Consumer complaint received 2022-02-18
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: RI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem accessing account

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2018, my mother passed away. My father is about to turn XXXX. After my mother 's death, my father, sister and I went to his bank to have my mother 's name removed from the savings and checking accounts and to have our names added so we could assist my father, should he need it. We provided the bank with a death certificate and filled out and signed all the appropriate paperwork. A year later, I discovered that the accounts had never been changed. I went back to the bank ( a different branch ) and was told that the original branch should have kept copies of the paperwork in their branch. The branch XXXX contacted the original branch, but they had no record of the transactions. We again provided the bank with a death certificate and filled out the paperwork. It was overnighted to the main bank offices. A year and a half later, I was back in the original branch to check on something for my father and discovered that my mother 's name was still on the accounts and that while my name had been added, my sister 's had not. The bank could not find anything in their computer showing that the accounts had ever been changed and yet my name had been added. This is a pretty basic banking transaction and it has been 3 years 9 months and the bank has not to date been able to do it correctly. I find it worrisome that we have dealt with two branches and multiple people at each branch and no one seems to know what they are doing. Also, last year my father wanted to pay off his equity loan and close it permanently. My sister accompanied him to the bank where they were provided with the pay off amount and filled out the paperwork to close this line of credit. About 2 months later, my father received a notice from the bank that this line of credit was still open and that he had a {$40.00} balance. I went with him to the bank and discovered that when they gave him the pay off amount they had neglected to include the fee for filing a discharge, so they just left the line of credit that he had closed open with the fee as a balance. This affected his credit score which in turn affected his home owner 's and car insurance rates. No one at Citizens bank knows what they are doing and no one is minding the store. The branch XXXX, from the original bank and from the equity credit line fiasco, told me it is not the bank 's fault- it is the fault of the individual 's who work there and don't do their jobs correctly. Isn't Citizens bank responsible for their employees? Shouldn't they be? Their incompetence appears to be widespread. My parents banked here all their adult lives and my father is set in his ways and is reluctant to move to another bank ( though he is also aggravated ). We put things in place to assist him, or at least tried to, but my sister has been repeatedly locked out of the account. The branch XXXX also pointed out that if something happened to both myself and my father, my sister would not be able to access the accounts. While she said this with concern, it does not correct the matter. We have literally wasted hours at Citizens bank trying to just get this done.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation