Consumer complaint received 2017-03-07
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Making/receiving payments, sending money — 
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (RI)

Unfortunately, I have a XXXX complaint to file in less than a full year against Citizens Bank, NA for awful banking policies and payment schedules. Again, I feel as though I am being taken advantage of by an institution in which I put my trust for my banking needs and services. 

To make a long story short, I set up some authorized debits for payment to other service providers during the week of XXXX. In fact, the XXXX providers in which I was scheduling payment for was XXXX services and Citizens Bank Credit Card services. Both of these payments were scheduled and processed on Thursday, XXXX XXXX. Of course, Citizens processed their credit card payment immediately, which posted to my account the following day on Friday, XXXX XXXX, 2017. Unfortunately, they withheld the payment to XXXX and placed the payment in my authorized holds and funds on my account. Well, the weekend passed, and the payment had still not posted on Monday, XXXX XXXX, 2017. It seemed as though my payments to other institutions were frozen, despite having had more than enough funds to make the payment. 

Fast forward to today, Tuesday, XXXX XXXX. I woke up and checked my account, as I am expecting a paycheck to clear and be posted to my account. To my surprise, the payment to XXXX is posted and processed for Monday, XXXX XXXX, 2017. Lucky for Citizens, this immediately over drafted me. Normally, if a payment posts to my account that will normally overdraft me, I have until XXXX that same evening to post a payment and bring my balance to the positive. Unfortunately, I was not given this opportunity, nor was I alerted that the processed payment to XXXX was posted. Instead, I was able to see the payment the day after it was supposedly processed to which I also received a overdraft fee attached. 

I have not encountered this particular set of circumstances in the past, and I am surprised that Citizens would actually allow a policy that causes so much confusion and frustration to stay in place. This is also not to mention that I have Overdraft Protection on my account to keep my purchases from going over my available funds. Once again, I feel like I have been duped by a large banking institution based on their inability to communicate proper payment schedules. Additionally, it is disheartening to know that they do not have the integrity to process payments in a timely manner to prevent these types of situations from reoccurring. It would be one thing if all of my pre-authorized debits had been placed on hold and processed on XXXX XXXX, but it is clear that Citizens gave their own payments priority over another institution 's to the extent that when they finally processed my payment to XXXX it was inevitably going to overdraft me. 

This is especially concerning due to the fact that the payments did not even show up on my posted payments, holds, and funds on citizensbank.com. In essence, there was no way to prevent an additional charge or payment from generating an overdraft, because the calculated funds left in my account were not accurate or up to date.