Citizens Bank is an American bank, with its headquarters in Rhode Island. It was founded in 1828, and in 1988 was purchased by Scottish based bank Royal Bank of Scotland.
Citizens bank has continued to grow through acquisitions (most notably the 2004 purchase for $10.5 billion of Charter One Bank) and now has over 25,000 employees and branches in 13 states. Its website, www.citizensbank.com, states that Citizens Financial Group has $161 billion of assets.
Citizens offers a fairly standard range of banking products for the personal, business, and corporate customer segments.
In terms of personal checking accounts, its website lists 5 packages that customers can choose from. These are:
1) Circle Checking.
Non interest bearing checking account. There is a $15 monthly maintenance fee but it is waived if you maintain a combined balance of $5,000 on the range of accounts (deposit, etc) that you hold with Citizens. You need a minimum balance of $100 to open the account.
2) Circle Checking with interest.
Offers 0.25% interest on balances. As with the Circle Checking account, there is a $15 monthly maintenance fee but this time you only need a combined balance of $7,500 to get it waived. You need a minimum balance of $100 to open the account.
3) Circle Gold Checking with interest.
Promoted as their premier checking account package, this account offers 2% interest on balances. The monthly maintenance fee, however, goes up to $20. You need a combined balance of $20,000 to have the monthly maintenance fee waived. You need a minimum balance of $100 to open the account.
4) Green Checking
There is no monthly maintenance fee for this account, and you only need $25 dollars to open it. However, there is no interest paid on balances.
5) Personal Checking with interest
There is a $10 monthly maintenance fee for this account, and it pays 0.10% on balances. You need a $1,000 daily balance to have the monthly charges waived. You need a minimum balance of $50 to open the account.
It looks to me as if the choice of which bank account to choose will be dependent on what your combined balance with the bank will be. For example, if you have over $20,000 in savings, then you would get the Circle Gold Checking account without the pesky monthly maintenance fee, and would benefit from 2% interest on your balance. It may be worthwhile speaking to a sales adviser to more fully understand which account is best suited to your circumstances.