Citibank, National Association Reviews (14)

I joined Citi with a Costco-VISA card. An Accelerate followed, and then a checking account.

Costco-VISA is necessary for using a credit card at Costco, otherwise cash is necessary.
Accelerate Savings was opened to park some cash with a decent rate (though not the highest).
Checking was added to have access to large amounts from Accelerated Savings.

It is difficult dealing with a bank that is not local. Calling customer service sometimes has a wait-time and many agents are unable to provide information when it is more complicated than the current balance. Some agents are much better.

There are limits to moving money from the Accelerate account.
• Online transfer limit $10,000/day; $15,000/30 days
• ATM (Target, and many others) $1,500/day, unlimited days
Easy way around it: transfer funds to checking and write a check for as much as you want.

Banks insured by the FDIC are a commodity. Money goes in; earns some interest; money goes out. They are differentiated by interest rate, easy of money movement, and accessibility of information. Citi is medium – 3-stars. My local bank is also 3-stars – lower interest rate, but better services.

I prefer dealing person-to-person, but 435 miles to the closest Citi branch is a bit too far.

Yes, but only for customers.

Yes, this is one of the advantages of Citibank. They are also good for foreign currency wires (although they charge $26 for this service to account holders with less than $15,000 on deposit).

Either US citizenship or proof of permanent residence.

Never

Never

Some branches have been operating on modified hours during the pandemic. Might make sense to call first even the branch shows as being open on this site or on Google.

Most branches have notaries available for customers. There is usually no charge for this service, but the notaries are either permitted or encouraged to solicit a contribution to a recognized charity. Some find this annoying.

yes, but you will pay Citi fees and maybe a fee from the owner of the ATM.

ATMs are usually in an outer lobby that you can enter with your card 24x7 so the answer is yes.

I opened a CITI online account in order to take advantage of bonus reward money. While I was trying to link my external account, CITI debited that account and the money was denied. It was a matter of the account not being linked yet. I had an alert on my CITI account that they were charging me an insufficient fund fee. When I called customer service to tell them I just opened the account, they said there was no charge. i had the printed page but they could not find a charge. Then, my savings was showing a .1% interest rate instead of a 1.05%. When I called about that they said that was a different account. i am afraid to move the money for fear of not getting the $700 bonus reward money. Let's see if I even get that. My money will be coing out of there in 90 days after the bonus money is deposited.

I can easily imagine the pain and the trouble Karen went through. I tried and open accounts, too, but when I asked questions on the phone, the customer service person was not very knowledgeable, kind, or polite. It was very unprofessional attitude. Just as I read many others’ negative reviews about Citi’s poor customer service out there. I am pretty happy with the responses of the current online banks I have business with, so I passed citi.
Review on the Online bank

Zero stars. As of 12/19/19, rate has fallen to 1.85%. Not worth the trouble. I read somewhere that Citi limits daily withdrawals to $2000, which is ridiculous. Worst online banking experience ever. If you do open the account, wait to fund it in case you make the same mistake I did. For background, I’ve opened many online savings and checking accounts over the years without any problems, and this is absolutely the worst experience ever. I tried to open the Accelerate account online and somehow accidentally opened the Access checking account instead. I had funded the account via ACH. I didn’t realize there might be a problem until I finished the process and noticed “Access” instead of “Accelerate.” When I called to try to fix my mistake, I was told it should be easy to fix and the person on the phone started the process to open the Accelerate and have the money moved from the checking to the savings. He couldn’t finish the process because another department had to do that, and they were closed. I called the number he gave me as soon as they opened, and that person told me I had to wait 4 days for the ACH transfer to clear, and then the money from the checking would be moved to the savings, and the checking account would be closed. In the meantime, I can’t even access the money online that’s in the poorly named Access checking account, because I have to wait for them to send me an ATM card with the PIN (this is required to set up online access). This is ridiculous. All the other online checking and savings account I’ve opened allow me access to my money online, as soon as the money has cleared. All my other accounts let me at least SEE and access my account immediately upon setting up the user name and password, even if the money hasn’t cleared. After waiting 4 days for the ACH to clear, I called Citi about moving the money from the checking to the savings. NOW they tell me they can’t move it until I return a signature card via MAIL or FAX (no electronic option), and even then it will take days to verify since it goes through actual people and departments. I asked if I can cancel the whole process and have them send the money back to the original account, and they can’t do that, either. They will have to close the account, and then issue a check, and then mail the check, explaining that the whole process will take probably 2 weeks. This phone call lasted over 45 minutes, because of long hold and wait times. Crazy. And to top it off, I have multiple Citi credit cards so went into my account to try to send them a message about this awful experience so that they can fix their weird system, but there’s no way to send them an email, either securely from my account, or through an external email address. DON’T EVEN BOTHER WITH CITI!!!
Review on the Online bank

We have been Citi credit card users for many years. The money market rate looked appealing so we opened the savings account online. It was easy to open. The account merged with my credit card account in the app without a problem. Deposits and withdrawals are easily done.
Review on the Online bank