Consumer complaint received 2023-12-29
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (DE)

I believe that Citizen Bank is targeting individuals with accounts who live on a very tight budget. I live paycheck to paycheck not having access to my money presents a major challenge for me. Citizens has unnecessarily withheld my funds in my account while causing me to accrue unnecessary bank fees for insufficient funds and also causing me fees at locations I have automated payments set up with. When Citizens has withheld my funds from me unnecessarily, places that debited my account charged me on top of the fees I was getting charged from Citizens. Citizens has become a bank I can not afford to bank with. 
Timeline : XX/XX/XXXX : I revoked a company 's authorization to debit my account on XX/XX/XXXX. I received documented in writing that they would no longer debit my account moving forward. On XX/XX/XXXX they debited my account again anyway in the amount of {$460.00}. I contacted the company who admitted their mistake and advised the payment already processed so they could not reverse it and directed me to talk to my bank. I contacted citizens and shared this situation with them. I offered to send the documentation verifying the company knew and agreed to no longer debit my account. They would not take it. They told me upon completion of the investigation if any fees were incurred as result of the funds being held during investigation they would be refunded upon completion of the investigation. 7 days and multiple calls to check status later, the funds still had not been returned to my account. I contacted Citizens who first told me they closed the complaint and had no information on the resolution of the matter. I was furious and asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor did some type of review of my account and assured me the investigation was not closed and that they in fact were still finalizing everything. During this time period my account incurred {$170.00} in fees due to insufficient funds as my account should have had that {$460.00} in it to cover debits/charges. The next day I noticed the {$460.00} had been returned to my account, however no fees were removed. I called about this, and they assured me they would take care of fees and to give it about 30 minutes. 30 min later only part of the fees were refunded. I had to call back again to get the rest of the fees returned. They did fix this after my second call and returned those fees. The fees I was charged by companies debiting my account for autopay during this time put me in a distressed financial situation. In previous attempts to dispute a charge, my account was returned the fees disputed within 24hours. Waiting 7 days for an investigation of a debit from a company that admitted they mistakenly debited my account with documentation to prove this is extremely unnecessary. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I received my first paycheck from my new job on Saturday XX/XX/XXXX. Due to banks closing early on Saturdays, I had to use mobile deposit to get my funds in my account as soon as possible. My mobile deposit was in the amount of {$3100.00} from an XXXX Payroll account which was clearly indicated on the check. As of Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX my funds still weren't available to me which I thought was odd so I called Citizens. The customer service rep could not help me and told me my funds would not be released until XX/XX/XXXX. I was furious. I could not understand why my payroll check would be held for 13 days before releasing my funds to me. They couldn't explain it either, so I asked for a supervisor. I was on the phone for 45 min and the supervisor informed that they were unable to verify my check and if I got a contact name and phone number from the check issuer, they would be able to release the funds to me. I contacted my payroll department and got this information as directed. My payroll department said that the account is an XXXX payroll account and they have never had a bank not accept a payroll check before, they also shared that XXXX verified they released the funds to cover my check to Citizens on XX/XX/XXXX. I called back Citizens and explained that I needed to speak to a supervisor to provide the name and number for them to verify my check. After waiting on hold for an hour and a half, the customer service rep came back on the line and told me the supervisor phone lines were down and I would have to call back. I was very upset and asked why I had to call back after waiting for so long, couldn't the supervisor call me back. He told me no. I then asked if I could at least leave the name and number to verify the check to be passed on to the supervisor and was again said no and that I had to call back. I asked when I should call back and he told me tomorrow. It was only XXXX, I told him this is unacceptable for me to have to call back tomorrow, and he said call back in an hour or 2. I called back around XXXX XXXX and spoke with someone who told me that my funds were being held due to be depositing the check via mobile. I told her that shouldn't matter, I have done mobile deposit before, and this didn't happen. She attempted to help and put me on hold while asking if I presented into a location in person with the check would my funds be released. A supervisor told her no so I asked to be transferred to a supervisor again explaining I had to give the contact 's name and phone number I had so my check could be verified. The supervisor got on the line and thankfully was the one who told me to get this info and call back. I gave her the name and number to call and verify my check. She made sure she had a good contact number for and told me she would be sending the name and number to verify the check to the department that does that and that she would call me back as soon as it was completed. She never called me back. On XX/XX/XXXX I called the bank back again attempting to get a status on the check verification because the funds still had not been released to my account. I was transferred to a male supervisor who told me he has no clue how to find out if the check verification had been completed or not. I was again furious. I told him this is unacceptable especially since I have verified my funds were released from XXXX to the bank on XX/XX/XXXX. he told me the funds went to the Federal Reserve not Citizens and that my deposit will not be released until the Federal Reserve sends the funds to citizens. I told him I had already incurred {$75.00} in insufficient funds fees and that now my electric bill check has bounced, and I am being told my electric will be cut off if I can't resubmit the payment for processing. With my account negative, I am unable to submit another payment to the electric company. I explained this and he said sorry there was nothing he could do. I told him I seen the insufficient funds fees that were refunded to my account so that indicated to me that Citizens knew something wasn't right with them withholding my money. He told me " Oh that was because we released {$220.00} of the check amount to you but when it didn't get paid to us within 2 days, we pulled the {$220.00} back ''. I was furious again. At this point I am racking up more fees, in jeopardy of my electric getting cut off. I am incurring late payments on bills I have due that I am unable to pay as I should've had my money no later than XX/XX/XXXX since the deposit was completed on XX/XX/XXXX. 
I feel that Citizens preying on me and individuals like me that live paycheck to paycheck where they can do poor business practices like this, charge me a bunch of fees and also cause me to get outside fees charged to me because of what they are doing. None of this makes any sense to me. I have banked with Citizens since XXXX and have never experienced such poor service nor have my deposits or funds been withheld from me for unnecessarily long times causing me further financial distress. I am sure I am not the only customer being affected by these bad business practices.