Consumer complaint received 2019-10-15
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Fee problem

Complaint:
To begin, I did not like the overdraft policy for the account type I had with Citibank, this is their standard-tier checking account product. It had been several times at this point where they had overdrafted me already even after I had deposited money in my account in a bank branch to bring the account current. Because this had happened several times and I wasn't happy with the service and their overdraft policy was very opaque I decided to switch to their access tier account, this is their bottom tier that doesn't charge overdraft and is a cheaper service fee monthly. I tried to set this up with the help of one of their agents who i asked to help my migrate the account type. I exercised all my due diligence in the process. The agent didn't at all mention the possibility that if future transactions hit the account that the account in question could be reopened without my authorization and the agent also left out that in-order to use my debit card witht the now linked access account I would have to select it as some sort of preference in the website ( which I only learned AFTER the bank had assessed me all types of fees ). I left the conversation with the agent with the impression that the account I wanted closed was, in fact closed. This was further reiterated by the word Closed written on the account in the account snapshot overview. In talking to this agent they assured me that my account wouldn't be charged for bank service fees for the month as I was in the process of migrating the accounts. I removed all scheduled or ACH type transactions associated with my checking account ( the one that I was trying to close ) and was only using my debit card which presumably was linked to both accounts. Then for a week, mysteriously, the citibank website doesnt function at all, nor does it function to connect to third party services like XXXX or XXXX   XXXX, so I am unable to access anyt info related to my account and I contact their customer support who act really rude and unhelpful to me, even going so far as raising their voice to me. Several days later I am finally able to check my balance through citi and I see that the account that once read " closed '' now showed a XXXX balance which I found odd. Then I call customer service and the agent is basically telling me that I'm lying about the fact that the account read the words closed, essentially gaslighting me about what I saw, saying that their accounts don't print out the word closed on them and in many ways contradicting alot of info the previous agents provided me and I am charged - {$130.00} in overdraft fees and charges, specially {$100.00} overdraft fee occurring on XX/XX/2019 and {$34.00} returned check fee on XX/XX/2019, despite the fact that my access account associated with the same ATM/debit card had more than sufficient funds to cover the transactions in question, and unclear why such an extravagant fee was assessed, which their customer support team ( and I was talking to the most senior person at customer support I could access ) didnt explain to me ( usually overdraft fees or returned unpaid are just {$35.00} ) when I called why the fees were as such. Then, when I explained the entire situation to the more senior customer support person ( this after speaking with somewhere between 4-7 customer support agents that week ) who refused to return the fees to my account despite the assurance of the first agent that i wouldn't be assessed any fees ( when the fact of the matter was I was assessed fees that far exceeded those I would typically be charged by this bank ). After screaming and venting my frustration the agent tried to compromise with me by crediting half of the fee amount to {$68.00}, also for reasons unbeknownst that he was unable to demonstrate why that amount was being refunded. I told him that this wasn't good enough and that I shouldn't be penalized for their mistakes and that I refused to pay that and I would be filing a consumer complaint. Then on XX/XX/2019, without my authorization, an amount of - {$67.00} was transferred from my access account to cover the remaining fees on the standard checking account I was trying to close.

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 monetary relief