Consumer complaint received 2022-11-20
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Traveler's check or cashier's check
Issue: Lost or stolen check

Complaint:
In trying to transfer banks, I contacted my old bank, Citizens Bank, to get my money ( around {$23000.00}, I tried calling today, XX/XX/XXXX, to get the exact amount, but the rep told me to call back during normal business hours ) transferred to my new bank. The reason switched banks in the first place was because I had moved out of the area Citizens Bank services, so obviously that meant I couldn't visit any in-person location. And because the money to transfer was greater than {$10000.00}, I couldn't do online transfer either. 

Because of that, I was told by a Citizens Bank representative on XX/XX/XXXX that the method for getting me my money would be 1 ) Citizens closing my account and 2 ) sending me a check in the mail that would come in 5-7 business days or so, that I could then cash at my new bank. However, the check never came ( and I have still not received my money to this day ).

Around 5-7 times, I called Citizens after the check was supposed to arrive ( but didn't ) to try to find out and fix whatever the issue was. Through this, I troubleshooted 1 ) an error in my address apartment number, and 2 ) an error with the name Citizens had on file for me ( which I had since changed, such that my mail center might have accidentally been sending mail back ) ( PLEASE NOTE, CITIZENS WILL HAVE A DIFFERENT NAME ON FILE THAN WHAT MY ACTUAL, CURRENT NAME IS. I NEVER BOTHERED TO UPDATE THEM, I JUST TOLD MY MAIL CENTER TO ACCEPT MAIL COMING IN FROM MY OLD LAST NAME ). 

I also tried to get Citizens to just send me my money through wire transfer, but according to a rep it was " too hard '' or " not possible '' during a phone call on XX/XX/XXXX which lasted roughly 2.5 hours, because all of my information had already been deleted from the system. This rep tried to be helpful, and when they sent out the check again said I could call back in 2 days to get the tracking number of the new check being sent out in 7-10 business days. I subsequently called back on XX/XX/XXXX, only to be connected with a rep that said it was actually not possible for me to get a tracking number because Citizens doesn't have it. 

However, even with these fixes, the check never came even with subsequent checks being mailed out ( I am still waiting on the latest check to be arrive, but I suspect it never will ). 

I feel part of the issue is the lack of transparency and how little information is getting back to me. I don't understand what is going wrong, why it is going wrong, or what I can do to fix it. All I do is call back every 2 weeks to talk to a rep who tells me that what the *last* rep did was *completely* wrong, and *this time* the check will get to me. 

The latest rep I talked to told me that luckily, the 1 check ( out of like 7 ) that *had* arrived hadn't been cashed, and gave me the tracking number for that one check, which had apparently arrived XX/XX/XXXX before getting sent back. But not only do I not know 1 ) what I would need to worry about if the check *was* cashed by some random stranger, I also don't know 2 ) what happened to the other 7 or so checks. 

Mostly constantly calling Citizens has been a frustrating never-ending worthless chore that leads nowhere while XXXX max out a credit card I have the money to pay off but can't because all my money is stuck in limbo for no reason.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation