Questionable Business Practices and Horrible Customer Service
Read the positive reviews and notice first and last names mentioned - it's a pattern that may point to the reviews being somewhat manufactured. My experience aligns strongly with the other negative reviews. Poor/non-existent communication after I declined their loan offer for estimated settlement amounts. Attempts to negotiate essentially stopped after that, as well. Not only did Citizens fail to handle the majority of the enrolled accounts, but they also significantly overcharged us fees which are stated in the agreement to be 25% of the original debt amount of settled accounts. Despite tireless efforts to contact customer service and being passed around to no less then four different "supervisors", we made little to no progress getting the overcharged fees returned to us. Additionally, the funds we built up were pulled out of the account we had visibility into and moved elsewhere. I believe they do this to generate additional revenue through interest bearing accounts they control. It took a negative Trustpilot review to finally get someone engaged who genuinely seemed to want to get things straightened out. The overcharged fees would be used to pay the negotiated amounts in lump sums (yes, we were overcharged that much) and we would receive a full accounting of funds that went in and out, but only if we removed the negative review. Review removed and explicit expectations were set. A month later, it was if we never had the conversation. After much effort and complaints to state and federal consumer protection groups, we finally received confirmation that settled accounts were paid off. We are still waiting for that document detailing exactly where our money went. We believe we have suffered damages from the additional financial hardship we endured due to Citizens' poor, if not shady, handling of our account. We are currently in discussions with an attorney to determine what options we have to be made whole. We did receive acceptable outcomes on 1/3 of the accounts enrolled which is why I gave two stars. If you're willing to take a loan out with them, you may want to consider their services and may have a better experience than I did, but I strongly advise you keep excellent records of all your conversations