Citizens Bank

Ms. Ellen Alemany
Chairman and CEO, Citizens Financial Group
One Citizens Plaza
Providence, Rhode Island 02903

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Dear Ms. Alemany,

I have been a Citizens Bank account holder for many years, and in general I have been very pleased with the friendly and professional service I receive every time I walk into one of your branch offices. However, in the past week, I have spotted an issue of concern that I’d like to share with you.

In regard to Citizens Bank’s new policy of charging penalty fees to bank account holders who receive paper statements, I would like to formally express my disapproval. This service has always been part and parcel of what the bank has given its account holders in return for entrusting it with their money. All of a sudden, it costs $36.00 to print and mail 12 paper statements per year. Why?

Many account holders would prefer to deal with important financial matters on the hard copy rather than relying on computers, and you can count me among them. Now it seems as if we are being strong-armed to change. Again, why?

The guise is that it is an effort to “Go Green.” Aside from the fact that not all account holders agree with the politics of this effort, it seems to be, in actuality, a pretense to cut more corners in order to save money. Where dollars and cents are concerned, you’ve made a smart move. However, I find this decision lacking in the customer service department.

I know you have elderly and disabled account holders who are not familiar with or able to use computers, and they will be forced to eat these fees if they wish to know anything at all about what’s going on with their bank accounts. Again, I find that truly unfortunate. With more and more small banks advertising fee-free accounts on television, I think this is something you ought to take into consideration.

Furthermore, upon viewing my transactions online, these penalties are marked only as “Fee,” leaving me to inquire further to figure out what exactly I had done wrong to incur them..

These fees were removed as a one-time courtesy, which I do appreciate, but I am disappointed by the fact that I will have to resort to e-statements in order to avoid them in the future.


Thank you for all the years of solid, reliable banking. Please share my remarks with the rest of your board members.

Sincerely,