Citizens Bank, not your typical pack to THIEVES, SCAMMERS, LOANSHARKS!!

Dear Douglas, I have had difficulty dealing with Citizens as well.
Below is a copy of my blog and facebook post
Citizens Bank are just paid thieves
February 25, 2013

Dear Sirs,

On February 1, 2013 I wrote a letter to you stating:
I have a checking account with you (xxxxxxxxxx) and in 1 year alone
you've charged me over 1500.00 in overdraft charges and sustained
overdraft fees. I demand you refund all my fees within 72 hours, not 2
months like last time. As you know Citizens Bank has a class action
suit against you for exorbitant fee charges. Please respond
immediately. I can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx
end of letter from 2/1/13
You chose to do nothing and leave me to be responsible for the charges
which is UNACCEPTABLE. I opted out of overdraft coverage MANY TIMES,
the most recent being JULY 2013 and Nick Desena said he would monitor
my account to make sure I didn't opt into overdraft coverage which I
NEVER did and Nick did not monitor the account as he said he would.
Since July 2012, Citizens has charged me over 1500.00 in overdraft
fees, what's the point in opting out if you're going to charge me
anyway. One time, recently, Citizens charged me over 100.00 (overdraft
and sustained overdraft) for a 1.29 charge to iTunes which put my
account in the red be less than .75 cents.
After my last letter of 2/1/13 I finally got a callback 2/7/13 and was
told the only solution is put limits on my account. Why should I be
penalized for your mistakes. I'm on disability so one overdraft charge
of 37.00 is like 137.00 to me. Just because I'm disabled physically
doesn't mean I'm disabled mentally. I'm smarter than most people give
me credit for, in fact when I graduated college, it was in nusing with
High Honors. Not only am I smart but I'm very persistent, particularly
when I'm being messed with, like now. I have tried to deal with just
Citizens but now I'm going to send this to the media, and put it in my
blog. I'm also going to seek a lawyer regarding this, just because you
are a big company with a lot of money doesn't mean you can screw the
little guy without ramifications, as the recent class action suit
against you proved. Of which you settled to pay 137.5 millions small
potatoes when you stole billions from customers. If you think "stole"
is too strong of a word think of it like this, if someone came in your
bank demanding money, wielding guns and wearing a ski mask,that would
be considered stealing, your bank is essentially doing the same thing
minus the guns and ski mask.



Sheila A. Levesque,

I doubt the bank will have sympathy for your plight considering that
you are writing on behalf of the account holder. Yes, I think it is
wrong the way banks reorder transactions, but like others have said,
if you do not keep track of your account, you cannot rely on a piece
of paper or machine telling you that you have money in your account.
Those are never accurate, they only specify your account in real time.
Sure she probably did have the funds there when she made the
withdrawal, and once other things processed after she didn't. Yes,
the reordering sucks, but if the money was there, you (or should I
say, she) doesn't need to worry about it. I would consider this a
lesson.

While it may not be "theft" or "fraud," it is definitely a legal
issue. Bank of America is currently in a class action lawsuit because
of the way they were ordering the transactions to maximize overdraft
fees.

I have ten years' worth of banking experience, and I have seen first
hand how the bank does this. I feel that, while we as customers
should do our due diligence to ensure money is in our account, many
banks' core processing systems need additional tweaking to ensure that
they are not attempting to maximize their profits.

Many of the posters have said, "well, it's the customers fault for not
keeping track of their own accounts; it's not the bank's
responsibility." I argue that it IS the bank's responsibility to post
transactions in a timely manner. The Check 21 Act has allowed many
checks to be posted as soon as that night. ATM and POS transactions,
in many instances, INSTANTLY post to the customer's account. It is
the bank's who have the resources to make this possible for their
customers.

Yes, customers make mistakes on their account may not constitute an
emergency on part of the bank. However, shady practices by banks to
maximize their overdraft fees IS an emergency.

You can read more about the B of A lawsuit by going to
www.bofaoverdraftsettlement.com

You can change this immediately so you do not get overdraft charges,
when you log in you can change your settings to NOT ALLOW overdraft
protection. When you do this you will not be able to use your card if
you have insufficient funds. *if* it does still go through and you do
go overdraft it will still pay out the funds; only when you deposit
enough to cover it. I have selected this option for my son's account
because he was constantly overdrafting and it was ruining his credit
and costing him a fortune. Contact the bank as well, they do offer a
one time only overdraft fee reduction (usually 50%). I know it seems
like you were robbed, and I sympathize with your plight. Try what I
mentioned, it should work for you. (One caveat, there is a fee, it is
about $5, which is much better than $37) Good Luck!

Theft or fraud, this is a simple inability to conclusively KNOW what
is in your account. While it is NICE that most banks have pretty
sophisticated accounting applications, they are not perfect and they
will likely never be inclusive enough take into consideration
automatic debits and checks that may be about to post.

The bank can't read your mind and know every little transaction you've
agreed to but hasnt yet posted(whether you remember it or not). That
is your responsibility in this business relationship.

Furthermore, if I was your girlfriend, I'd be REALY ticked with you
right now.

i think the "they weren't" meant that the OP found out after the fact
that the funds weren't available.


however that still doesn't mean much.
some banks let you view a "quick peek" on your funds but you have to
open the link to see all the pending transactions.


plus just because your funds show available doesn't mean all of your
transactions have posted to the bank yet

1) Automatic / recurring charges - it won't post to the account right
away if it's not the date for it to be processed.

2) credit / paper charges - those have to be sent in manually so they
may not post immediately either.



this is why it's best to keep track yourself instead of relying on the
bank.

This why you don't run up a bunch of small expenses .... only to have
the bigger one hit and then turn the little ones into overdrafts.



More importantly.... Reordering will NOT make you overdraft. No
matter HOW you reorder it, if you have enough money to cover ALL OF
YOUR CHARGES then you won't overdraft no matter how they are ordered.

Spending more than what you have causes overdrafts.
Reordering ONLY affects how many overdrafts you have when you spend
outside your means and fail to plan.



Remember... lack of planning on your part does not constitute an
emergency on other people's part.

"I checked online to be sure the funds were available before making a
withdrawal from the ATM. They weren't."

And just like that, the problem comes sharply into focus.

Its up to you to keep track of how much is in the bank account and how
much is going out.

I can tell you right now how much is in my account, but if I dont
include the 2 bills being paid today and tommorow I could overdraw if
I use money now before the bills get paid.

show me where it's illegal.



not understanding how your bank works on your part does not create
"theft" on the bank's part

Just because the funds show available online, doesnt mean there might
not be something pending. Are there any sheduled automatic deductions
or automatic bills that maybe she forgot about?

Sometimes if I run something as a credit, it doesn't even show up
online for 2 or 3 days then boom it goes through. So if I were to
check my account before then, it would still show it as available. All
it would take is one small simple thing like that to throw you account
into all kinds of crazy!

Or by online you already meant at the ATM?

How is it fraudulent for the bank to take money out of your account
when a check is cashed, a bill is paid, a transaction is completed
etc.? My husband and I use Excel to track all of our transactions and
outstanding checks. We also choose not to carry every single receipt
around with us, so we keep a few hundred dollars padding in the
account "just in case". We also stick to a budget so that we know
exactly how much we have to spend.

I get that not everyone has a few hundred dollars sitting around, but
that's an even bigger reason to keep better tabs on the acct.

Sorry, but this is no scam or rip off, nor is it theft or fraud. You
should never rely on the balance that you get from the website or the
ATM, there not real time balances. I keep a checking register and the
only thing I use the website for is to see what has come in in order
to check it off in my register. I'm with BOA and they reorder
transactions from largest to smallest in that day. I don't care in
what order they redo it in because I have enough in there to cover.
I've been with BOA for 20+ years and haven't had a overdraft with them
in over 10 years.

I'm not saying that I agree with the reordering or with the way the
banks conduct there business, it's just that the majority of the
problems that banking customer have can be avoided with the use of a
checking register whether it be online or paper. I would highly
recommend that you, or your girlfriend, try using one (accurately).

Did you make the withdrawal from the ATM or did your girlfriend? If it
is your girlfriend's account, she needs to contact the bank via phone
or in person. Writing a letter on her behalf will not accomplish
anything. It is her responsibility to keep track of how much money she
has in her account and what transactions are outstanding that will
take money out of her account. They make software you can use to track
your spending and manage your bank account better.I have had a
checking account since the late 70's and NEVER had INSF fee. I know
how much money is in my account and what transactions are outstanding.
I never rely on the balance online or on the ATM receipt.

I enjoined a class action against Countrywide Mortgage, and got a
check from the class action o over $4,000.

Being obliged to return the money they stole is not going to cause any
hardship at Citizens Bank. Layoffs because of this??? That's a joke.
Even if all customers were abated 100% of the money the bank ripped
them off for, all it would do is take a little nibble from the massive
profit margin from their bottom line. And so the stock goes down 50c
that day. Poor Citizens.... boo-boo--:(*. Let the fat cats running
this crooked institution take a 5% pay cut for a year. That would
cover the entire thing.

These overdrafts have been caused by the bank lying to us, saying that
funds are available, when in fact they are not. Their computers tell
lies, because they're told to tell lies. Even if a real overdraft
should occur, they alters the posting dates of earlier transactions,
so one overdraft ends up creating 4 or 5 $37 fees. This depletes the
account, so when something else comes in which we believe is covered,
they tack on another $37 fee.

One overdraft, one fee, right? Wrong!--
AND.... we never opted in for this ripoff "overdraft protection." The
MOB would be overjoyed if their loansharks could exact the interest
rates Citizens customers end up paying for what is essentially a short
term loan. 170,000%~~~ loansharks and bookies are happy to end up with
an aggregate annualized return of 400%.

Call it what you want; this isn't banking~~ it's legalized THEFT!!!!

"Being obliged to return the money they stole is not going to cause
any
hardship at Citizens Bank. Layoffs because of this???"

You are so versed on running a business, you can prove that
statement?

Banks are allowed to make a profit.

The reason government hemorrages money in every department is because
there is no motivation to run a tight ship (IE waste, fraud). They
feel like there is an unlimited amount of taxpayer resources to take
care of it, so why bother.

When you add the profit motive in, amazingly you run a better business
that doesn't waste money.

As for the lying piece, you haven't shown, nor can prove any of it,
which makes me dismiss it as nothing more than your girlfriend
couldn't budget properly, and paid the price for not taking
responsibility for it.

I applied for a overdraft protection credit line, it was free to
apply, and took all of 30 seconds. I've never even come close to
touching it, because I am responsible.