First, let me be specific that I am writing about CIT Bank and NOT CITI Bank. They are two separate and individual financial institutions. I purchased two certificates of deposit at CIT Online Bank. They are called "Ramp Up" CD's which allow you a one-time interest rate change should the rates increase and you would want to take advantage. Regarding one CD, I called and told them to ramp up to the current rate which was substantially higher. A week later, I went online to check and the rate was still stated at the original rate. Also, since then, the rate had declined. I called the customer service representative and was told they had no record of my call and therefore could not increase the rate.

On a more recent occasion, a CD was maturing and I had planned to transfer it out of CIT to another financial institution. The representative told me that there's a ten day grace period and that if I waited, my CD would continue to earn the rate at which it originally had been. Six days later, I called to transfer the funds to the regular savings account which is the only account you can perform outside transfers. I told the rep I left the funds in there to collect the high rate it was originally taken at and she told me that during the grace period, the rate was lowered to the current rate. When I explained that another rep had told me I would receive the higher rate during the grace period, she apologized and said that I was misinformed.

I told her to immediately shift the funds to the regular saving account so that I could transfer to funds out of CIT and that I would never do business with them again. Being that this was an internal transfer between accounts, it should have occurred immediately. However, she explained that she had to send the request to another department and that it may take up to 48 hours for the funds to be available to me. I have dealt with other financial institutions and internal transfers between accounts should not take more than a couple of hours. It's been over 24 hours and I still do not have access to my money.

Unfortunately, I have another CD that doesn't mature until late next year and will have to endure the incompetency of this so called Bank and its customer service who seem to have no idea what is going on.

No matter how high of a rate CIT is offering, I would caution you to get a slightly lower rate with a sound financial institution like Discover Bank. I've been with them for over ten years and have never had a problem.