Citibank applying charges to savings account!!

autopetfeeder · 19 March 2009 at 10:16PM

So I opened a citibank savings account a few weeks ago. After the account being fully opened and activated, I decided to set up a transfer from within the Citibank internet banking area.

I requested the transfer and made sure I had enough cash in my linked current account. What happened?

On the day they were supposed to take the cash out via direct debit, they took nothing and instead charged me £25 !!!!!

I checked and double-checked the details of the linked account and they were correct. Next I called my bank and they checked and said there was no record at all of an attempt by Citi to take any cash from my account.

Finally I sent the message below to Citi and (despite the promise of a reply within 24 hours) still have not had a reply 27 hours later.

I'm pretty annoyed.....

Hi

I set up a payment to take £10,000 from my ----account (

).
Your system shows it went unpaid.
I just telephoned ----bank and they say that there is no record of any attempt by you to withdraw the money.
To be clear my

bank account does have the money available but you did not attempt to take it.
Please refund your charge and tell me what went wrong and why you didn't take the cash?

Mikeyorks · 19 March 2009 at 10:38PM

Sounds as though the DD is not set up on your linked account? Have you checked it?

autopetfeeder · 19 March 2009 at 10:45PM

Yes, there is no DD set up. I think I set one up electronically with Citi but not sure.

If one isn't in place, should they be able to allow me to attempt to transfer even though they would know it wasn't in place and then charge me £25!

I was hoping to put my money in to earn interest from them not to pay charges!

bjorn_again · 19 March 2009 at 11:13PM

Is'nt this one of the Banks that expects to post a profitable position for the first quarter of 2009? Don't want to sound facietious but - go figure.

Mikeyorks · 19 March 2009 at 11:26PM

autopetfeeder wrote: »

If one isn't in place, should they be able to allow me to attempt to transfer

I wouldn't have thought so. If you're pulling the money from their end .... then they need to file an appropriate Mandate with your linked account .... you can't do it. And they shouldn't allow a transfer to take place before that is in place.

My BM E-Saver, for instance, clarifies that the first DD you pull in will take an extra 5 days. That's to allow the Mandate to be plumbed in to the linked account.

Had a quick look at the Citi website ... but it's not easy to research. Write to their complaints people (keep a copy) if you get no reply to the Email.

autopetfeeder · 20 March 2009 at 8:56PM

Finally got through to the Indian call centre and was told the charge would be taken off and that I should fund the account by pushing from my current account rather than pulling.
I didn't try to ask why there is an option that apparently allows a "pull" but doesn't work and causes a £25 charge. If I had, the conversation might have lasted much longer than I had time for!

autopetfeeder · 22 March 2009 at 10:32PM

Update. Still no refund for apparently setting up a transfer in the wrong direction by mistake on a web page that is utterly unclear.

Funnily enough, £25 is almost exactly a month's interest at 3%. I was under the impression that they'd be paying me this amount. Oh well, good to know the money will be put to good use funding 'ankers' pensions etc.

This is an email just received and sent 2 days late from their customer services dept

Dear Mr. XXXX,

Thank you for your message.

Please be informed there was a payment setup on your Flexible saving account on 16-March-09 for an amount of £10,000, this mode of payment is used when you want to transfer funds from your Flexible Saving account to your nominated account with other bank. Since there were insufficient funds in your Flexible Saving account, this payment was rejected and system automatically charged you £25 unpaid bill payment charge.

Please note that to receive funds in GBP from within the UK all you will need to provide is your name, account number: XXXXXXXX and our Sort Code. Our Sort Code is - 300045.

Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to send us a message or call us on the contact numbers mentioned below.

Yours sincerely,

Prachi Todankar

withnell · 23 March 2009 at 12:23AM

TBH it does seem like the error was yours as the transfer was reqested the wrong way - so you really should be posting clearly to that effect, as it's not really Citi's fault!

PJD · 23 March 2009 at 10:45PM

Why was pulling the money instead of pushing - wrong withnell?

There has been no explanation provided to the customer as to why this was wrong, - they simply told him to try 'the other way'.

When the OP used the word "wrong" in #7 he should have used quotations.

It wasn't his fault from what I have read.

Citibank applying charges to savings account!!

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free