I have found management to be most unhelpful at this bank. Finally gave up and decided to take my business elsewhere. I moved to Newton MA about two years ago and although I do most of my banking online I opened a checking account at this local bank for in-person transactions.
1) When I opened the account the manager encouraged me to open a credit card account as well. He said I would get no-fee balance transfers with 0% interest for 6 (or perhaps 12 months). This turned out to be wrong (balance transfer was 3%) but I decided to just not use the credit card and stick with the bank. No real harm done.
2) Today I went to the bank because I needed to transfer funds from my online bank and make a withdrawal from Citizens. The manager (Arthur Elzon) told me not to do a wire transfer because funds wouldn't be available til the next day. He advised me to use my debit card from my online bank to do a cash advance. He said to call the online bank and make sure that I have them increase my "point of sale" daily limit on my debit card because the transaction at citizens would be like a purchase of merchandise. I called my online bank and after awhile they approved the increase. The folks at citizens then attempted the transaction but it was denied. I had to call back my online bank. Turns out that Arthur had made a mistake; I needed to have them increase my "cash withdrawal" limit on my debit card and not the "point of sale" limit. The folks at the online bank went ahead and did so. But Arthur then told me he couldn't do the transaction because he was limited to a single attempt per day. Since it was rejected, he could no longer help me. The folks at the online bank offered to do a wire transfer for free and said it would arrive within an hour. Arthur was surprised that a wire would arrive so quickly. He also said that he would charge me $18 to receive the wire. I suggested that he waive the fee due to his errors, but he refused. He said that he had given me "other options" that should be sufficient. He advised me to either come back to Citizens Bank the next day or go to a different local bank where they would be able to process the transaction today.
Needless to say, I don't need a zero-interest checking account to get incorrect information from the bank manager and spend over an hour trying to get access to my funds without success. As Arthur suggested, I went to a different bank. They were very courteous and were able to help me. I also closed my account at Citizens Bank. read more