Consumer complaint received 2025-01-27 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem accessing account
Company: FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES, INC.

Complaint narrative:
My complaint concerns XXXX XXXX Bank, which, despite being among the twenty largest banks in the US, still has the mentality of a regional bank, and its infrastructure, as well as its employees, have not yet made the necessary leap to be able to serve international customers. 

As a result, the bank is unable to provide even simple tax forms to its international customers, or to mail a checkbook to their foreign addresses. 

Not only that, but despite my informing the bank that their check-printer is unable to mail us a checkbook to our home country, the manager at the branch which holds our accounts insisted on generating a check order. When the checks failed to arrive, this same manager decided that the checks were lost and froze our account. He now wants to force us to come to the US solely for the purpose of opening a new account. 

My wife and I are XXXXXXXX XXXX living outside the US. 

25 years ago, we opened a joint Money Market Savings account at what was then XXXX XXXX Bank, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXXXXXX XXXX  XXXX. We deposited money for our retirement years, and left it there, untouched. 

In XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX Bank took over our old bank. Suddenly, things began to fall apart. 

Last year, for example, I had to file a complaint with the CFPB ( complaint # XXXX ) just to receive a Form 1042-S. 

The recent fiasco has been going on for FOUR MONTHS, during which we attempted to obtain a checkbook for one of our accounts, to no avail. 

First Citizens ' website does not allow their foreign customers to transfer money electronically to other accounts. 

So, on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I emailed the bank 's Customer Service and asked for a solution to this strange problematic situation. 

Customer Service responded : " This feature has been temporarily disabled. In the meantime, if you need to transfer funds to an individual you can use XXXX ''. 

Well, NO! As always, the bank 's employees are not aware of basic facts to use XXXX, one must have an American phone number and an American credit card. We do not have either of them. 

Meanwhile, the " temporarily disabled '' feature is still on to this very day, leaving checks as the only alternative for using our money! 

I tried to order checks via XXXX XXXX ' website. I was transferred to ordermychecks.com which is operated by the XXXX XXXX company. 

But there, the process can not be completed! As can be seen in the attached screen photo, it is impossible to choose a shipping method, because it turns out that XXXX XXXX ships only to US domestic addresses! 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I emailed XXXX XXXX XXXX Customer Service for help. 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX they emailed back that I should call them internationally at XXXX. 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I phoned XXXX XXXX. This expensive international call lasted XXXX ( XXXX HOUR, XXXX MINUTES, XXXX  SECONDS! ). The recording of the call is available. 

During this endless call, I was transferred between helpless and incompetent bank representatives who had no idea how to solve this problem. Finally, they asked a XXXX XXXX representative to join in the conversation, and I was promised that the checks would be sent to our home address " within 2-3 weeks ''. 

We waited, but did not receive any checks. 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I emailed the manager of my XXXX branch, XXXX XXXX XXXX, and elaborated about our " experience '' with the checks. I emphasized that the system of XXXX XXXX is programmed to handle ONLY domestic US shipping addresses NOT overseas addresses. 

I asked XXXX XXXX to have XXXX XXXX send the checks to the XXXX branch, of which he is the manager. Additionally, I wrote, " please send them BY FEDEX to our home address ''. I even offered to pay the shipping fee. 

But XXXX XXXX, who is unfamiliar with the quote " Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results '', preferred to be lazy and inconsiderate. Why should he care if the customer alerts him to the fact that there is a malfunction in the checks ' distribution system? 

He emailed me back : " I placed a new order, hopefully it will go through. You should receive it by XX/XX/XXXX ''. 

" HOPEFULLY '', right. Well, unsurprisingly XXXX XXXX 's " hopefully '' did not work, just as I warned. Till this very day we did not receive checks. 

It did not stop XXXX XXXX from charging us {$64.00} for the non-existing checks To recap temporarily : 1 ) The bank 's foreign customers can not transfer money electronically to other accounts. 
2 ) Checks can not be shipped to the bank 's foreign customers ' international addresses. 
3 ) A branch manager, despite being warned in advance about the shipping problem, ignored the warning and acted as though he could not care less. 
4 ) After FOUR MONTHS run-around, we still have no checks. 

After the bank and XXXX XXXX gave us the run-around while behaving with inconceivable carelessness and dismissiveness- all of which are amply documented- it turns out that this was just the prequel! 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I emailed XXXX XXXX to notify him that we did not receive the checks. 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX answered : " Per your request, I personally made an exception to place a check order, and mail to the address on file. 
I can not control the timeframe nor the delivery of the checks. 
I have placed a hold on your account, and no transactions will go through, since at this moment there are outstanding checks which you claim you have not received. 
Since the checks are lost in the mail, this account will need to be closed and a new account will need to be opened in person. '' WHAT? 

We have not seen a shred of evidence ( tracking number, for example ) that checks were even printed and/or shipped out from the XXXX XXXX XXXX house. Suddenly the bank is worried that there are " outstanding checks '' somewhere? 

If the bank is so worried, then they can add warning to flash on our account, that would stop any checks with a default check number XXXX ( or any other number ) from being honored by the bank! And they can send us checks starting with another specific number of their choice. 

But to freeze our account? To force my wife and I to spend thousands of dollars to fly thousands of miles to just open a new account? 

Why must we suffer just because the bank and its employees are careless, unprofessional, and uncaring? 

Why should we be penalized and must pay the price for the bank 's incompetent and irresponsible conduct? 

On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX I emailed those questions to XXXX XXXX, but he did not bother to answer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation