Consumer complaint received 2015-10-30
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: SD
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problems caused by my funds being low

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX I mailed a letter to the Citizens Bank branch where I first opened my account, notifying the bank to close my checking account and to send me a check for my remaining balance in the mail to the address the bank had on file. I did not receive any communication or a check for about 10 days, so on the evening of XX/XX/XXXX I logged into the online banking portal on Citizen 's Bank 's website to check my account. I found that my account balance was negative and not only had I been charged a {$35.00} overdraft fee, but I was daily being charged a {$6.00} " Sustained Overdraft '' fee each day beginning on XX/XX/XXXX. In the time between when I sent my letter requesting to close my account and when I logged on to my account, an outstanding check that I was unaware of was cashed. I called Citizens Bank the very next morning on XX/XX/XXXX and asked why I was not notified that my account was overdrawn, especially since I had sent a letter requesting closure of my account. I was told that I HAD been notified through the online website, because I had signed up for online banking. The Citizens Bank representative gave me a " courtesy '' refund of the {$35.00} overdraft fee but would not, nor would her manager, refund me the daily charges of {$6.00} for a " sustained overdraft ''. According to Citizen 's Bank, a message in the online portal constitutes notification. I told them that this does NOT constitute notification because it is PASSIVE ; NOT ACTIVE. It requires a customer to take an action on their own behalf to receive the notification ; that being, logging into the bank 's website. I was told that I can change my " preferences '' to receive an email or letter, for example. I had never changed any of the preferences from their default since signing up for online banking. I went to the tab on the webpage to look at my preferences and found that the default preference is to receive no notification of an account overdraft. This is absolutely outrageous. The DEFAULT notification setting should be ACTIVE notification via mail, email or phone/text. If a person chooses to opt out of active notification that is a completely different situation. How much money is Citizen 's Bank making off of charging fees to people who " screw up '' because they were n't aware that the default setting is to give customers no notification upon signing up for online banking!?!? It was ironic that Citizen 's Bank refunded my overdraft fee and NOT the sustained overdraft fees, because it was actually my error that caused an outstanding check to put my balance negative ; but it was the bank 's unscrupulous policy that caused my lack of awareness of my account balance leading to the sustained overdraft fees. Doubly vexing in this situation is that there is another layer to the problem : I active contacted the bank to close my account ; and probably while my letter was in the mail, the check cleared, such that when my letter arrived at the branch, they found my account to have a negative balance and thus did not close it but THEY TOOK NO FURTHER ACTION, SUCH AS TO NOTIFY ME!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation