Hi folks!
After 8 years living abroad (3 years in Italy, 5 years here) I can say that I
have never seen such a
bad service and inconvenient + expensive banking service like CITI Bank Russia
provides to the
clients.
1. Online banking does not working - it is forbidden to transfer money ONLINE
to another CITI Bank
account. That means I have to settle my monthly phone bill of GOLDEN TELECOM
(Citi Bank customer
too) in an old-fashioned manner by hand and waiting in a queue despite of being
a GOLD customer!!!
The October transfer was not executed by CITI Bank and the telephone operator
has threaded to block
the line!!!
(Answer by CITIBANK: "We also apologise for inconveniences that you have
experienced while
submitting payment orders through branch. Branch management has been informed
and we assure you that
we have taken all appropriate measures to avoid such situations in future. It
is our pleasure to
confirm that Citibank has successfully contacted Sovintel (Golden Telecom) to
prevent your telephone
and internet connection from being blocked.)
2. The Bank has changed our VISA cards without any information in advance and
old cards and online
access were blocked. After phoning with the endless call center queue we got
the information that we
have to come personally for pick up the cards to the branch office at Tverskaya.
3. We transfer a bigger amount (12 k EUR) to our CITI Bank account in Germany
and paid 2,5% (!!!)
fees and currency differences.
4. You will get no interest for your deposit on your current accounts. You need
to open a special
deposit account.
5. We have opened a EUR account (in addition to US Dollar and Ruble accounts)
which was more than 3
months not visible on CITI Bank online although we have claimed this fact
several times.
6. There is no privacy at the CITI Bank branch offices. You need to clarify all
facts on the
reception desk while the stuff is sitting around, checking their odnoklassniki
accounts and waiting
for customers who want to take out a loan. Moreover I have not meet any English
speaking stuff in
the branch offices: Na Paveletskoe, Na Bolshoy Nikitskoy or Na Lyusinovskoy.
Fortunally my Russian
was always adequately.
7. A Russian friend of mine was a CITI Bank Gold customer too. He wanted to
settle a bigger bill
(2500 $) in a restaurant in Moscow by his CITI GOLD VISA last year. Although
his accounts were fully
covered, this payment operation was denied by CITI Bank because of missing
special approval by CITI
Bank which needs an execution period of one day!!! At the next day he stopped
all private and
corporate contracts with CITI Bank.
So far we are forced to use further CITI Bank "services" by employer but a
solution will be in place
soon.
If you want to prevent such a hassle you need to be far from CITI Bank Russia.
Raiffeisen or IMB might be a better option for expats.
All the best,
Simone
______________________________________
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:41:29 +0300
From: "Nina Dolman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Expat List Interest
To: "The Moscow Expat List" <[email protected]>
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hello Julian,
You can open an account at Citibank and at Raiffeisen without translating your
passport. They offer
dollar / euro / rouble and GBP interest bering accounts.
All you need is 30 minutes -
passport, registration, and imigration card. [ If you are here under a work
permit bring that as
well]
All their branches in the centre have english speaking staff.
They will open an account and issue you a plastic card. You can have one for
roubles - local
transactions and when for dollars for travelling outside Russia.
I have been using them since 2003.
Nina
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