Banka Citadele Reviews 23

The bank's level of support is just the worst I have experienced in my life. Had an issue with opening another account for 3 MONTHS! Had to contact support 5 times, 2 phone calls ended up with support telling me that they would figure out the issue asap and call me back, of course, none of them did. Contacted my manager via app 3 times, and they all the time either told me that they don't know how long it will last or just sent me to another department. Waisted a lot of time and still didn't get the result. Will change the bank this month, already looking for a better option than this bunch of unprofessionals.

€350 to open a personal account, for me to give the bank my money each month for them to make interest on. I actually thought they were joking! No thanks, I'll go elsewhere.

They said that I am a terrorist and that why they closing my account… What an idiotic bank.. Proper idiotic bank.. Avoid it

Probably the worst customer support on the planet.

The website is full with bugs, emails don't get delivered, calling customer support is a waste of time (kind people but have received probably <1h of training and don't know anything about anything?).

Wrote them an email, no reply for 9 days, wrote another email, got a reply saying, and I quote "Please note that your email was sent as a reply to an automatically generated message, which unfortunately is not being processed.".

Seems like somebody is pranking me but that's their actual customer service :D

I am still surprised how are they still in business?

Have a problem and I am not sure how to solve it, and seems like they also don't know?

Hopefully this review moves the needle.

Just arrived to Riga and used my card and it was taken by ATM in the Raina bulvaris 25. The machine immediately showed Out of service. I called this scam bank and they didn't even try to help me. Just told me sorry we can't do anything this happens with ATMs. In a couple of hours I need my credit card to pick up a rental car and it cost me 262 eur extra for this scamers bank! Don't ever use their ATMs!!! They are ripping off people

I had personal account at Citadele Bank / Parex Banka for more than 24 years. There are huge problems with propper communication in this bank. In order to come in person to the bank you have to make an appointment and wait for about 1 month in order to see the clerk of the bank in person. You are not able to write your address in the local language as online bank does not accept foreign national symbols (e.g. Greek). You are not able to attach a file/ a photograph of the document as there is no such facility in online bank. They are not posting letters by post.
In fact there is no clear difference between a real bank official and a scammer.
At the beginning of 2025 I had anonymous messages without a signature and any name behind it. I REQUESTED TO IDENTIFY THE PERSON, which was writting a suspicious request, which could brake bank confidentiality. The human refused to put his name and family name under the request. It started fullish me in the way it did not understand the question, but it was written by clear and simple language. I supposed that it was scam and bad Internet sequrity at Citadele Bank. At the end I found out that there are Aivis Gusts - Cards and Internet bank executive and his Manager Valentīna Griščenko behind all of that suspicious messages. They made together a decision to close all my accounts at Citadele Bank due to false self aquisations without any evidence. They introduced himself as members of the board of this bank and only they had the authority to make such kind a decision. So, anyone, who had a deposit in their bank could be treated as offenders and criminals. They forced me to do transactions as scammers. You take a huge risk, if you put your money to Citadele Bank as they mainly focused on homeless people, beggars, pensioners as the best custommers due to potential lack of money. All of your transactions are not covered by bank secrecy and are easily visible by Aivis Gusts and Valentīna Griščenko. So, they keep an eye on every your transaction and would treat a customer as a criminal. Internet Bank operations are not sequre and not confidential at Citadele Bank. While Avis from Ventspils insults Gold Customers, scammers steal money from poor pensioners every week due to his negligence.

Good bank. Great team. I brought them few family members and I use it as my main bank account. They now do support instant transfers. A++

They suddenly introduce new rules, which no other bank in Latvia imposes and charge 10 Euro/month. Only claim they make is your non EU passport holder.

I have personal and company accounts with Citadele bank in Lithuania following some negative experience with 2 other banks in Vilnius. Customer service is as good as it gets, and in-house meetings regarding company account management was superb. Engaging, accountable & and service-minded.

Not reasonable questions during account opening. Account opening fee is third of Latvian median salary. Seems still Russian Laundermat, only oligarchs with lawyers can handle all paperwork. If you simple guy and foreigner do not go there.

Ridiculous titles of AML/Compliance staff being called analytics. Sending the dumbest request possible because they cannot use Google or logic. Decided to close my account after 5 years of cooperation due to the fact I refused to provide them with ALL other bank statements from across the world. This is exactly why overall rating is awful and the whole banking in Latvia is cursed. Some negligible students naming themselves analytics and poisoning people’s lives.

The worst bank you can find in Latvia, unprofessional personal slow and incompetent

never had any problem with them unlike Swedbank. Solves problems fast!

Not entirely sure why Citadele "serves" business - the service is non-existent, the app is not properly working, customer service staff lack knowledge about.... well, pretty much everything. After a year with Citadele, I will be moving ASAP. It's a joke, not a business bank.

Companies like Citadele are the reason why people don't trust banks.

They make mistakes and then blame the customer. They rip you off at every turn of the way and then point to small print.

Citadele's customer support is the worst I've experienced and I've banked in several countries across Europe and North America.

It's also a bit Latvia's fault for not regulating banks better: they should be forced to not hide all of their fees and complex structures in intelligible fine print, but have it in the open in simple language that you don't need a lawyer to understand.

Terrible UX and customer support.
Applying for a lease feels like trying to clear customs duties form local postal office in 1995. Terrible UX design in web, missing options, conflicting information on phone and via email (and email responses are apparently limited to one email per 24h)

The process to become a customer is the most complicated ever! (I would like to believe it is because of COVID, but unfortunately no).
Application is the most horrible I ever used around EU, staff is very tensed and angry, if bank does a mistake, it blames customer (ironically true).
I had to reinstall app 4 times, as bank always found a mistake in my application (only on the 4th time when I asked what is the issue, staff explained it to me). Then I was sent a link to do the online call, and it didn't work on any of the gadgets I tried to use (phone, tablet, computer), because it was IT issue, bank blamed me, as it always worked for others and my didn't.
But the funniest part was, after all my efforts and demand to speak with the manager, I NEVER got a call back.
The same day I opened account with another bank (smooth and easy).
Hope I'll never have to deal with such unprofessional people again.

I have emailed my detailed query to info(at)citadele.lt
When response came, I did not find nothing related to my expressed concerns. They mentioned just call them to Lithuanian number. Even though in the email I explained that I live abroad and I would be grateful if bank would contact me or would suggest alternative how to get in touch via online call that I could save cost. None of this was considered in the response.
I would suggest not to start with unprofessional Citadele bank

I don't like ATM Riga airport.
Big fee citadele bank couchmare :)
I am a Latvian citizen with SEB bank card. After carefully search over the atm i didn found anything about fees. They only wrote Visa Maestro support.
They applied 4eur fee to 200eur cash withdrawal

Renata from Citadele Origo's branch. She is the real master of her work, guided me professionally, no-one ever helped me in Latvia like her. Please appreciate her patience and dedication. Again thanks to her for such an amazing professional assistance and hard work.