topic Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time in Credit Card Applications

Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 17:16:22 GMT

Got a pre qualification letter in the mail from Citizens Bank for their Cashback Plus card. Since it has no foreign transaction fee and I'm looking at taking a trip to the caribbean next summer and I wanted a back up general spend card because not everyone will take my amex EDP and since the card has $100 signup bonus for $500 spend I was like yeah why not apply for it and so I did. My god they were annoying to deal with. Really long wait times on the phone 20 minutes each time, was told to call back later twice by aggitated reps just checking the status of the application with first one being call back on Wednesday...I did second one being call back on Friday...I did and on Friday I was told they wanted me to send in verification for who I was to underwriting and they needed two different utility bill copies and a copy of my drivers license.

I played ball and sent them two different utility bill copies and a copy of my driver license. Called back Thursday the following week and they said they needed a utility bill with my PO Box address since the town I live in the post office doesn't deliver mail so everyone has to use a PO Box. If they told me they needed a bill with my PO Box on it in the beginning I would've done so but they didn't tell me they needed one showing the PO Box specifically. So I'm like okay I can get you a copy of a bill showing the PO Box...never had to do any of this with Amex, Discover or Chase but whatever I'll do it. However, the rep set me off by then telling me I needed to refax a copy of my drivers license because they wanted the copy to be a bit darker.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. This was way to much jumping through hoops over a card I was really only getting as a backup for my EDP and maybe to use on a potential trip more than a year from now. I just told the rep "you know what just cancel the application because I'm not jumping through anymore hoops for you guys". I hung up the phone and was just like what the hell? My scores at the time of the app were TU 771 EQ 780 and EX 759 and I only had one credit card application in a year and that was three months ago.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by dealing with local credit unions and discover, amex and chase which all had wonderful customer service and easy application process. Having dealt with Citizens Bank I don't understand why anyone would do business with them at all considering how annoying they are to deal with.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 18:24:33 GMT

Sorry to hear about your experience. I don't have much to add, as I have never done business with Citizens Bank. Sounds like they could use some training though.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 18:30:18 GMT

I’m sorry that this happened to you but I think it’s a bit unfair to slap the annoying label on a lender across the board for one bad experience. If we did that, Chase, Amex, Disco, and every other lender, even NFCU, would be labeled as awful places to do business with.

For some reason they found your profile to be off and it set off red flags for fraud. It happens.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 18:45:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I’m sorry that this happened to you but I think it’s a bit unfair to slap the annoying label on a lender across the board for one bad experience. If we did that, Chase, Amex, Disco, and every other lender, even NFCU, would be labeled as awful places to do business with.

For some reason they found your profile to be off and it set off red flags for fraud. It happens.

Your got a point there. I've had nothing but good experiences with Amex, Discover and Chase but you could do a simple google search about experiences with those three and it will bring up posts and videos by people who unfortunately had negative experiences. Some one else could have a good experience dealing with them and I honestly hope they do.

However, when they complained to me saying they needed me to fax another copy of my drivers license to them and with me having just 3 days before changed the ink catridge on my printer and going down to their local bank branch only 1 to 2 miles from my house and having there bank branch fax them the info and having them complain about said fax just annoyed me and put me over edge.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 19:00:01 GMT

It actually isn’t that uncommon to have problems with a scanned copy that then gets faxed. If you don’t scan in high DPI black and white mode, they’re almost always entirely unfaxable. I ran into the same problem dealing with BECU using an internet fax service — I gave up and decided it wasn’t worth the hassle in the end.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 19:10:10 GMT

Your right that it isn't uncommon to have problems this way however they didn't say it was unreadable they just said they want/need a darker copy and the fax confirmation page was definitely readable so I was just like...really? Also it was one of their local branches and I'm pretty sure that would have to fax copies of documents to corporate. If I used an outside service like you did I can see the potential issue but when it's their own branch sending them the documents it just put me over the top.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 19:23:29 GMT

Their offering isn't all that desireable anyway. Nothing special over any other card.

I don't supply docs to anyone unless it's a mortgage. I did once do the 4506 dance with Amex but, that was because I wanted to jump the gun to 50K and beyond.

No FTF's are pretty common and it's a bit of a surprise when you use a new card on paypal for a purchase then see the FTF fee pop up out of no where since it's common place to not have FTF's with 99% of cards. I found that out w/ USB x 2 cards. Chase will do it too w/ non Signature cards as well. Citi DC, BBT, BBVA... all have FTF's funny enough though Regions doesn't. Regions also gave a higher CL at opening w/o all the hassels of BBT. Now, some of the other cards w/ Citi don't have FTF's on them like premier/prestige.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

atst2000 — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 20:32:22 GMT

OP - I share your sentiment on Citizens, to saying Citizens is unfair, that's an understatement.

I have known many people with that had the same experience as you had and this is typical of them.

Personally I think you did yourself a favor by cancelling the application.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

DaveInAZ — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 23:20:48 GMT

Fax them a copy of your drivers license??? Are they stuck in the 1980s???? Give me an upload link or, if you're stuck in the 2000s, give me an email address to send it, so you get an actual jpeg of the scan, in color, just like the DL. A fax copy of a picture is harder than heck to read the details, I haven't faxed anything in over a decade and won't. I don't blame you for telling them to stuff the app & "darker" fax copy.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 23:39:13 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:
Fax them a copy of your drivers license??? Are they stuck in the 1980s???? Give me an upload link or, if you're stuck in the 2000s, give me an email address to send it, so you get an actual jpeg of the scan, in color, just like the DL. A fax copy of a picture is harder than heck to read the details, I haven't faxed anything in over a decade and won't. I don't blame you for telling them to stuff the app & "darker" fax copy.

Faxing seems to be incredibly common with fraud departments. Even the big banks require it.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

patoot10 — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 05:48:31 GMT

That's usually what you get with smaller banks. Their fraud sensors are so high because they are small banks so a single fraud case may cause a hike in their revenue. You paid with a HP the least you can do is see it through and maybe get a signup bonus or something out of it. It's a terrible idea to abandon an application you paid for with a HP.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

coldfusion — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 10:08:14 GMT

@patoot10 wrote:
That's usually what you get with smaller banks. Their fraud sensors are so high because they are small banks so a single fraud case may cause a hike in their revenue. You paid with a HP the least you can do is see it through and maybe get a signup bonus or something out of it. It's a terrible idea to abandon an application you paid for with a HP.

On what basis you're inferring that Citizens is a small bank? In terms of assets managed they're one of the largest 25 banks in the US, on par with the likes of BarclayUS and USAA and much larger than for example BBVA/Synchrony/Discover Bank or any US credit union.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

patoot10 — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 13:19:31 GMT

You kind of confirmed my point with your example. The banks you listed are either credit unions who only allow certain part of the population to apply for their products or British/Spanish banks who are known for giving people hard time when they apply. Have you heard of "the barclays dreaded verification process" or that BBVA only allows US Citizens to apply for their products online otherwise you have to go in branch, add to that list HSBC who makes you wait about 2 to 3 weeks if you don't get instant approval.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 14:19:54 GMT

@patoot10 wrote:
That's usually what you get with smaller banks. Their fraud sensors are so high because they are small banks so a single fraud case may cause a hike in their revenue. You paid with a HP the least you can do is see it through and maybe get a signup bonus or something out of it. It's a terrible idea to abandon an application you paid for with a HP.

Actually I'd rather not and the reason being is if they are this difficult to deal with over the application how much of a pain are they going to be to deal with if I have fraudalent charges on the card? Usually it's easy to deal with but given my experience with Citizens Bank I think it would be a hassel and considering I'm going to have 2 inquires drop off in January (mortgage), another 4 drop off in may (discover, amex, verizon and comcast) and 1 more next July (synchrony) this time next summer I'll only have 1 inquiry with each of the credit bureaus 1TU & 1 EX for my chase freedom card and 1 EQ for this application so I don't view it as that big of a deal.

I might apply for BoA cash rewards card in Febuary and I might get the Amex blue business plus card but that would be it for the forseeable future. Not planning on mortgage applications within the next 3 years or going on any app sprees for that matter so while the hp was annoying at the end of the day it's not horrible with me have 6 inquiries on my Equifax report with 5 of them falling off this time next year.

Re: Citizens Bank wasted my time

coldfusion — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 14:25:58 GMT

@patoot10 wrote:
^^

You kind of confirmed my point with your example. The banks you listed are either credit unions who only allow certain part of the population to apply for their products or British/Spanish banks who are known for giving people hard time when they apply. Have you heard of "the barclays dreaded verification process" or that BBVA only allows US Citizens to apply for their products online otherwise you have to go in branch, add to that list HSBC who makes you wait about 2 to 3 weeks if you don't get instant approval.

I see you didn't answer my question.