Consumer complaint received 2025-01-28 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
This is an entry from XX/XX/XXXX : Citibank closed my account when I went into the branch to make a wire transfer. There is about {$160000.00} in the account. They refuse to disburse a cashiers check to me now at the branch for the funds that were in the account. They are now saying I have to wait for a check to come in the mail, with an unknown time frame for when the check may arrive. I just sold my car this morning for {$19000.00}, and I just deposited this check at the Citibank branch before trying to make the wire transfer. I now have zero access to the money that I just sold the car for, and zero access to any funds that were in my checking account, for an indefinite amount of time. The banker, XXXX XXXX, has repeatedly stated that there is nothing the branch can do, that the back office has made the decision and it is final. 

The bank manager, XXXX XXXX, got involved that day and also told me the banks decision to terminate their relationship with me was final. I asked him to please return to me the {$19000.00} check I had just deposited at the tellers window a few minutes earlier, so that I could deposit it into my account at XXXX XXXX. XXXX reassured me that the bank would issue me a cashiers check that same day for the full amount so I could have access to that money. 

I waited about 30-45 minutes for XXXX to arrange this cashiers check. He came out to the lobby to let me know that since the original check was going to take a day or two to clear, they would first have to process that check then I could return in a day or two to withdraw the money. I returned the following day, Friday XX/XX/XXXX, and I was told by the XXXX that the check still hadnt cleared. He advised me to return on Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX, after the XXXX long weekend. I did, only to be told that the checks issuing bank XXXX still had not released the funds to Citibank. XXXX cautioned me that sometimes these checks can take 2-3 weeks to clear. He told me to return in 3 days on Friday XX/XX/XXXX. I gave the bank a few extra days and returned instead on Monday XX/XX/XXXX hoping the check had finally cleared. 

I first spoke with a teller today who then asked me to wait in the lobby. The XXXX then approached me, asked for my ID, then disappeared for an hour and 15 minutes. I received no information or updates from anyone for that duration. I just sat there, clueless as to what exactly was transpiring out of sight. When XXXX returned, he sat me down at a desk to explain to me that the check still hadnt cleared. He said he had sent off many emails and placed many phone calls, and that it seemed that XXXX still had not verified the check on their end, that Citibank was still waiting for XXXX to clear the check and release the funds to them. He said that this process could take up to 30-60 days. He gave me the phone number to the Citibank Fraud Department. He told me that this is what they told him to give me. He then instructed me to call them and try to negotiate with them to get the funds a little sooner. He told me to ask Citibank to stop processing the check and to just deal with XXXX directly myself to get the check reissued and maybe have access to the money a little faster. 

After left the branch, I called the Citibank Fraud Department, and the representative gave me a long speech about how Citibank was terminating their relationship with me, and how they could no longer process any transactions for me including withdrawals. I tried to explain to her that I already was told all this 2 weeks ago and was just trying to get the XXXX check to clear. She said that the check had been held up actually because my account was terminated and was under review by Citibank which could take 30-60 days. She said they could only issue the check to me in the mail after the account review & termination of 30-60 days duration was complete. 

This was not at all what the branch manager has been telling me the past two weeks. I have been asked by the manager to return to the branch again and again over the past two weeks in the hopes that the check will have been cleared by XXXX, when XXXX had nothing at all to do with the issue. It was being held up by Citibank the entire time, with no hope of it ever being issued inside the branch. Had the branch manager just done his due diligence and actually made the calls he claimed to me to have made, he would have learned in under 10 minutes, not an hour and a half, what the real source of the delay was. He could have easily spared me 3 futile trips to the bank branch and hours of sitting around waiting for him to investigate. He also could have just returned the original check to me on XX/XX/XXXX when I requested it, and saved me a two-month delay to accessing my {$19000.00}. 

The blocked funds and inability to access the {$19000.00} has completely derailed my finances at XXXX XXXX. I sold my old car on XX/XX/XXXX, rented a car for a week, and purchased the next family car 4 days ago. I used the XXXX XXXX account to fund the new car purchase, since Citibank placed me in the extremely challenging situation of closing my account the same hour I deposited the funds from the sale. The XXXX transaction from XXXX XXXX to the new car dealership just got declined today for insufficient funds, since it was contingent on deposit of the {$19000.00} from the sale of the old car. I got cornered into a situation where one bank has all my money and the other bank has all my transactions without the money, since Citibank refuses to release my money for another 2 months. Who holds onto someone elses money for 2 months and freezes it up so that it cant be accessed? This is such a corrupt and unethical business practice. I have never seen any other business relationship where this type of abuse is accepted as a policy. I have excellent credit ( XXXX XXXX ), 3 longstanding mortgages in good standing for 3 properties in XXXX XXXX, and multiple accounts with several banks, including XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX. This is the first time in my 48 years that a bank has dared pull such an underhanded, disgusting abuse of power like this.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation