Consumer complaint received 2025-12-04 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Closing an account — Funds not received from closed account
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
In plain language, Citibank closed my account, paid me my own money with an official closeout check, let me deposit that check at my new bank, then reached across banks and took the money back and now claims the money was never really mine. 

1. Where the money came from On my XX/XX/XXXX XX/XX/year> Citi statement, Citibanks Relationship Summary shows : Access Account ( ending XXXX/3691 ) : {$7800.00} Citi XXXX XXXX XXXX ending XXXX ) : {$6000.00} Total in my name : {$13000.00} The savings account activity shows only one outside deposit from XXXX XXXX for {$6000.00} on XX/XX/year>, plus a little interest. 
That means : About {$6000.00} came from XXXX ( into savings ending XXXX ), The $ XXXX in the XXXX account ending XXXX is my own money that was already at Citi XXXX 

2. Citi closes my account and promises to send my money On XX/XX/year>, Citis XXXX XXXX letter says they are closing account XXXX and that any funds that belong to me at closure will be returned to me by official check. 
On XX/XX/year>, Citis XXXX XXXX XXXX tells me and the regulators that my accounts ending in XXXX and XXXX were closed on XX/XX/year> and that a refund check is being mailed to me. 

3. Citi issues a closeout check from my Access-account money On XX/XX/year>, Citibank issues an official check : Check No. XXXX Amount {$7800.00} Drawn on Account XXXX ( my Access account ending XXXX ) Payable to XXXX XXXX XXXX Memo : CLOSEOUT DISBURSEMENT This check is not drawn on the {$6000.00} Chime savings deposit. It is drawn on the XXXX account, which held {$7800.00} of my own, non-Chime funds. Citi is literally paying me out of my account. 

4. I deposit the closeout check ; Citi then snatches it back On XX/XX/year>, I deposit that check at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX into my account ending in XXXX. XXXX XXXX credits my account for {$7800.00}. 
On XX/XX/year>, XXXX XXXX sends me an alert that my {$7800.00} deposit was returned unpaid by the issuing financial institution because of STOP PAYMENT and debits {$7800.00} from my account. 
In a secure chat that same day, XXXX XXXX confirms : The returned item is Citibank check XXXX. XXXX ( same as XXXX ), The amount is {$7800.00}, and Citibank placed the stop payment. 

So Citi closed my account, issued a closeout check for {$7800.00} from my XXXX account, I deposited it, and then Citi put a stop payment on their own check after I relied on it. 

5. Citis third-party funds story does not match the facts In a later XX/XX/year> letter to me and the regulators, Citi now claims that the funds in question were third-party deposits payable to someone else and that they can not disburse any of it to me, not even {$0.00}. 

That story does not line up with reality : Citis own statement shows {$13000.00} in my name, with only {$6000.00} coming from XXXX. 
The {$7800.00} check they issued and then stopped was drawn from the XXXX account, which held my non-Chime funds. 
Citi can not honestly say these are all third-party funds while at the same time : 1. Listing them as my balances on my statement, 2. Issuing an official Closeout Disbursement check in my name, and 3. Only after I deposit that check, reaching back and cancelling it. 

6. Why this is bad-faith, bad banking behavior A bank should not close a customers account, pay out the balance with an official check, allow the check to be deposited at another bank, and then secretly stop payment and claim the money was never really the customers. 
Citi is using the phrase third-party deposits as a blanket excuse to keep or redirect money that their own records show belonged to me, and to justify reversing a payout after I relied on their check. 
If this is allowed, no consumer can trust that a banks own official closeout check is actually final. 

In short : Citibank took money that was mostly my own savings, closed my account, paid me with an official closeout check, let me deposit it, then reached across banks and cancelled its own check and claimed the money was really someone elses. That is bad-faith, unfair banking practice, and I am asking regulators to require Citi to return my {$7800.00} and fully explain how this was allowed to happen.

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 monetary relief