Consumer complaint received 2024-06-05
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card — Application denied
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (MA)

I received an email from Citizens Bank urging me to apply for a credit card for which they said I was " pre-qualified. '' Shortly after applying for it, I receive a letter from Citizens Bank stating that I had been denied for the credit card because of a low credit score, which they said was XXXX in the letter. I panicked obviously. Note that Citizens Bank did not explain or even mention that they were using their own definitions of " credit score '' and not using any traditional credit score. Then, they said in the letter that " The consumer reporting agency that provided the information that influenced our decision in whole or in part was XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, GA XXXX, XXXX. '' Even though Citizens Bank said they were using XXXX data to assign me a credit score, they did NOT mention that they were not using the credit score that XXXX reports itself. I had thought that I had been hacked and that my XXXX score, or equivalent traditional credit reporting score, had been dramatically reduced as a result. I had to contact banks, credit card companies, and companies like XXXX XXXX for monitoring. My credit score came back from all of these contacts as perfectly normal ( between XXXX ). 

Very confused, I called Citizens Bank at the Customer Service number on XX/XX/year>, they said I could call in the letter ( XXXX ) if I had questions. When I called this number, the automated answering bot said to enter my Citizens Bank card number to proceed to customer service. I did not have a Citizens Bank credit card number, and the bot provided no information to reach an operator for those without a Citizens Bank card number. The customer service line that Citizens Bank provided in the letter would open with just a bot that would only tell callers to enter their Citizens Bank card number and pause. There were no options mentioned by the bot for customer service questions for people who did not have a card with Citizens Bank. It provided no clear means to communicate with anyone or anything to have questions answered in the letter. There was no caller menu provided to explain what to press to get a human to answer customer support questions. Keep in mind that I was still panicking and confused. Basically, Citizens Bank sent a credit card denial letter telling people they could call a customer service number that was only set up to receive calls from people with Citizens Bank card numbers. 

Eventually, through means other than those provided by Citizens Bank in the letter, I was able to get a hold of a person to answer my questions. She explained that they use their own calculations to determine what they call a " credit score '' and that it is quite different from the calculations that determine what people usually call a " credit score. '' She said that they weren't referring to any XXXX credit score, but rather their own " credit score '' supposedly from XXXX data. The letter explained none of this. She then explained that one of the factors that affected my credit score was, as stated in the letter, " BANK REVOLVING ACCOUNTS WITH XXXX % CREDIT LIMIT USED IN LAST XXXX MONTHS '', although she said she couldn't say just how it was used in any calculations to determine what they called a " credit score ''. She then said that " accounts '' in the plural meant multiple accounts with XXXX % credit limit used. I knew I had XXXX account with XXXX % credit limit used in last 6 months, but I knew I did not have multiple accounts in that situation as I had just checked my credit. She then told me to contact XXXX.