX received me. I explained my intentions. I said : I just want to open a Saving account and deposit {$15000.00}, three months later Is it possible to get a {$200.00} bonus. XXXX XXXX XXXX checked my information in the Citizens Bank system and confirmed that I am eligible for this benefit. I have repeatedly confirmed with him : If I do not open a Checking account, there will be no impact. He also repeatedly assured that there was no problem. Then I opened a Saving account on XX/XX/XXXX and deposited {$15000.00}. ( Please see the attached record of the original conversation. The XX/XX/XXXX date was added later ). 

Three months later, I went to Citizens Bank Office at XXXX MA. A man sitting in the office received me. I asked why I didnt get the bonus after three months. He checked my information in the system and told me : 3 Month is the minimum. I have to wait until XX/XX/XXXX to get the bonus. And said he promised that I would get it. I believed him. ( Unfortunately, I didn't get his business card at the time. I don't know his name. ) However, I thought about it later and found it very strange, why did 3 months become 5 months again. So I went to their office in XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX. This time a woman named XXXX " XXXX '' XXXX sitting in the office received me. She also checked my information in the system and also said that I will be get bonus on the XXXX. I asked her why told me was 3 months before it became 5 months. She said she had to contact their manager to answer me. She said she would call me. But I never received her call afterwards. 

XX/XX/XXXX has passed and I still haven't received the {$200.00} bonus. After a week, I went to the bank and met clerk XXXX XXXX XXXX who opened the account for me. He still confirmed that I can get the bonus, but after some operations in the system, he told me that he could not handle it and asked me to see their Manager next Monday. I saw their XXXX XXXX XXXX Monday ( XX/XX/XXXX ). She checked the information of the system : Then she told me that they only give bonuses to Checking account, not saving account bonuses alone. I dont have a Checking account so I cant get this bonus. I said why several people all told me that was OK, if just open a saving acount. If it doesn't, why didn't you tell me at the beginning, or after XXXX months? You hold me so much money, so long time in your bank, what do you want to do? She didn't answer me, just said that she can't give me this money. 

I have no choice, then to ask to close the Saving account and withdraw all my money. XXXX XXXX and I checked the amount of all the money in this account, and I signed it. But when she gave me the check, I found that the money was less than the amount of money we have confirmed. I asked why? She said : Because I took away a lot of money, they have to deduct the handling fee for my Checking account. I'm very surprised : They said that because I didn't have a checking account, they couldn't give me a bonus, and now they said that the handling fee of my checking account was deducted. Where did this checking account come from? I fought hard, and they re-issued a check based on the amount of money in my account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation