The mega bank today unveiled its text-banking service, and I rate it a F.

Citi invites its customers to get “account updates anytime, anywhere” with its new text banking service at 692484, or MYCITI. The email notification about the program highlights some text banking commands, like BAL to see account balances. That is the last place customers can find text banking commands; the commands are not even in Citi’s help section. Apparently, Citi thinks its customers are mind readers.

The setup for the service works, though. Customers are required to enter their account number and PIN, and then activate their mobile phone. The activation process requires an activation code delivered via email upon request by the customer.

Once the customer has activated his phone — nothing. There are no instructions, no suggestions for how to use the service, just a “you’re phone is activated.” Typical Citibank.

In case you were wondering, there is nary a mention of security throughout this whole process. Actually, that’s not true. Citibank addresses text banking security in the service’s fine print of terms and conditions. The bank indicates that there is no security. Here’s how Citi puts it:

Understood, the service is flimsy as a sheet of linen.

The fine print offers another goody: the info the consumer gets might not even be correct, it seems:

Don’t worry, the terms and conditions protect Citi’s legal a** for inaccuracies, too.

These points pale in comparison to the simple fact that the service is unusable, because the bank does not make the text banking commands readily accessible. Even hunting around for them on the Citibank.com website proved fruitless. Yes, there are commands (four in all) in that original marketing email, but is that really the place for them?

This Citi innovation that ranks as one of the worst in banking in recent memory.