I have banked with Citi Bank for the past 15 months and thought I would share my experience so far. I joined Citibank back in January 2007 after falling out with HalifaxBank of Scotland. I wanted a bank that allowed me access to my money when I wanted it, had decent online banking facilities, and had 24hr telephone banking. I looked around the market and started researching many accounts in the end I decided on Citibank.
Accounts
I was only interest in full current accounts; I wanted free banking with the option to have a cheque book and an overdraft if required. Citibank offer more than one account and I would suggest that you read more in to them before you apply as certain accounts carry a monthly charge. In addition to current accounts they also offer saving accounts.
Applying
Few options here phone and person. But possibly the easiest and the way I done it was online at www.citibank.co.uk - a simple process of asking you basic questions relating your previous financial commitments. The process taking approximately 15 minutes from start to finish. I hit the send button and sat there thinking I was getting a straight yes or no. But that is certainly not the case, you get the full application in the post and you need to sign and return it with the required photographic evidence in the provided stamped address
envelope. I sent my passport, driving licence, and a utility bill.
Successful
I had all my documentation along with my welcome letter back within 14days, within the welcome letter was a form for me to complete which would allow Citibank to go to HBOS my existing bank and get all details of my direct debits and standing orders. I have to be honest I was very worried that they would mess this up. I could not afford for them to get this wrong. I sat and filled in the form and posted it back and that was the last I had to deal with it. Ok back in to the welcome pack is my rather shiny new Visa debit card and in another letter which came the following day had my cheque book.
Setting up
What the hell is there to set up I hear you ask? Well you need to set up your internet banking and telephone banking, in the initial welcome back you have your telephone pin which you can change to whatever suits you. When you first receive your bank card you are required to call the 24hr freephone number to activate your card. Once you have successfully done that it's time to surf along to www.citibank.co.uk and register for your free internet banking. Very easy to do. Just follow the on screen instructions.
Once your card has been activated your ready to go, most commonly like many people I have my salary paid direct in to this account without any problems. In addition to that I have regular fund bacs in to my account and also paypal payments on a monthly basis without any problems. Now if you want to deposit a cheque in your Citibank accounts you will either need to live in London as that's the only place they have a UK branch. But this is not a problem as you can pay in Cheques or cash at any LloydsTSB bank or you can send any cheques along with pay in slips direct to Citibank in London. I have used both options and can confirm that your quicker send the cheque to London as it takes 4days and if you Lloyds it seems to take 5 days. It's so easy to get money from your account; you can use an ATM across the UK. Please note not all ATM are free so please be careful when you are taking funds out. Now I am not 100% sure what the daily limit is with regards to ATM, I have on three separate occasions withdrawn £800 without any problems. In addition to using any ATM you can also send payments via their internet banking. Your debit card allows you to buy goods and pay for services across the world. In many outlets you will have the option to obtain further cash back too.
Direct Debits, Standing Orders, Payin Books, Cheque Book
Citibank allow you to set up Direct Debits and standing orders at no additional charge to you, they suggest that you provide the organisation with your account number and sort code and you will soon see it appear on your list of DD online. You can cancel a DD at anytime by simply surfing over too www.citibank.co.uk and
Pictures of Citibank Accounts
London ONLY
clicking on DD then select the one you want to delete/cancel. Citibank will them automatically send a letter to the organisation informing them that you have cancelled the DD. Payin book is the one that you will go through a lot especially if you're like me and sell lots on Ebay, now when you find yourself getting to the end of the booklet make sure you order a new one as sometimes they fail to send one. Cheque book is provided also free of charge when you first join Citibank and along with my cheque guarantee card of £100 I am free to write cheques as I please. However please take note that if you send a cheque say to USA and they cash it in USA you will be charge additional £15 to cover the banks fees. I have only sent a handful of cheques and on each occasion I have had problems. They deducted the cheque twice from my account and then charged me £25 and on another occasion they debited the wrong about. Instead of £123 they deducted £1123. Luckily on both occasions they understood that they made an error and fixed it very quickly.
This is definitely one thing I do love about Citibank - FREE telephone banking, I mean it's a free phone number unlike the Halifax who charge you a local rate to get information on your account. 0800 00 55 00 from anywhere in the UK - 24hrs a day - free of charge
If calling from abroad dial +44 20 7500 5500.
You can do anything well anything with your account whilst on telephone banking, transfer funds, pay bills, stop cheques, request copies of your statement etc. You will always have the option to chat with a professional member of staff who is very knowledgeable. The staffs are available 24hrs a day 365 days a year. The only thing I would say about the telephone banking staff is that they are based in India, whilst that is not a problem sometimes the delay on the line is frustrating. Each and every time I have called them they have always understood me and they have always been very friendly and professional. When using telephone banking you do not need to speak with an advisor you can do it all using your telephone keypad or the by voice, however unless you speak very professional then I would not recommend using voice menus. Internet banking made for idiots; honestly this has to be the easiest. Once your logged in you have a detailed view of all your transactions and clicking on a view options you will see all the DD, SO etc that are set up on your account. As mentioned above you can cancel any DD from here, you can set up SO and you can easily send money from your account to any other account. I like the fact that I can message Citibank from online banking and I will have a response from a real person within 24hrs. You can request overdraft, cheque book etc from here too. I would say it's possibly the best and by far the easiest internet banking about.
Charges
None of us like to pay them but there a big money maker for the banks, here is a quick breakdown of some charges that you may suffer if you do not operate your account correctly.
Transactions paid on your behalf £25 Guaranteed cheques paid £25 Other transactions for which payment is refused £25 To provide a reference on your behalf £25 Stopping a cheque £10 Copy cheque £10 Copy statement £6 Banker's Draft £20We all hate paying these so make sure you operate your account in an ordinary fashion.
Other accounts
Citibank offer a wide variety of accounts from -
Current account (access) free of charge
Plus current account - with free mobile phone insurance, identity theft - Cost £10 per mth
Us and Euro Current account UK Easy account for Polish customers
Final Thoughts
I would have no problem at all recommending Citibank to anyone that wants a current account with a bank that allows its customer access to free internet banking, free telephone banking and as long as you fit the credit criteria you will have access to an interest free £500 overdraft. There customer service team are always very professional and yeah I have had a few problems when it comes to Cheques but as a professional bank they quickly sorted it out. I also love the fact that you do get calls from them trying to get you to take additional products with them, when you're on the phone to them they do not end the call by saying do you want insurance. Citibank once called me on my mobile and asked me to confirm some details, this call was out of the blue and I was very hesitant. They quickly told me that they wanted to make sure I had used my card in a shop in London. I was like yeah I have, they went on to explain that my card is usually used in Edinburgh and surrounding areas and that London was a little unusual. Credit to Citibank. Overall I have to say that I am delighted with my bank and I hope to have many more years of pain free banking with Citibank.More information - www.citibank.co.uk
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed
Marcellep2 Ciao 2008
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Apr 8th, 2008
exceptional by (19%):
very helpful by (81%):
