Consumer complaint received 2022-06-16
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Can't close your account
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (WI)

I had an account with XXXX, and they notified me they were leaving the US and transferring my accounts, so I closed them. 
Citizens Bank received my closed account and opened it. 
They sent checks and a debit card, I called them and told them it was closed, and they said they would close it this was in XXXX. 
They either never closed the account or said they opened it again when a credit card bill was posted, rather than sending it back. I paid them and asked them to close the account again. 
A month later the account was not closed because there was a credit balance and they needed me to send a check and once I cashed it they would close it. They also had me send them a signed note asking to close the account. Needless to say, I never got the check. I called in again and was informed the account was closed with a XXXX balance. Relieved after sitting on hold for 45 minutes every time I called and getting someone in a foreign country I did not worry about the {$35.00} dollars. I was applying for a new business account and found out they had reported the account to the check systems. They had charged {$120.00} in fees to the account. I got the report found out it was them and called to find out what had happened. They said they could not remove it from check systems ( a lie ), they would take the fees off but it would report it as settled, but if I called customer service, they would reverse them so it would show better closed with a XXXX balance. Eight hours later after waiting on hold transferred to different departments and even trying branches. I found that no one could reverse the charges and there was no phone or email at the corporate office to get someone to help with a reasonable solution. I phoned the recovery department back and got different people. All used fake names, that they admitted. Illegal as they are not a collection agency is my understanding. They demanded the full balance. Names XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX asked for the supervisor and after they yelled for another ten minutes I got XXXX, she supposedly filled out a form to escalate to the office of the chair, after telling me I would have to pay the full amount and they would never negotiate, I, of course, have never heard anything, so doubtful she even filled out the form. I initially offered to pay the couple of charges that came in, and they were going to adjust off the fees that came to more than twice the charges. Given the three months of stress and hassle, the ten hours I had to waste getting routed all over the world, and the money they save by not having phones in the corporate office, and the number of laws they have broken not to mention civil penalties, if they pay me for the hours at a rate of {$150.00} an hour that I lost, that would now be a fair and moral settlement of the case. However, I will leave that up to you and how you feel someone who was at the mercy of an institution that took advantage of them when they had no relationship with them should be treated. 

I am sorry I have no documents to attach as I never received a statement, letter, fax, phone call or smoke signal from them in the four months I have now been dealing with this.