Consumer complaint received 2024-12-20 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Personal line of credit
Issue: Problem with the payoff process at the end of the loan — 
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: ME

Complaint narrative:
XX/XX/XXXX - A final payoff amount of {$33.00} on a statement balance of {$33.00} was scheduled ( autopay ) to be deducted by around XX/XX/XXXX ( as noted in a statement email from Citizens ). 
- This has happened before at least once start of the line of credit at approximately XX/XX/XXXX ( earliest statement email from Citizens ) and the immediate resolution was always Citizens attempting a withdraw again the next day and being successful. This problem only started to increase at this time with their autopay. Coincidentally at my final payment. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : XXXX XXXX XXXX  financed by Citizens Pay Your Statement is ready! 
- I receive a statement email from Citizens Bank stating " Minimum Payment : {$0.00} '' and " Statement Balance : {$0.00} '' with a " Due date : XX/XX/XXXX ''. 
- I have never done business with Citizens, at this point I assume the autopays all went through. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : XXXX XXXX XXXX financed by Citizens Pay Your Statement is ready! 
- I receive a statement email from Citizens Bank stating " Minimum Payment : {$0.00} '' and " Statement Balance : {$0.00} '' with a " Due date : XX/XX/XXXX ''. 
- I have never done business with Citizens, at this point I continue assume it takes a while for them to close the account. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX financed by Citizens Pay Your Statement is ready! 
- I receive a statement email from Citizens Bank stating " Minimum Payment : {$0.00} '' and " Statement Balance : {$0.00} '' with a " Due date : XX/XX/XXXX ''. 
- I have never done business with Citizens, at this point I continue assume it takes a while for them to close the account. 


XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX financed by Citizens Pay Your Statement is ready! 
- I receive a statement email from Citizens Bank stating " Minimum Payment : {$0.00} '' and " Statement Balance : {$0.00} '' with a " Due date : XX/XX/XXXX ''. 
- I have never done business with Citizens, at this point I continue assume it takes a while for them to close the account. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : You have a payment due soon, XXXX XXXX Citizens Bank switches the way they are leaving a paper trail within emails. These no longer contain the minimum payment, statement balance, or even due date. 
- " Hi XXXX, This is a reminder that a payment is due soon on your Citizens Pay Line of Credit account for XXXX XXXX. Your monthly statement is now available to view online. 
Since youre enrolled in Auto Pay, your recurring monthly payment will be charged to the payment account we have on file. Log in now to view your statement. '' - I have never done business with Citizens, at this point I continue assume it takes a while for them to close the account. 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : Your Citizens Pay statement is ready! 
- Citizens Bank switches the way they are leaving a paper trail within emails. These no longer contain the minimum payment, statement balance, or even due date. 
- Hi XXXX, Your Citizens Pay Line of Credit statement for XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  is now available to view online. Since youre enrolled in Auto Pay, your recurring monthly payment will be charged to the payment account we have on file. Have questions? Call XXXX. 

Between XXXX and XXXX - At this point I receive a notification from XXXX XXXX and other bank provided alerts that my credit report has a new item/ my credit score has gone down. 
- I see that Citizens is claiming non-payment of {$100.00}. 
- Confused, I call Citizens asking for details on how the final payment of {$33.00} turned into {$100.00}. No one at Citizens could explain and kept pushing me to immediately pay at every step of the way. They kept insisting its just because of insufficient funds. Which was at one point true, because I was no longer using my XXXX XXXX ( primary payment account ) and had at most enough to pay this final payment of {$33.00}. During these problems I transferred additional money into the XXXX account. I also attempted to use my new primary account at XXXX. 
- During this entire time I had more than enough liquid cash available at XXXX at all times, and had transferred more than enough to XXXX after seeing my credit report in an attempt to halt the reporting. 
- Prior to this time, I have not made an account with Citizens for an online account. According to a representative they had changed login accounts at some point around this time? I eventually had to call multiple times in XXXX XXXX to get someone who could figure out how I can make an account to log in. This is when I first was able to attempt to pay online vs years of no problem autopay. 
- Frustrated, I attempted to pay over the phone. Only to find a few days later, the balance returned. I tried over the website, switching payment accounts, phone again, etc. Eventually it seemed to stick... 

XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : Thank you for your payment - Hi XXXX XXXX We received your recent payment of {$100.00} that was submitted to your Citizens Pay account. 

Between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX - Citizens just told me, for the first time after many attempts, that a payment was received for their final falsely claimed amount, on XX/XX/XXXX. 
- My records indicate, the only payment to get deducted from my account was on XX/XX/XXXX ( 11 business days later ), XXXX. Why the constant stall and delay - then by XX/XX/XXXX, I received another email XXXX - DIRECT DEBIT CITIZENS PAY LINE OF CR ( Cash ) - {$100.00} XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : Your Citizens Pay statement is ready! 
- Hi XXXX, Your Citizens Pay Line of Credit statement for XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX is now available to view online. Since youre enrolled in Auto Pay, your recurring monthly payment will be charged to the payment account we have on file. Have questions? Call XXXX. 

-- -- The entire time between XXXX and XXXX : - I have been going back and forth between different Citizens representatives trying to piece together where this final charge of {$100.00} came from given the final payoff of {$33.00}. 
- The difference isn't that big of a deal and I just want this to go away. 
- Eventually I manually attempt to get payments through online, switching to XXXX cash management account as payment account from XXXX XXXX XXXX. Says it goes through on the website. Check back a few days later, account balance is back. I go to payment scheduler, and XXXX XXXX is set as my default again. This happens multiple times. Finally am able to get rid of the XXXX account completely, again process payment. Looks like it goes through, check back again later, balance is back. 
- I also reach out to XXXX XXXX and XXXX and they saw " no issues on their end '' at the time. 
- During all this time, I am able to get ahold of someone to process a payment over the phone. This leads to the same loop, payment looks like it goes through, but doesn't. 
- Note, not a single time since the start of this line of credit " loan '', did I recieve a payment confirmation from Citizens except once on XX/XX/XXXX which didn't correspond to any payment withdrawn from any of my accounts until XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX business days later ). 

Unrelated? 
XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX Title : Important Information Regarding Your CPAY Account - Very unclear email about Citizen 's thanking me about being a valued customer. Is it finally closed? 
- " Beginning XX/XX/XXXX, Citizens Pay will no longer accept new purchases from XXXX XXXX for the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX  program. '' Why am I just receiving this email on XX/XX/XXXX about some term change? Is this how Citizen 's tells you the account is closed? Is this even related to my account being closed? 
- Delayed communication, purposefully misleading, or lack of communication is a pattern.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation