Citizens Bank

Most terrible bank I've ever dealt with; good luck getting a service rep on the phone. Three hours in and still on hold. They blocked my account for no obvious reason, and the only way to unlock it is to call customer service. I'm closing my account with them as soon as I can get all my money out. Do not sign up with this bank. If I could, I would give negative stars.

Customer service is pathetic. My home loan was purchased by Citizens several years ago from another bank. I do auto withdrawal and have for the past 10 years. This month they screwed it up. I think it is the second time in the 10 years, not bad. But, try to talk to someone to get it fixed? Forget it. When I finally spoke to someone, albeit in a foreign country, the connection was so bad they were almost impossible to understand... and then incompetent, and needed to transfer me to another location where the wait time was "more than 30 minutes", wow. Choose a different bank.

Citizens is the worst bank ever - by a mile. First time in my life that a bank has taken my initial deposit and direct deposit, then decided, without a phone call/email or letter, that they wanted to close my account. Zero explanation and when I called, said they cannot share any information. While that is their decision, they do NOT have the right to hold my deposits hostage / in limbo. I am on Week 6 trying to find someone with authority to mail me a check with my funds initially deposited. Stay far far away from Citizens Bank!

July 13 2022 someone walked into the Rochester NY branch and withdrew $5500 from my account. I'm in Alabama, they said someone had my ID. So I called the same day and asked what has happened. Today is August 12 and they still haven't deposited my money back. First they said it was sent to the wrong department. Now they are saying I need to fill out this form etc. To top it all off because they gave my money away they charged me non sufficient funds fee also. I was like really. So for small business banking go somewhere else.

When I was named executor for my cousin's estate, I decided to open the estate checking account at Citizen's, since she had had her checking account there and I figured it would be simpler. Two-and-a-half weeks later, still no checks: the clerk at the desk said they had gotten printed and had been sent out regular mail. Two days later I went back, and one of the managers checked and said the original order had been canceled "by somebody" but then the order was placed again 2 weeks later. I finally got the checks 25 days after I had ordered them -- in the meantime, I had to use my own funds for some of the estate charges.

At the same time, I get their credit card as part of a promotion: spend $1500 in the first month, get $200 cash back. I did that (several big vet bills). It's been six months and still no credit to my account.

Also, I had never asked to go paperless on the credit card account, I wanted printed statements. I got emails that said "my statement is ready, see it online", but I thought that was simply a notification, like Capital One and Citi, who notify me but still send me paper statements. Didn't pay attention, got an email notice that I was late. I went and checked the credit card account -- someone had made it paperless. I never would have moved that button to paperless, I want printed out hard copies, request them when I'm at the doctor's, the vets, etc. Now I owe late charges and they've probably ruined my credit score. Don't bank with Citizens!

Extremely difficult to actually withdraw your own money (which is kind of the point of having a checking account) - to the point I'm switching back to my prior bank that now has locations in RI. What a joke - for months now whenever I try to withdraw my own money from my own checking account at any ATM it is flagged as fraudulent event though I respond to their "fraud" texts and calls verifying that it is me - and to be clear I've never had any fraud on my account in the past - I've tried multiple branches, multiple ATMs drive up and walk up - all make me go through the PIN and bill selections and such, only to decline the transaction as fraud (and their ATM screens are so slow and unresponsive this takes minutes for each attempt). Then I park and go into the branch and the tellers give me the cash I want and click some buttons in the computer and say no one else ever has this problem with the ATMs, don't know what to tell you - maybe it won't happen next time. They're always very pleasant to speak with but that doesn't help me get my money from the ATM. The card works at the supermarket and in-person inside the bank and online - so the card works. I've called the fraud department and I've called the customer service department. They both say the other department is the only one that can help, and then when I ask to speak to someone that perhaps oversees both departments that might be able to help, they kindly point out that there is no such person and that there is no one above them I can talk to and that maybe it will work next time. This has happened on at least ten occasions since the beginning of 2022. Bizarre behavior for a bank - I'm switching banks as soon as I rearrange my direct deposits and draft bill pays.

Citizens Bank updated their online app today (6/28/23) and removed all secondary levels of security. The security question was eliminated and there is no option to have a code sent via email or text. So if your password is compromised - YOUR MONEY IS GONE! I called to verify this and was told that no secondary level of security was available (*******428). Best option is to move your assets to a responsible and security conscientious bank.

All I want is a 1098 form, but I've called and been on hold for HOURS. No answer. Does this company even exist, are there any employees? I can't even contact them through email. Absolutely HORRIBLE.

Avoid Citizens at all costs. I ended up with Citizens because HSBC sold off their lower balance checking accounts to Citizens. My experience has been terrible. They issued me 2 different credit cards, one with a 26 percent interest rate, and now they won't transfer the balance to the lower interest card because of some bull$#*! "introductory period." I have no idea how I ended up with 2 different Mastercards issued by Citizens, but when I went to the bank the other day to withdraw money, the teller tried to sign me up for another. Prior to that they were charging me absurd fees for having a low savings account balance. Their hold times are atrocious, the calls get dropped frequently, and you almost always have to ask for a supervisor for help because the people who answer calls have heavy foreign accents and can't answer the questions anyway. AVOID!

Do not get involved with them. It is a deep dark rabbit hole of poor service and extreme exploitation of customers.

Lacy Cooper is a worthless Manager. They should send her back to the unemployment line. I suggest that the bank fire her immediately.

Be very careful with their ATM machines. I had a transaction where I was trying to withdraw cash. The machine debited my account and then said there was a dispensing error and the transaction was canceled. I did not receive my money but the money was deducted from my account and 2 weeks later has still not been credited. No one from the bank will return my calls so I have had to file complaints with outside agencies.

I have been with citizens bank for over 10 years, and since they sold out to another investment entity they seem to reorganize your withdrawal and checks to deliberately overdraft your account.
They will hold checks for weeks until it will overdraft your account and charge you $35 fee. Or 5 of them.
Even if its deposited the same day by payee.
And the customer service are very difficult to understand their broken english and are very rude and ultimately have no real interest in resolving your issue especially if it benefits the bank.
They have a history of transferring your call to "a specialist " but nobody ever answers the phone.
Can anybody find a main office phone number?...good luck on that
This bank should be shut down for theft of funds.

I have been trying to close my checking account ever since they bought HSBC. Man, who knew that closing a checking account that has no balance on it would take hours and hours of phone calls. Spoke to 4 reps; was promised by the first one that account would be closed. Didn't happen. Got charged $50 for reasons that are beyond me. Called back, offered to pay off the -$50, took another 3 phone calls to finally get people to understand my request. One guy even told me that my account can be re-opened any time at the discretion of the bank if more charges are posed to my checking account. So basically, I will never be able to fully shut the account because Citizens Bank can reopen it anytime? Nothing I was told makes sense.
One thing I do know is I would do everything I can to make sure I will never, ever do business with Citizens Bank again. Their lack of professionalism and the inability to provide consistent information is why they cannot beat banks like BoA, Chase, and other big guys.

I would never put money to the Citizens Bank. It has been taking monthly fees without letting me know even I have set up automatic transfers as active accounts. When I called, Mr.Walter, the customer services manager from Citizens bank, he said he will Not give my money back. I told him that his coworker FORGOT to set autotranfer in one of my accounts. He said not his problem. So I quickly closed all my four accounts withdrawal all my money from Citizens Bank. I scared. The Citizens Bank customer services made mistakes not to do one of my account to transfer fund between my accounts I asked the bank to check the record, Mr. Walter supervisor from Citizens blamed on me to checking of myself. Past 6 months I have never received an email, mail or text or a call from the bank for these charges or fees. Instead I only received email that my account auto transferred information, so i thought they wont charge fee but i was wrong. Six months ago i trusted the customer service that he set up all my accounts into automatic transfer, my accounts would not be charge any fee. The sad thing was he told me not to worry because he did all set up, unfortunately the Citizens bank's customer service didn't do his job right or lack of his training made mistakes with my accounts. So one of my account he got missed it and keeping charging fees until i walked into a branch and found out of myself my money was gone with their charging fees for months without notice. Bad customer services on the phone with attitude from the Citizens Banks. I closed all my accounts immediately because they took my money of their mistakes and i was told The ONLY exception to get my fund back is to open an CD account with new money deposit that i could able to give credit back to me, the branch manager said. Don't trust Citizens bank nor their services, I will not do business or put money into this bank.

Changing my mother's bank from Citizens due to poor telephone customer service. Have to wait over 30 minutes or more. Then get transferred to a different department to start the wait over again. This is a major inconvenience.

I called customer service yesterday at 5:00. After a half hour on hold with really loud music I started a chat help. Another half hour on hold to be immediately transferred and be on hold for a half hour. No response from the chat either. Gave up on everything. Next morning at about 7:00 am I get a text from Citizens chat "How can I help you?"!

Fraud. Overdraft fees. REVERSED the charges. NO OVERDRAFT REFUND. Had to call. On hold for 95 min. Promised a refund. Not holding my breath.

After multiple times of having to change my password to monitor my checking account, their Online Banking department decided to freeze my One Deposit checking account. They did not explain why they decided to freeze my checking account. Totally rude. Do not bank with them.

Their customer service people are barely intelligible due to heavy accents, their fraud claims follow-up is a joke and their 'new' website for online banking hasn't functioned in a week and I cannot access my accounts.

Kelvin Z is the rudest and most unprofessional customer representative/manager I have dealt with. He reluctantly refused to help in any way. I will not bank with Citizens Bank.
DO NOT PUT YOUR MONEY IN THIS BANK AS THEY ARE BOUCH OF THIEVES. Even if, you have 2 to 3 times your spending limit, they will refuse to increase your daily spending limit.
Kelvin Z told me CITIZEN BANK does not have all my money available.
SAVE YOUR MONEY AND DO NOT BANK WITH CITIZEN BANK.

If you ever have a problem with this bank, they will keep you on hold forever, and then the rep will have no idea how to handle it, and have you call another number with25 minute hold. They have no concern about customer's time.