Citibank account closure

dancarter1220

My partner and I have held a citibank account for 10 years. The account has always been in credit and we have had no problems in all this time.
In November we received new debit cards which did not need to be activated immediately. In December (just before christmas) both of our cards were declined. On ringing the bank we were informed that our account had been cancelled as "this type of account was not within their business plan moving forward". The account still being in credit!
We explained that all of our household bills and DD's including mortgage were paid from here. A had a call back and I was told that the account would be extended for 45 days to enable us to switch banks. The debit cards however were still blocked.
I tried to log into the account online at the beginning of january, I could not log in fully. I once again rang the bank to be told that "the account had now been closed the extension could not be upheld and the account balance would be sent in form of a bankers draft".
This was on the 6th of Jan. I still have no balance of my account 9 days later.
Are they within their rights to do this?

john1002

Yes and you signed the T&C that allowed them to do this, I would still write a formal complaint over the promise to extend hopefully you have this in writing or have the person you spoke to over it.

You will be glad in a sense they did as there are many bank accounts that are better than Citibank.

John

bigadaj

Formal complaint and if not satisfied appeal to the regulator.

Meanwhile there are many banks that will pay you to switch to them and transfer in a matter of days which may well be preferable.

Stompa

Citibank closed my account (which I'd held for 20+ years) about six months ago, which was pretty annoying. But they did give me 3 months written notice, and that was followed up by at least one more letter, and at least one email. I would have expected you to receive something similar, and I'd certainly put in a complaint if you didn't.

ratechaser

john1002 wrote: »

You will be glad in a sense they did as there are many bank accounts that are better than Citibank.

John

Took the words out of my mouth! As someone that has had prior connections with Citi, I can say that the whole retail banking business really is not a priority for them in the UK, the support infrastructure is far from ideal (not that they are alone there), and their customer facing service model tends towards the 'low cost'.

Yes the ability to flip currency on the account is useful to some, but overall there are better options out there, especially if you stay well in credit...

colsten

As Citibank UK is dominated by US legislation, now authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland and also probably no longer part of the FSCS, I wouldn't want an account with them anyway. Get the banker's draft and run.

DCFC79

Why did you not start moving some of your money when you first couldn't access the account, it's what I would have done.

System

You'll have some issues transferring (for an incentive) as Citi aren't part of the Current Account Switch Service. They'll have to switch you the old fashioned way!

bigadaj wrote: »

Formal complaint and if not satisfied appeal to the regulator.

Meanwhile there are many banks that will pay you to switch to them and transfer in a matter of days which may well be preferable.

bigadaj

Heng_Leng wrote: »

You'll have some issues transferring (for an incentive) as Citi aren't part of the Current Account Switch Service. They'll have to switch you the old fashioned way!

That's annoying!