Complaint Review: Citizens Bank Pgh PA - Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

to Jim,

Thank you for your answer. I did a c-corp cause this is what my educated friends told me I should. My fiance does the work. And we make about 50k per yr. so we are not Home Depot etc. My only reason for opening that acct. was being told the checks would be available the following day and they were for 6 months. But here nor there, I just think $585.00 in fees for 1 week is quite out of line. Again thank you

The purpose of saying the 850 was today's youth have no idea of how they scored credit worthiness of yore. And now my score after years of losing my savings to "educated" people, it is 680. So EDUCATION frankly has nothing to do with my reason for posting,  I'm just stating factually what happened and I still think there should be a cutoff on bank fees!!!  And if you didn't know, back in the day, you COULDN'T get a checking account without good credit!!!!! So my eloquence may not be to your standards, but I've made it thus far. 

At least when it comes to funds availability.  There are statuatory requirements for making your funds available anywhere from 1-3 days after a deposit is made.  If there is a fairly large deposit, the bank can place a longer hold on the funds.  If you heard differing answers from different banks, they either don't know the statutes, or they misunderstood what you were asking.  Now CU's are different from banks....but bank to bank - it's pretty much the same.

That seems like a lot of fees - you're absolutely right - however I don't know the complete context of what happened, so it's difficult to determine anything from your posting.  However, I have seen fees like that associated with the use of a debit card and you are basically giving the bank your $$ when you use it running with the low balances you running.  The general rule of thumb I tell people is that if you're going to run with balances below $200, don't use a debit card.  If you have a credit card, use that.  If you don't, use cash.  Debit cards have a way of providing the account holder with cascading overdraft fees which is what this situation looks like - without the context.

You also need to get control of your board members - If they have access to the entity's funds, they should not be accessing thosefunds without your approval.  I would make each of them personally liable if they access funds and cause an overdraft as a result.  In fact, I would take away their ability to access your money until you get figure out what happened and get these people under some kind of control, because this looks like some kind of circus going on based on what you wrote.  Once you secure control, I would consider a business credit card with AMEX or some other card.

Finally, your personal credit report can be affected even though you may have setup either an LLC or an S Corp for yourself if you obtained credit or loans for the entity in which you are the personal guarantor of the amounts taken out.  I know a bank will insist you, as a one-person operation, be the guarantor of a line of credit, a loan, or other forms of credit because the entity inself will likely lack sufficient collateral or a credit history to secure the loan.

Best of luck to you....

If you are going to exaggerate at least make it sound reasonable. The FICO score started in 1989. If you had an 850 Score at 20 that would have been over 40 years ago...which would have put it in 1977....12 years BEFORE credit scoring began. 850 is also the top score and only about 1/2 of 1% achieve that.  Where since a factor of that is length of credit history no 20 year old(with 2 years maximum history) is not possible even if they did have it in the 70's.

Beyond that having a good credit score has nothing to do with bank accounts as those are not credit accounts they are deposit accounts and therefore not included in your credit score. That's like saying that you understand the rules of baseball because you are a star NFL quarterback. Yes, they are both sports but are not the same thing. It is also interesting how you failed to state what your credit score now is.  So with those statements the rest of your comments are meaningless and just go to prove the education point.

I am well aware of policies etc. I'm way over 60 and had a credit score of 850 at 20 yrs old so I'm well aware of such things. My gripe is excessive fees. I've dealt with different banks over my lifetime and each and every one of them have "different" policies. And I'd like to know if every consumer has read every piece of paper from their bank? And if the bank feels compelled to "hold" items due to account activities, they should advise the customer. There are situations like illnesses that prevent one from keeping abreast of all situations. So a notification would be good customer service. I just think there should be a cut off with these fees.  

This is another example of why there should be some minimum education requirement before someone opens a bank account...more so for people who actually run a "business". As you have a few misconceptions about accounts.

First, banks only POST transactions on BUSINESS DAYS, that is Monday-Friday that are non-holidays. Any check you deposit on a Saturday-Sunday or actually even AFTER the bank's cut-off time on Friday will be treated as if it was deposited on Monday. Meaning the earliest the funds would be available would be Tuesday(the next business day). Yes this is how it has ALWAYS been and this is how it is for EVERY bank. Now yes I am sure you may have heard "next day" and ignored the "business", or perhaps they just figured you knew they meant the next business day. But that again goes back to the education as that is something I learned when I got my first job and opened up an account many moons ago.

But there are additional holds that can be placed that could cause the funds to be held for longer periods. This can be based on things such as the source of the check, the amount of the check, and yes the history of your account. Where if your account has a history of overdrafts they then have the right to put additional holds on your deposits. I am sure you think this sounds "backwards", but it is the GOVERNMENT regulation that every bank(and yes credit unions too) follows. If you don't believe me look up Regulation CC (Expedited Funds Availability Act).

As for looking at your PERSONAL credit. Guess what...if your "incorporated" business does not have enough history or does not qualify on it's own then they will require one or more of the officers to put down a "personal guarantee". Which yes will involve checking your personal credit.

So to anyone who reads this, be careful, if your told something that you want to hear from a business, and that's your reason to do business with them, GET IT IN WRITING!!!.

- Guess what everything that is going on IS IN WRITING in the terms and the fee schedules the bank provides to you. If for some reason you can't find the terms then go into any branch and ask them for the printed copies. They will be more than happy to oblige.  They may even give you a few short basic things to help you from getting OD's in the future.