Consumer complaint received 2025-05-20 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Payment process
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: SC

Complaint narrative:
My payments are set up to automatically pay. Citizens Bank increased my payment due, and I didn't take note of the letter because spring is our busy season and I was beginning to be behind on mail opening. 

XX/XX/year>2025 my XXXX {$2200.00} payment leaves my bank electronically. 

XXXX I receive a notice that my payment was not received. I log into the bank and see the payment has left my bank as scheduled. I tried to log in to my Citizens Bank portal at this time and it was locked out. Citizens Bank online portal would not let me reset the password without calling. I tried to call a couple of times throughout this time, but incoming calls caused me to abandon the attempts while waiting for assistance from Citizens Bank. 

XX/XX/year>2025 my {$2200.00} XXXX payment leaves my bank electronically. 

XXXX XXXX I have a good idea what the issue is. I'm unable to log into Citizens Bank to confirm and make a payment directly because I'm locked out of my Citizens Bank portal and can not regain access without dedicating a chuck of time to the endeavor via phone. I'm afraid if I make a payment through my bank portal, the payment will arrive too late. I need to talk to customer service, but this will require a chunk of time for both me and my wife. 

XX/XX/scrub> 2025 I reach Citizens Bank and officially learn of the issue regarding the escrow increase payment change. I'm told that my XX/XX/scrub> 2025 payment was returned. As of XX/XX/XXXX, it had not been received. I was told my XX/XX/XXXX payment was in process of being returned. As of XX/XX/XXXX, neither of the two {$2200.00} payments were received into my possession and neither were available to use to pay the new payment amount. As of XX/XX/year>2025, Citizens Bank held {$4500.00} and had not credited anything to my mortgage payment and did not make this money available for me to use to pay my now delinquent XXXX and XXXX mortgage payments. 

XX/XX/year>2025, I request, and do make a mortgage payment in the amount of {$4600.00} to cover the delinquent XXXX and XXXX payments. I am blessed to have that extra amount available to use for my delinquent XXXX and XXXX payments while Citizens Bank was holding the additional {$4500.00} that I no longer had access to. I made the payment in the amount of {$4600.00} and am given confirmation number XXXX to verify the payment transaction has completed. I request that my {$4500.00} being held be returned to me in a secure way, not through the unsafe XXXX XXXX system. I had paid the money to the bank in a timely manner and in a secure way. It is reasonable to expect the money, if the payment is refused, to be returned in a timely and secure way. At this point, Citizens has dedicated funds from my account totaling {$9100.00} but has credited {$0.00} to my mortgage. Instead, Citizens Bank keeps my mortgage in a delinquent status. 

Days following XX/XX/XXXX. I hadn't had time to look at my bank account closely but had made a mental note that the balance was higher than expected if the {$4600.00} payment were deducted, but I had not had time to research the discrepancy. I was confident my payment was made and the time wasted thus far dealing with the issue had resolved the issue. 

XX/XX/XXXX. I received one {$2200.00} check which I am inconvenienced to drive to the bank to deposit. 53 days had elapsed from the issuance of the first {$2200.00} payment on XX/XX/XXXX from my account to the date this check was received in the mail on XX/XX/XXXX. As of XX/XX/XXXX, Citizens bank has in its possession {$2200.00} and permission and access to electronically take {$4600.00} for a total of {$6800.00}. At this point, the {$4600.00} and the yet to be returned {$2200.00} payments are dedicated to the mortgage payment, I've been given a confirmation number for the {$4600.00}, and to my knowledge, the funds have been removed from my account. 

XX/XX/XXXX. I receive a collections call for my delinquent XXXX and XXXX payments. I'm told that Citizens Bank had blocked the {$4600.00} payment, despite the fact I had a confirmation number, because my account was delinquent. I'm informed that the {$4600.00} is still in my account. I am further told that likely, this delinquent payment has been reported to the credit bureaus. 

I am a fastidious bill payer. Life is busy which makes it more difficult to stay on top of everything, but for a Citizens bank to be actively hold and deny me access to {$4500.00} and have proper permission and access to take another {$4600.00} that they blocked without my knowledge even though I was given a confirmation number and then to place {$4600.00} in collections when we've actively paid {$4500.00} and made additional attempts to pay {$4600.00} is unacceptable.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation