Citizens Bank customers stunned by overdrawn accounts, missing money due to 'glitch'
BOSTON – Hundreds of Citizens Bank customers and potentially more were greeted Wednesday morning by overdrawn checking accounts and hundreds to thousands of dollars missing.
Pilar Coelho of Lincoln, Rhode Island was $125 overdrafted. Susanne Casey of South Boston was nearly $200 overdrawn, and Kevin O'Connell of Belmont was missing $1,450.
None of these customers actually withdrew or spent this money. When they called Citizens Bank customer service, they were met with hold times over 40 minutes or dropped calls. No one WBZ-TV spoke to got through to a representative.
The issue was due to a "glitch," according to a Citizens Bank spokesperson, that caused customers to be double charged for previous purchases. For all of the customers who spoke with WBZ, charges from February 1 were duplicated on February 22, causing the missing funds and overdraft fees.
A company spokesperson said there was "no evidence of a cyber attack or anything like that," adding that the situation "has been resolved" as of Thursday morning.
"Any fees customers incurred because of this incident will be rebated. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused," Citizens head of enterprise communications Rory Sheehan told WBZ-TV.
But for customers, it was more than an inconvenience; it caused many to panic.
"Is there anything I have to buy today?" Coelho said. "Like, do I even have food? Do I have enough gas to go places that I need to go to?"
"I heard some people had thousands withdrawn," added Susanne Casey. "If that had been me I would've been crying right now, but I didn't have a lot in there thankfully this time."
Customers told WBZ they're looking for a more detailed explanation of what happened as they try to decide whether they'll stay with Citizens Bank.
"Trust overall is definitely lost to a certain extent and going to have to rethink if this is where I want to bank anymore," O'Connell said.
As of the writing of this story, some customers had full refunds returned to their accounts. Others had only received partial refunds, and others struggled to access the refunded amounts.