Citizens Bank

This is specifically about Citizens Mortgage Dept which operates from Ohio, so you must deal with them long-​distance. My loan officer was absolutely oblivious to the expectation of responding to my phone calls and emails, and so my refinance took 4 months! Actually the ‘last straw’ was he calling me for more info which I gave, then promising he would call back in a couple hours to finalize the process. No call. After two business days, I contacted him to which he nonchalantly replied «Oh, I left early.» No apology. Except another promise to call me that afternoon. So the next day with no call, I left a message with the Mortgage Dept manager, and naturally no courtesy callback from him!, just this loan office suddenly calling me the next day. And Citizens then scheduled the closing for December 24, that’s right, Christmas Eve. Which meant I had to pay my previous bank another 4 – 5 days interest because of the settlement lag.
When I received their survey, I wrote to them the full details of my displeasure, and of course, no acknowledgment. What prompted this review now, 6 months later, is a letter saying they do not have evidence of the condo association insurance and will buy and bill me for coverage through them! It is June 6, our renewal is due June 12, and it is just their obnoxious and heavy-​handed tone after such incompetence which I had to deal with.
Whether you bank at Citizens (and I have an account here and have no problems at all with the JP branch), just don’t take out a mortgage with this bank!!!

I went to Citizen’s Bank to open a checkings and a savings account. Dominga was the woman who helped me. She rushed through the process of signing up and was not very nice. She was all business. She signed me up for a paperless checking and savings. I was told that she would order me checks and I just needed to make 5 debit transactions a month to avoid a fee. Well I got the checks but they took $ 10 out of my account for them. I immediately called and told them that Dominga had never told me that I had to pay for them; otherwise I would have said no thank you. Customer service transferred me to Dominga and when I told her what had happened she was very rude. She told me that she had let me know that I was going to have to pay. I spoke with the manager and she said she would fix it. 3 weeks later its not fixed so I decided to close my account. The teller was very rude also after she asked who had helped me and I told her Dominga. Avoid this bank. They are not friendly or honest.

Although I find using Citizens convenient due to their size and availability, dealing with them is a nightmare. On several occasions I have dealt with terrible communication, sloppy service, and an inability to take responsibility for poor management. For example, the company shredded documents on file a few years ago, never informed us, and then made us feel like we should have known and/​or been prepared the next time these docs were needed. Either inform me when you shred my documents, or scan them into your system, or simply apologize and tell me that I have the right to be frustrated that you just wasted 2 ½ hours of my time after telling me that I did not need any specific documents for my appointment. Get your s*&t together, Citizens!!!

This bank sucks to begin with, but this branch is the worst.
As mentioned before, the tellers see you waiting in line and will continue to have a conversation between themselves or the customer service person, totally ignoring you. And in some instances they only speak spanish. WTF, I can speak spanish but I want to speak English! How can you have employees that don’t speak english? I’m not saying they spoke with an accent. They didn’t speak english at all! How could that be?!
I went in there once, unannounced, and my info was up on a computer screen which was turned around and facing the customer line. I don’t know how long that was up, but anyone could have seen my info, including where I live!
The manager is never there or always on her way out. It’s a turnstile of who is working there as they have no standards for whom they hire.
Closed my accounts and took my business elsewhere. Been happy since.

Anyone considering opening a bank account with this bank period has to have their head checked! Hands down the worst bank, worst customer service, worst voice mail with no options to speak to a live person, EVER! I’ve left three messages and three in person face to face meetings with bank personnel, of which I could never ever find a real live bank manager… I’ve left my business card and cell number to clear up a few issues… and still, NO RESPONSE! I finally resorted to calling corporate offices, of which I have to say they don’t publish that number anywhere I had to squeeze it out of a branch employee… It started with transferring money from my savings to my checking to cover a rent check, I did this in person in December 2012 and was told it would clear that day, it is my money BTW. Well they missed it and never did the transfer till the day later, they bounced the check, a total of $ 37.00, of which after walking into the branch and explaining it to the AGAIN, they refunded the charge. (remember who’s fault this was in a bit.) I decided to let my account reach a low point and open a new account at Eastern Bank. I transferred most of my money out of all the Citizen accounts and just last month a service fee was assessed to the account, which then over drew the account by about $ 4.00… I was charged another $ 37.00 plus almost two weeks of daily charges adding up to about $ 144.00 in total while I was away on vacation. After speaking to several employees and trying to clear up these fees, of which no one would do, I was told I already had my Free One Time Charge Refund back in December and wasn’t eligible for any other Good Citizen treatment… (remember who’s fault the first fee was?) I explained this again and they still wouldn’t listen, even after calling corporate customer service. So I ended up paying almost $ 112.00 in fees for a $ 4.00 overdraft. I paid because I was so sickened by the whole on going story and saddened by the way a bank like this can represent themselves as caring and a Good Citizen…
Please I’m Telling YOU, don’t ever use this bank, don’t EVER think about it, in fact tell anyone you know who may consider opening an account to not do so. Forward this sad story to anyone you know who is thinking about a new bank and urge them to just throw their money off the bridge, spend it all in one night of fun in South Beach, give it to a charity, it would be more enjoyable and comprehendible!

this branch is the worst that I’ve ever been too. The customer service is AWFUL. Nearly every single time I’ve been, there is a casual conversation being had between a customer and a teller, while i wait. They see me and literally keep talking, everytime. The bankers are HORRIBLE. They screwed up my condo account horribly, told the other condo owner a different story and had us each running in and out of there, contacting my lawyer and city hall for unecessary documents.
I had a security breach on 2 accounts and left me with citizens as the only active account. AAHHHHHH! I went in to explain that I could only make an online transfer to cover a negative balance. They continued to charge me $ 6.99 per day, regardless of my explanation that my online transfer was basically ‘in the air’ trying to get into citizens to recover the negative balance. The ‘banker’ lady sent me away very quickly with ‘sorry it’s our policy.’ I called up customer service immediately and the nice man removed 2 overdraft fees to bring my account to positive. I was LIVID at the woman who dismissed me like I don’t matter AT ALL. It literally ruined my day to be so callously ignored regarding my finances. NEVER GO TO THIS BRANCH. JP CENTRE STREET IS HORRENDOUS.

My account landed with Citizens after a series of bank mergers. I am over 60 and got a fee-​free account after complaining about high fees in the mid-90s.(I told them I was upset about the fees and their disorganized service and planned to switch to Wainwright Bank across the street as many others were doing at the time.) Recently I again began noticing $ 10 monthly fees, I again complained, and the fees were refunded to me. I actually find the on-​line banking, especially bill-​pay, efficient and time-​saving. So speaking up can help.
Service is definitely a problem. Although Citizens is the offspring of a Dutch bank, their ATM and exchange fees for getting money in Europe or outside their US network are very high, and when my debit card was stolen, I discovered that they have NO emergency number for canceling the card from abroad. Finally I called a friend in Boston who got me their JP branch number. I called it and the person was helpful and said she would have the card cancelled immediately. When I returned home 10 days later I learned the card had never been cancelled, nor was there any record of my call from abroad.
Customer service in the JP branch is friendly enough but very slow and few seem to know anything, so when I needed my bank signature notarized to open a European account, I went to the Coolidge Corner branch. Only the manager had a «medallion» for the job, so I went over to meet him and found he was on a break while I waited an hour. Finally at my request an associate called the nearby Harvard St. branch and the manager Andrew did the job officially. This took me 2 ½ hours.
This said, I find they are capable of accepting cash wired to my account from abroad. I also find their on-​line bill pay and banking site user-​friendly, and their in-​country lost card phone network efficient. I pay all my bills very quickly on line, get billed for utilities and taxes online, have my retirement income wired directly into my account (with e-​mail notification) and find the «search» functions are useful to create and print lists of expenses at tax time. Lists can also be downloaded to certain tax softwares. With everything linked to this account, I’m probably not changing anytime soon.

I had been a customer for about 10 years. No longer.
Their credit card division is crooked and mean spirited. I went to shut down my account– made a payment over the phone at the same time-​gave them a new phone number– and the next thing I know is they have sent my account to a collection agency– «they have no record of the payoff and the reference number they gave me does not match». All for 90 bucks!
You think they could have called me on the new number I gave them to say there was a problem? Too much trouble for them.
This after I had been doing $ 13,000 a month business with them– all paid off each month (oh right– that shows I am a credit risk– I pay it off every month).
Stay clear of these guys, they have become sub prime sharks.

This bank has the worst service. Every time I go in the manager is rude … avoid this branch if you need to do anything besides use the ATM.

The bank employees actually try to be helpful and can be quite nice (hence two stars rather than one), but the service is truly abysmal. I am a Social Security Administration representative payee for an elder, and her account is held at Citizens (i.e., not my choice). As you can imagine, this arrangement sometimes results in some unique situations. The folks here repeatedly provide answers that I later determine independently to be incorrect. I normally would cut a break for not being able to address a «unique» situation quickly and accurately. But you should know that this Citizens branch handles several DOZEN representative payee accounts for the non-​profit I volunteer with. There’s simply no excuse for being unable to handle problems for such a large client. Finally, and as someone else has noted… the fees charged by Citizens are just over the top. Fees are bad enough for the normal work-​a-​day among us, but now imagine charging fees to an elder with disabilities who has only a $ 10 margin at the end of each month. It’s unconscionable. We have been able to ask for some of those fees to be waived, but it took weeks. Unless you don’t have a choice in where to bank, stay away from Citizens, and from this branch in particular.

I’ve been at this bank for a while, and the only thing that makes it worthwhile is the customer service at the JP location, I honestly have nothing to complain about there.
I’m in the process of switching, now, though. The new Citizens fees are the last straw, and Cambridge Savings Bank has a free checking account that earns 4% (!) and they reimburse you for ALL atm fees. It’s worth it to me to have to go all the way up to Cambridge for my banking to switch to a better bank.

Citizens bank is the worst most mistrusting bank on the planet (well Bank of America is probably #1) but here are some of the get-​yr-​money tactics Citizens bank uses to pound you in the ass:
1. Sometimes overdraft just «doesn’t go through»
2. One off fees. Watch yr statement and complain and you get your money back but how fuckin sneaky is that???
3. Fees to use there own ATM’s — in this case ATM stands for ass-​to-​mouth.
4. Here’s the worst offense! They sent us a very official looking card (what some likely thought was there new ATM card) and told us to mail it back thinking we would not read the fine print which said it was for some insurance they were selling via some other company. For all the people that opened this and «activated» (their words not mine) the card, Citizens made a killing off their own members
Fuck them!!! BOYCOTT Them!!! Join a Credit Union. BTW the Jamaica plain branch can drink my piss.

If it were not for the hassle of shifting banks, I would have left this bank a long time ago. However the level of ghettoized service at this JP branch is really too much.
The service here is spotty at best and the rules they have are archaic. The website has been updated since the earlier post and they are finally linked to
which allows me to add a star since that limits my interaction with the bank itself.

I have been a long time member of Citizen’s bank, but I plan to switch immediatly. I deposited a large, $ 10,000 check issued from Merrill Lynch recently. It cleared the next day. But for some unfathomable reason they put it on hold so I could not access it for 2 weeks. They have
a «fraud division», the arbitrarily decides to hold large checks, even if they clear until they get the issuer to verify it. But in this case, they couldn’t find the right phone number of the Merrill Lynch issuer. So in the meantime, I’m stuck. Oh yes, I bounced a bunch of check submitted before I knew the money was on hold

the review below me seems to just have had some unfortunate bad times. i have been with citizens since 2000 and have been at the JP location since 2001. never had any issues with them. they have always been very helpful on the phone or in person with all of my transactions and concerns.

I can not even begin to describe how much I absolutely HATE Citizens. Upon finding out about the Fleet/​Bank of America merger my girlfriend and I had decided it was time to switch banks. We went with Citizens, what a mistake. I am so glad I didn’t close my BOA account. First of all, their online banking is a shoddy joke. It is updated like every few days if you’re lucky, and the website is very crude. Also, everyone I have ever dealt with on the phone has been unhelpful or downright rude. Citizens charged us 4 overdraft fees, which they admitted were their error, swore they were reversing them, and never did. I was told our accounts were closed, I found out months later that this was not the case, and we still «owed» them money. Needless to say we stopped banking with them. I chose to review this branch since we live in JP, not that is particularly better or worse than any other. Although I do have to say when we went in to open our accounts the girl we dealt with was incredibly slow and not all that bright. Ever since I stopped banking with them I have tried to spread the word so no one else will make the same mistakes! They may look so friendly and inviting with their cute green and white theme, but they’re evil I tell you, pure evil!