Citibank

Silly Bank Citibank is one of the largest and most well-known banks in the world, providing a wide range of financial services and products to individuals, businesses, and governments.

To join, one had to be earning at least 30,000 or so. They used to offer a Visa debit card, which was quite rare at the time (2006).

A current account in Sterling was always free with them, but not really. Sometimes, without asking permission, they would add me to some sort of premium account. The only different being that they would charge a monthly five dollar fee thereafter. I had to call them multiple times to resolve the issue.

The main benefit for joining Citibank were the free foreign currency accounts (e.g. USD, Euro, Yen). However, ten years later they started charging a monthly fee (per account) without informing me. The exception was if the account was dormant.

Unfortunately, one day, they convinced me to make all three active, but I insisted on activating just two. My original request to was for activating the dollar account. I was going abroad. Can you imagine my horror, once I noticed on my statement that I was being charged 10 dollars a month.

I also obtained my traveller’s cheque via Citibank. 20 years later, they were silly enough to tell me they were worthless.

Tired with dealing with a silly bank, I stopped depositing my pay cheques with them. I think that was reason they decided to close my account. At first it was like an inconvenience, but then it was a burden lifted.

For traditional banking I primarily use HSBC and for foreign currency I mainly use Transferwise. No more headaches.