I can not begin to describe how upset and how robbed I feel. I notified Citizens Bank at the beginning of December that a fraudulent charge was made to my account. I was told that I had the option of either filing a report or trying to get the money back myself from the bank. They said that he process would take 10 days with Citizens and that I would be better off if I tried to contact the bank directly (who took the money). Because I had already been over drafted because of this fee and the unauthorized transaction, I was naturally scared and was afraid to wait the 10 days (at that time I was not told that if I would have filed the claim I could have recovered all of my nsf fees).
To make a long story short, I contacted the original bank who withdrew my account and insisted that they return it to me immediately. They did but in the mean time (2 days) while I waited for these funds to arrive my account kept accruing more and more charges. I on SEVERAL occasions told Citizens of the incident. I offered them emails that I exchanged with this company.
The Company admitted fault. CITIZENS WOULD NOT HELP.instead I dealt with customer service reps who were either unwilling, uneducated, or simply unauthorized to help me. My overdraft fees were well over $1000 paychecks would be deposited and disappear. To add insult to injury, I requested the number to Citizens Legal Department. They refused to give it to me. They gave me an address that I was instructed to write a letter to and that would open a file.
What they are doing is fraudulent. First they did not tell me that if I would file the fraud claim I could regain some of the fees. Second, They KNEW far in advance that this was not any fault of my own and they would not even do anything to assist me in stopping these excessive fees they were charging.
I agree that we as consumers NEED to be responsible but I also feel that if a company knowingly sees that this is of no fault of your own and they CONTINUE to charge and collect fees from consumers they are no better than a common thief. Actually they are worse because the cute little commercials that they run are completely a misrepresentation. It is my intention to close this account, and contact and begin legal action immediately regarding this. I am sure that I am not the first or only person that this has happened to, but this has financially hurt my husband and I that we have not only been charged all of these fees from Citizens, we are unable to pay our current bills that are due now because of this financial burden.
And for the record, my husband and I are both well educated, working middle class with two children. We are not litigious and have never done or considered anything like this, but we were to the point that we were trying to scrape up money to pay these fees that at one point (as embarrassing as this is, we had to charge a gallon of milk!) They robbed us of our own money then punished us some more by adding fees that occurred because of there fees.
SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE! Any advise would be GREATLY appreciated. I am certain that i am not the only victim. It is time to be proactive against this type of business practice. If nothing else I hope that this horrible experience will warn other consumers.
I am a Pennsylvania Resident
Carrie
Champion, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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