Consumer complaint received 2020-12-23
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (NY)

This is an issue concerning my online bill pay with Citizens Bank. On XX/XX/XXXX I made a payment to Ally financial in error, I no longer have a loan with that company. On XX/XX/XXXX called Citizens bank to see how to resolve the issue and the informed me I needed to file a complaint for them to get back the money from XXXX. A couple of days later I attempted to set up a payment for XXXX through online bill pay, but online billing was locked. I called the number provided on website and unlocked account through XXXX. I set up payment for XXXX to be made on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I noticed that payment had not gone through to XXXX. I called Citizens and the said that the payment was returned by vendor and I needed to speak with them. I spoke to XXXX and they said that the money had been frozen by Citizens and that was why it was returned. I spoke with Citizens numerous times on XX/XX/XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX and they said that there was no issue on their end. On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke to XXXX and Citizens numerous times and both said that there was no freeze or block on their end and I could put my payments in the online bill. On XX/XX/XXXX I submitted payments to XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX XXXX for deduction from my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I noticed that money had not been deducted from my checking account. I called Citizens, XXXX and the places I submitted payments to and they said there was no issue and payment was processing. On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted Citizens to see why money had not come out checking account yet and they first told me it was XXXX, XXXX and National Fuel rejecting the payments. After asking to speak to Supervisor finally someone got on the line and informed that a freeze was put on my bill pays because of the claim that was submitted against XXXX. Citizens said the freeze would be lifted immediately and available online bill pay for deductions to resume by XX/XX/XXXX. They said that I should have been informed when I filed complaint against Ally that it should have been done in a different way to get the money returned and that all my online bill pay would be frozen, I was not informed of eitger of those things.They also stated that I should have received a letter from Citizens after the payment to XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX was stopped. I never recieved a letter about it or how to unfreeze account. I spoke with at least half a dozen people from Citizens over the course 5 days that were completely unhelpful and none of them told me about the freeze on the bill pay instead they kept telling me it was the companies I was trying to pay that were the issue. Because of this my payment to XXXX will be late and will incur interest on the balance. The people I spoke to from Citizens on XX/XX/XXXX told me that they would take care of any late charge or interest incurred because of their mistake. I spent numerous hours dealing with aggravating phone calls and issues not being resolved during these already tough times. I will see if these issues get resolved and charges and fees are taken care of as stated by Citizens. They need to inform consumers better regarding these matters and better train representatives to find and resolve these issues when the arise.