Consumer complaint received 2024-04-26
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Trying to communicate with the company to fix an issue while managing or servicing your loan
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (MA)

CFPB Complaint : I opened a XXXX account with Citizens Bank in XX/XX/2023 with a credit limit of XXXX XXXX. 

I withdrew money from my XXXX  to fund my small business franchisee in XX/XX/2023, resulting in a balance of about XXXX XXXX, leaving about XXXXXXXX XXXX as a balance in the XXXX account. 

In XX/XX/2023, fraudulent transactions were made in my XXXX  account and funds were withdrawn using my Citizens Bank checking account for XXXXXXXX XXXX 

Citizens Bank informed me about the fraudulent transactions in early XXXX and both of my accounts with Citizens Bank were immediately frozen. 

I was informed that Citizens Bank will open a fraud investigation and related claims will be managed by the bank and the money taken out will be adjusted back into my XXXX account. 

I remained in touch with the customer service executives and was informed that Fraud investigations are handled by the back end and will be resolved in due course of time. 

During that period I was advised to continue making the full interest payment of my XXXX  account, which included the fraudulent transactions, which I did for 3 months. 

In XX/XX/2023, during one of my branch visits, I was advised by the Citizens Bank branch manager to open claims for each transaction separately. I opened the claims of the transactions immediately. 

On XX/XX/2023, I received a letter from Citizens Bank dated XX/XX/2023, bearing Claim No. XXXX, stating that : Based on review of the transaction, fraud did occur. However, funds have already been returned to your XXXX and no credit is owed. 
As a result, we will not credit your account in the amount of {$220000.00} The letter is annexed as Annexure-A. 

As per the letter the fraudulent amount has been returned to the XXXX account, which is what I expected in this matter. 

However, to my utter disbelief, shock, and surprise, the amount has NOT been returned to my XXXX. The balance on my XXXX account is showing as XXXX XXXX, which is way over the credit limit of my XXXX account of XXXX XXXX. 

As a responsible customer, I continued making interest payments for the principal amount, I legitimately borrowed from the Bank. Please see the detailed statements attached as Annexure-B. 

Later, in early XX/XX/2023, I received another letter from Citizens Bank about denying the other claims, which I can not understand. The letter is attached as Annexure-C. 

Citizens Bank is harassing the customer who is a victim of fraud using some weird technical grounds. Though I have been acting and following the guidance of Citizens Bank executives and branch officers from the beginning.

I have requested a review of the denial and still NO respite from Citizens Bank on this matter. The review letters are attached as Annexure-D . 

It has been a constant harassment of the customers, both financially, mentally, and physically, as I have to reach out to customer services, and the bank branches regularly, looking for some resolution on this. However, everything is of no avail yet. 

All of this has negatively impacted my Credit Score and I am struggling to manage my debt as I can not use the XXXX account to manage my other debts. 

I certainly feel that the Citizens Bank is NOT acting with the right intentions as mine is a XXXX account and they can take action on my home to recover the fraudulent money. It is a total injustice to me as a customer if it comes to it. 

I am looking for help on the matter before Citizens Bank takes any further action.