Posting this in case someone else has to go through what I did. I spent over 5 hours on the phone with customer support before finally getting transferred to someone who fixed it in under 30 seconds. This issue is specific to Citizens Bank, but even though I was outside the US, that didn’t seem to matter.
The issue was that when I tried logging in with the correct username and password, I kept getting a message saying, ‘Sorry, your account isn’t available, let’s start a chat to fix this.’ But no chat would be available. Sometimes I got a different message saying, ‘Unable to log in, please try again later’ along with a long reference number.
I tried so many things, and customer support made me try even more, but nothing worked. Finally, after insisting on speaking to someone who actually knew what they were doing, they asked if I was okay with adding a number to my username. I said yes, and they changed it from ‘sbpetrack’ to ‘sbpetrack7’—and suddenly, I could log in.
This only became an issue for me because I lost my US mobile SIM. Normally, I log in through the app, but that requires an SMS code. Once I got past the login issue, I had to authenticate through a code sent to my email.
Not a single first-line support agent knew about this fix.
StephieStephie said:
I just opened an account with them and can’t see anything in the app or online. Does it take a few days for everything to show up?
If you can log in but don’t see any account info, that seems odd. I’d call tech support to check. If you can’t log in at all, I had a similar issue since I’m outside the US. I only got access after connecting to a VPN with a US server and spoofing my location to make it look like I was in the US. I use an old Android app called ‘Fake GPS,’ but there are probably other options. Not sure how it works on an iPhone, though.
I had the same issue, and after a long call with support, they told me it was a security measure for accounts flagged as unusual activity. Did they say anything like that to you?
CrypticQuokka1 said:
I had the same issue, and after a long call with support, they told me it was a security measure for accounts flagged as unusual activity. Did they say anything like that to you?
They never mentioned that to me, but I wouldn’t be surprised. My login kept failing, and they didn’t give me any clear reason why. It only worked after they changed my username slightly. So maybe it was some security flag, but nobody in support ever explained it.
I just got this error too. When you gave them the reference number, did they actually do anything with it? Also, what did you say to finally get transferred to a tech expert?
Jin said:
I just got this error too. When you gave them the reference number, did they actually do anything with it? Also, what did you say to finally get transferred to a tech expert?
Honestly, I don’t think they ever used the reference number for anything. Every time I called, they made me repeat my issue from the start. As for getting transferred, I just kept insisting that nothing was working and that I needed someone who could actually fix the problem. Eventually, they escalated my call.