I opened an account with Citibank in Vacaville, CA as it is the closest bank to Winters, CA that has an ATM to my house. This was about a year ago. The account I opened was a student account with no overdraft limit. Two weeks ago I had a bill collecter try and take money out of my account without my permission. I noticed Citibank had allowed them to try and take the money out twice and charged me with 2 overdraft fees even though I did not have any money in the account and my account was set up to not allow overdrafts. I called the bank and they said to come in and they would open me a new account and remove the fees which I did. I explained to the manager who was opening my account my problem with not having automatic deposit with my job and needed a bank close by with an ATM so I could deposit quickly and pay bills. She also suggested that I pay my creditor with a prepaid card and not give them my account information. I happily took her suggestion. The next week I deposited both my checks into the banks ATM thinking the money would be availaible to me the next day as no mention of ATM holds were told to me by the manager that day. Also the ATM machine did not give me a receipt with the deposit information. Wednesday I need to pay the creditor and I check my account online and notice I have a hold on my account. So I call the bank and was told Thur my money will be released. So I call the creditor as the are threating to put my bill in collections. Thur comes around and my money is still not released. I call the bank again. I was told Sat my money would be realesed for sure. I was also told that the bank could not release the money as it had been deposited in the ATM. Happy I hang up and call the creditor again. Sat no money has been released. Monday I call the bank again and was very rudely told my money would be released Tues at 7am and that they bank could not do anything about it as I deposited in the ATM. So I call the 800 number and talked to a manager who informed me that if she could release my money she would and that the bank manager was the only one who could do it.in fact she put me on hold to call the branch personally only to be told the bank manager had left early for the day. She was very nice and appologized to me for the inconvience. Mean while I call the creditors again who by this time were very nice to understanding the Hell I was going through with my bank. So today I was finally able to get my money out of Citibank and pay my creditor. I then call the bank manager and explained to her that I was very unhappy with there branchs service. The manager Yvonne instantly when on to tell me that I was wrong she could not have released the money, did not appologize for all the inconvience at all or the fact that I was given wrong information at all. I feel like Citibank not only held my money hostage but treated me very poorily. I will be taking my money out and returning my money bank into First Northern Bank. A bank I know will help me and with whom I trust my money with.
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