On October 9th, my wife had her wallet stolen from her purse while at a Panera in Dorchester. She canceled her credit cards as soon as she returned home that evening, but the person who stole her wallet had already made several purchases. My wife thought that she might also have been carrying a blank check in her wallet. Worried about the potential for fraud, we went to our local Citizens Bank (716 Main Street in Waltham, MA) on the morning of October 10th to open a new checking account.
At the bank we were helped by a young man who we will call "A". We told A about my wife's wallet being stolen and that we wanted to open a new checking account to protect against fraud. I had also been wanting to open a savings account as a place to separately store the part of my salary that I will have to pay in Social Security (this is not automatically reduced from my paycheck as a clergyperson) so we asked him to open up a new savings account for us, while he was at it.
The whole transaction was going smoothly. Then, A asked us a straightforward and seemingly innocuous question: "Would you like to open up a credit card through Citizens Bank today?" Both my wife and I verbally responded with equally straightforward answers: "No, we don't need any new credit cards; we are more than happy with the ones we already have."
A then asked if he could send us a credit card offer. "If you don't want the card, you can shred it and not worry about it." We get credit card offers in the mail all the time so we agreed.
A then proceeded to put documents in front of us for us to sign to open our new accounts. After we signed these physical documents, he asked Sarah and I to sign our names on an electronic pad. We signed where we were told to. He then told us we were just about done and that he just had to go get some printouts for us. At this point I was running late for a meeting so I left and my wife stayed behind to collect the documents.
I walked out of the bank generally content with the service A had provided in opening our new savings and checking accounts.
Then, on the week of October 14th (I'm not exactly sure of the date), I received a credit card from Citizens Bank in the mail. Assuming it was just the credit card offer A said he would be sending, I shredded it just as he had instructed. I threw the enclosed papers into the recycle bin without reading them because I was simply not interested in opening another credit card.
Needless to say, I was quite surprised when, on the week of October 21st, I received the first statement for my new Citizens Bank credit card. What's more, it was a credit card with a $12,000 limit!
Even more surprised was my wife when, on October 29th, she received the first statement for her new Citizens Bank credit card, a card that she had never even received.
So, it would seem that A either opened these cards without our permission or intentionally deceived my wife and I to open them. His actions were unethical, if not out and out fraudulent. Although I have been told by the Office of the Chairman that the bank will not comment on internal processes, my hope is they will handle this complaint with a sufficient level of transparency as to assure myself and other consumers that they take it seriously and are committed to providing ethical service to their customers. read more