Consumer complaint received 2024-02-26
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: CITIBANK, N.A. (PA)

I opened a joint Citi Bank with my husband in XXXX of XXXX. My husband performed three jobs doing XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and we deposited three checks from the people he had done these jobs for into our new account. My husband performed similar work the year prior and this work is filed on our tax returns. The checks totaled {$1400.00}. I also had made a {$25.00} initial deposit into the checking account. 

We received a letter stating that the {$1400.00} deposit had been received on XX/XX/XXXX and that the deposit would be available as following : {$100.00} Available immediately and {$1300.00} available on XX/XX/XXXX. 

That day, I went to check my account and found that my online access had been blocked. I called Citi and after hours of being transferred and multiple phone calls, I learned that my account was under review. One of the people that wrote a check to my husband called and let us know that Citi Bank had called them and asked them several intrusive questions about the check that they wrote to my husband and were concerned that the caller from Citi Bank may be a scammer due to the way they behaved. I called Citi Bank about this and an agent told me that it is Citi 's policy to verify all third-party checks deposited on new accounts. ( I've never heard of such a strange policy at any other bank. ) All three people that wrote these checks confirmed that the checks cleared their banks and the money went to Citi Bank. They told me that they needed to speak to every person that had written the checks to confirm the checks. We co-operated. The three people that wrote the checks co-operated. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a letter that Citi would close our accounts automatically within 60 days. I called Citi and Citi told me that the balance on the account would be refunded me within 30 days after closure. They stated that I would be receiving a final statement in the mail. I was also told that if their review had determined that the checks wrote to me should not have been deposited, they would return that money to the people that had written the checks. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I received a {$25.00} check from Citi with " Closeout Disbursement '' written in the memo line. This was the money that we deposited as an initial deposit into the account and did not include the {$1400.00} in checks made out to my husband that were deposited on XX/XX/XXXX. 

We reached out to the three people that wrote my husband checks on XX/XX/XXXX and they informed us that none of them had received the money back either. 

This means that as of XX/XX/XXXX, Citi is holding {$1400.00} of funds from checks written out to my husband. Even though Citi closed the account, they did not return the money to either the people that made out the checks or my husband, the person that the checks were made out to. 

Since the checks cleared the banks from these three people, Citi is clearly holding on to this money and a search online seems to indicate that Citi had done this to hundreds or thousands of others. It feels like Citi is trying to steal money that does not rightfully belong to them. I've lost trust in putting money in banks. How could it be possible that depositing checks into a checking account may mean you will never see the money again?!