Mild rant about Citibank.....
Discussion
Been with Citibank 20 years, have an account in New York, due to working offshore. Never had a problem until about 4 years ago, when they decided their instant wire on line transfers needed a texted code sent to your mobile to allow you to process a wire. Great, except you can't send a wire if you don't have a phone, like on a ship.... and don't have a US mobile phone....and aren't IN the USA......
Hours spent on the ships satellite phone trying to work around it, with numerous transfers within Citibank....all requiring verification of identity, all with the looooong quiet minutes while they do their mails or go for a coffee. They could not resolve it for me.
But they relented and a few weeks later they changed their system, so people like me could actually use the normal three day wire system.
Now, over the last weekend, they have changed THAT too! Now they need to send a code, except I don't have a number registered with them that can be texted to. So I called them, 'toll free international number' line, and after 20 minutes the 'toll free' line chewed up all £20 of credit on my mobile and cut me off seconds before I got sorted out.
So I went out and bought a Land line plug in phone, so I can call them, plugged it into our new Virgin phone socket, it don't work........ 15 minutes on the phone and an engineer is coming out..... next week........
I was about to bid on a bike on Ebay, but wont have the cabbage in the bank to pay for it until I can sort $hittybank out.
Hours spent on the ships satellite phone trying to work around it, with numerous transfers within Citibank....all requiring verification of identity, all with the looooong quiet minutes while they do their mails or go for a coffee. They could not resolve it for me.
But they relented and a few weeks later they changed their system, so people like me could actually use the normal three day wire system.
Now, over the last weekend, they have changed THAT too! Now they need to send a code, except I don't have a number registered with them that can be texted to. So I called them, 'toll free international number' line, and after 20 minutes the 'toll free' line chewed up all £20 of credit on my mobile and cut me off seconds before I got sorted out.
So I went out and bought a Land line plug in phone, so I can call them, plugged it into our new Virgin phone socket, it don't work........ 15 minutes on the phone and an engineer is coming out..... next week........
I was about to bid on a bike on Ebay, but wont have the cabbage in the bank to pay for it until I can sort $hittybank out.
swerni said:
I attempted to open a business account with them this week, no one could actually tell me who to speak to.
The ones that were able to were not allowed to.
Never deal with such a stupid organisation.
I've spent about six hours on the phone in the last week, trying to get some money wired over. First I remembered I had to change my address and phone numbers, so, I did that.The ones that were able to were not allowed to.
Never deal with such a stupid organisation.
Then I went in again to see what would happen, and instead of asking me if I want a code sending, it just said 'enter your code'.
I checked if they have my details right. No phone number showing up, just a little spinning 'loading' circle. Continually...
More phone time, one girl finally admitted they can't actually send the phone codes outside the USA. Great.....
30 minutes, numerous transfers, finally got to a machine that would give me a code over the phone: it spoke at normal speed, a ten digit number, replete with background hisses and static. I had it repeated fife times, thought I had it, then the machine hung up on me.
No, it was the wrong code.....
Back on the phone, several transfers, the usual repeated security checks, finally got to a girl who would simply get the code and tell it to me.
It worked! Hallelujah!! I wired £20,000 over so I don't have to deal with them f
king idiots again any time too soon!And today I got my tax declaration rejected for the third time in a row, they wrote me a generic letter stating
: the 8BEN form was not filled out to their satisfaction, OR, the signature did not match the one on record, OR, the passport or driving license was not correct, OR, my country of residence was not filled in correctly.
Same as the last two times. The f
king halfwits can't even manage to generate a letter telling me exactly what I am doing wrong on their fking form???DonkeyApple said:
Rule one of expatting, don't ever use a US branch of a bank. There is no upside. You will always be a victim to parochial and borderline facist mindsets. And it opens you up to all sorts of unnecessary political risks and ballbag behaviours like having your funds blocked. Plus, you have no protections and ultimately no rights.
So, in short, you should never have opened that type of account.
My company was merged with another, about 14 years ago, who insisted we all open Citibank accounts to get paid. After the last fiasco happened I stopped using them, but when I got laid off a year ago I had a large payout, and wiring it directly into a US account was by far the easiest route to take. Big mistake, but I thought they had finished trying to fSo, in short, you should never have opened that type of account.
k over as many of their customers as possible.Another example of the sheer bloody minded paranoia American suffer from: I loaned money from my 401k in the USA, and had to pay it back by paper cheque every month. There were unable to process wire transfers in this day and age.
I posted a cheque, every fking month, a Citibank cheque, no dramas....until the second to last payment. It was rejected, and after several long phone calls to the USA, which was answered automatically by machine, which would not allow me to move last the 'please state your social security number'... it turned out the cheque was rejected because I had written the cents below the line. On US cheques you have to write ' and 77/100' after you write the sum, to tell them 77 cents you were paying. It only fitted below the line.
"One thousand seven hundred and fifty seven dollars and 77/100" simply did not fit into the place left for it.
I then checked all my old cheque copies, on Citibank, where they keep a picture of the cheques, and every single fking one had been written the same way. Some fking jobsworth in the 401k department had decided to play powermonger after nearly four years! Assholes!
And the final cheque, to finish with the fkwits, it HAD to be a cashiers cheque, or managers cheque, not a normal Citibank cheque like I had been using! And when I inquired why it was thus 'that's the policy, sir, have a good day'....
FFS what is UP with those paranoid asshats??
I posted a cheque, every f
king month, a Citibank cheque, no dramas....until the second to last payment. It was rejected, and after several long phone calls to the USA, which was answered automatically by machine, which would not allow me to move last the 'please state your social security number'... it turned out the cheque was rejected because I had written the cents below the line. On US cheques you have to write ' and 77/100' after you write the sum, to tell them 77 cents you were paying. It only fitted below the line. "One thousand seven hundred and fifty seven dollars and 77/100" simply did not fit into the place left for it.
I then checked all my old cheque copies, on Citibank, where they keep a picture of the cheques, and every single f
king one had been written the same way. Some fking jobsworth in the 401k department had decided to play powermonger after nearly four years! Assholes!And the final cheque, to finish with the f
kwits, it HAD to be a cashiers cheque, or managers cheque, not a normal Citibank cheque like I had been using! And when I inquired why it was thus 'that's the policy, sir, have a good day'....FFS what is UP with those paranoid asshats??
The annoying part is we had to use Citibank, with a PBOE account, 'Personal Banking for Overseas Employees'. That was okay to to start with, but then that account was removed and replaced by some other name, and the whole thing has gradually gone down the toilet ever since. Citibank is designed for Americans, IN America..
DonkeyApple said:
That's the reason you first opened the account but you chose to remain with an inappropriate bank. Take a moment out of struggling to drive down parked roads and all the other massive problems you've decided to encounter since you've been forced unwillingly to return to Blighty and change to a British bank that is designed to cater for British people who are living in Britain. Ie you. 
In short, dry your eyes and get a grip. You're here now so deal with it.
Oh my god, and all this time the answer was right in front of me..... In short, dry your eyes and get a grip. You're here now so deal with it.
So, I guess I need to go call Citibank for a couple of hours and try to arrange to send my money's to my UK bank.
King Herald said:
And today I got my tax declaration rejected for the third time in a row, they wrote me a generic letter stating
: the 8BEN form was not filled out to their satisfaction, OR, the signature did not match the one on record, OR, the passport or driving license was not correct, OR, my country of residence was not filled in correctly.
Same as the last two times. The fking halfwits can't even manage to generate a letter telling me exactly what I am doing wrong on their fking form???
And now they have sent it again!!!!! Exactly the same letter, telling me I have filled something in wrong, or omitted something on the form!!!! : the 8BEN form was not filled out to their satisfaction, OR, the signature did not match the one on record, OR, the passport or driving license was not correct, OR, my country of residence was not filled in correctly.
Same as the last two times. The f
king halfwits can't even manage to generate a letter telling me exactly what I am doing wrong on their fking form???Namely "Missing country of citizenship. (No abbreviations)
So, is that meant to be United Kingdom, or England??????
Every time I have filled it in on a immigration document to the USA, I have to state United Kingdom. They have ordered us to do that. So that is what I put on the tax form. Should it be England????
ETA: Just been on 'Chat' with Citibank, apparently I need to fill in the full country of citizenship name as it is seen on my passport, so....
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Really? Seriously???
Edited by King Herald on Monday 10th April 14:09
A very nice lady just phoned me from the USA, Citibank, to try and sort this tax certification thing out. She asked if I could send a copy of my passport stating I was British, and I pointed out I had sent three copies already.....she looked, found them, mentioned that I was on their records as being Irish, and from Ireland....
I have no idea either......
She promises her team will 'reach out to me' about it soon.
I have no idea either......
She promises her team will 'reach out to me' about it soon.
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