Citibank - funds transfer
Bad service, no complaint management

Hi, I am foreigner and had an account with citibank in Bangalore for a couple of years. Wanted to do a foreign outward remittance of money which I initially transferred from Germany to invest in India. This is a transaction which took my bank at home 10 Minutes!

However for transferring the money back, it took me around 4 weeks with Citibank! First of all, they take very long time in responding on inquiries - in comparison to other banks its 5 to 10 times longer. Secondly, I really doubt their competency. The first person was asking for all kinds of weird documents (like passport copy, visa copy, payment slips for the last couple of years, etc.) which were not at all required for the transaction I wanted to do. I called this person and she still insisted (and was very rude on the phone) and was not willing to provide support. Finally (after some days and after I escalated the issue a couple of times via Citibank website and emails) another person contacted me, saying the above mentioned documents are not required, I just would need to fill in some forms and send those back. I did this the very same day when I received the forms. Then again 2 days nothing happened from Citibank side. I again contacted them, then the person were saying I need to provide documents were the money came from (FICR-document). I was getting also these documents and sending it across the very same day. Again 2 days nothing happened. Then they were asking for a Certificate as a proof that I had paid my taxes in India. The said it would be a requirement asked from RBI (Reserve Bank of India). I did not know where to get these Certificate nor did I know what format is required nor did I understand why this is required at all. Since I'm in India, I was never missing out making a proper tax return (filed via E & Y).

So I was asking E & Y, I was asking a Chartered Accountant, I was calling someone from the RBI. Nobody could tell me why this is required nor provide me such a certificate.

So again I contacted Citibank to tell me what this is and what for. Then again a day got wasted until they were sending me the certificate form they would want to have filled in. They were saying it's a government requirement, I need to proof that I had paid taxes on interest for the time the money was on my bank account, however this is not possible, as this is part of the upcoming tax return filing with E & Y for the current year. So again I had to call Citibank. Finally another person (now the 3rd person) was calling me back, telling me, that the certificate would be not required, instead I could provide a letter from E & Y that it's part of the current tax filing. After providing this letter, it took some more days until this transfer finally happened, i.e. my initially transferred money from Germany to my Citibank account in India got transferred back. The whole transaction was extremely expensive and to get it finally done took around 4 weeks. Citibank was wasting here my time, my nerves, put endless hassles on me. They were not supportive in the least, nor do the have a proper complaint management in place. Logging a complaint via their website is of no use at all. One does not get a confirmation if the complaint were received, nor any indication if anything is going to happen and when.

The learning out of this: Never ever am I going to transfer money from my home country to Citibank India. It is a huge risk, they have extremely bad service and expertise and the cost for transactions is ridiculously high. They are wasting time and money of their customers and you're not treated like a customer. They are rude, have ridiculous processes in place and are not trustworthy in the least.

Company: Citibank - funds transfer
Country: India

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