Consumer complaint received 2022-12-01
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CO
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Savings account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not received from closed account

Complaint:
I am writing to issue a complaint about a significant portion of my account balance ( {$26000.00} ) not being returned to me after my Citibank account was closed at the end of XXXX. We have gotten no information from Citibank as to why our account was closed and where our outstanding balance is. 

My husband and I opened a Citi Accelerate Savings account in XXXX. We had sold and closed on a condo property on XX/XX/XXXX. As of XX/XX/XXXX, we had a balance of {$17000.00} in our Citi account. In XXXX XXXX, we began depositing a portion of the money from the sale of our condo into our Citi Accelerate XXXX account. The following deposits were made from my credit union checking account ( I initiated the transfer from my credit union account ) to our Citi account : XX/XX/XXXX - {$2500.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$2500.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$2500.00} XX/XX/XXXX - {$2500.00} On XX/XX/XXXX, I had also tried to deposit {$10000.00} from my credit union account to my Citi account ( I initiated this transfer from my Citi account ), but that money was returned to my credit union account on XX/XX/XXXX. I have a record of this money being returned to my credit union checking account. Im not sure why it bounced back to my credit union account. 

So all that said, we deposited a total of {$10000.00} ( XXXX deposits of {$2500.00} ) into our Citi account between XXXX. This means our total Citi Accelerate Savings account balance on XX/XX/XXXX was {$27000.00} ( not including any interest that was accrued ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX, I received an email from Citibank telling us that our account had been closed and we should expect to receive our remaining balance via check within 30-60 days of account closure ( which is a ridiculous amount of time to wait for your own money, but ok ). No reason was given in the email as to why our account had been closed. I went into our account to see what was going on with it that day, but I was unable to access anything due to the closure. 

Our XXXX, XXXX Citi statement shows that, on XX/XX/XXXX, my {$2500.00} deposit was credited to the account but there was also a random Other Debit line item where {$24000.00} was removed from our account. This is extremely concerning especially since, by this time, my husband and I could no longer access our account in order to make any debits since the account was closed. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with 2 customer support representatives at Citibank. Neither could tell me my remaining account balance or tell me why the account was closed. They said they didnt have access to my account because it was closed. They did tell me that it was indeed closed and that I should expect to receive my remaining balance within 30-60 days. So I waited. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I received a check from Citibank via mail in the amount of {$2500.00}. Assuming the {$28.00} is interest, we are still missing {$24000.00} of our Citi Accelerate Savings account balance. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citi customer support again and spoke with 2 different people again. The first person told me to contact my credit union to do a XXXX resolution since the transfers were made between the two banks. I contacted my credit union, who told me this was an issue Citibank needed to resolve but they could provide bank statements to prove that none of the money previously transferred ( aside from the $ XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX ) was returned to my credit union account. I called Citi customer support again and the second person I spoke with said they would enter a dispute ticket, which would take 24-48 hours to process. They also said I should call back to inquire about the ticket because they would not be reaching out to me personally about it. 

Later that evening on XX/XX/XXXX, my husband called the phone number on the check we received ( XXXX ) for more clarity. We just want to know what happened to our missing balance of {$24000.00} and when we should expect to receive our money. The first person he spoke with said that the XX/XX/XXXX transfer of {$10000.00} was flagged as potential fraud and, as a result, our account was closed on XX/XX/XXXX ( which is actually 3 days before we received the email about our account being closed and 3 days before {$24000.00} was debited from our account ). He could not provide details as to where that money went and transferred my husband to Citis fraud department. The second representative could not provide any details about the remaining account balance and told us to contact Citis fraud department at XXXX ( option 2, option 4 ) the following day when supervisors would be available. 

On XX/XX/XXXX around XXXX XXXX, my husband called the fraud department at the number above and spoke with 4 different people, including a supervisor. The first person told him that we had to go to a Citibank branch to pick up the check with our remaining account balance. My husband said that was ridiculous since the nearest branch is XXXX miles away. He was transferred to a supervisor after being on hold for 30 minutes. The supervisor could not provide any details as to where the remaining balance was and transferred him to someone else, who then transferred him to someone else, who said they would enter a dispute ticket and to call back in 24-48 hours. 

On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX, I also called Citibanks XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX The person I spoke with opened a case report regarding this issue ( Citi Reference Number : XXXX ) and said that someone from Citi would be following up on the inquiry within 15 business days. I appreciate this case report being filed, but 15 days is too long to wait for a resolution and I have no faith that Citibank will resolve it at this point. My husband and I have not had access to a significant portion of our savings for almost 7 weeks.

I would like our missing balance of {$24000.00} sent to our current mailing address associated with the account as soon as possible ( within 2-5 business days ). It should not be this difficult for a large banking institution to figure out where over $ XXXX went!

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