Citi Ultimate Money Account 5% APY

Link

5.00% APY when you make two online bill payments each calendar month from your linked eligible checking account
No minimum balance required
Requires a checking account — Free EZ Checking available for new customers
Apply online or by phone

Note:To qualify for the higher rate, you must make at least two electronic bill payments through Citibank Online, Citi MobileSM or Citiphone Banking® from your linked checking account in a qualifying relationship package during the calendar month preceding the statement cycle date. If the bill payment requirement is not met, a lower rate (currently 4.50% APY) will be applied for that statement cycle.

Great Job Citi. You pay less interest than the competition and impose more restrictions. Where do I sign up ?

Thanks OP. Now to just make sure I pay 2 bills a month from my account.

Citibank seems to be doing some experimenting with their deposit accounts.

The e-savings requires a linked checking, and offers a relatively low 4.5%
The ultimate savings requires nothing, and offers 4.65%
The Ultimate Money Market requires a checking, and bill pay, offers 5%, and isn't available for existing customers.

Plus the "regular" savings and money markets, which are crap.

This is all very confusing.

markkundinger said: Citibank seems to be doing some experimenting with their deposit accounts.

The e-savings requires a linked checking, and offers a relatively low 4.5%
The ultimate savings requires nothing, and offers 4.65%
The Ultimate Money Market requires a checking, and bill pay, offers 5%, and isn't available for existing customers.

Plus the "regular" savings and money markets, which are crap.

This is all very confusing.

One difference, at least as posted on Citibank.com, is that it explicitly states the e-savings account counts as a product for earning thank-you points while it does not explicitly state that the ultimate savings account does.

TB

True, an ultimate savings, by itself, won't earn any TY points. But I'm a high percentage sure that it would boost your TY point yield if you had a checking account.

ScootyPuffSr said: OP should change title to indicate it is only for new customers.

jfinlayson said Footnote *2:
"Offer is only available for first-time Citibank deposit (checking or savings product) account customers, and is valid only once for any individual. Persons who currently have or at any time have had a deposit account at Citibank (or any of its predecessor banks) are not eligible."


I like how jfinlayson left out a couple of lines from footnote 2 which i included verbatium. If you want a new free E-Z Checking account with no balance requirement and no direct deposit or bill pay requirement then you must be a new Citi customers but anyone can open the savings account even current customers look at footnote 2 and footnote 4 which clearly states this account can be linked to any exisiting Citibank Checking account.

Footnote 2 To qualify for Free Citibank® EZ Checking, you must apply online or by phone at 877-624-9600 for both a new regular checking and an Ultimate Money Account in the EZ Checking package by 12/31/07. Your relationship package will then be free of monthly maintenance fees and per-check fees. Charges for other account-related services may apply. All accounts are subject to approval. Regular checking accounts do not earn interest. Offer is only available for first-time Citibank deposit (checking or savings product) account customers, and is valid only once for any individual. Persons who currently have or at any time have had a deposit account at Citibank (or any of its predecessor banks) are not eligible.

Footnote 4 You must apply online or by phone at 877-624-9600 to open a Citibank® Ultimate Money Account and link it to a checking account you have or open in one of the following qualifying relationship packages: Citibank® EZ Checking, Citibank Account, Citibank Everything Counts®, or Citigold® Account relationship package. Your Citibank® Ultimate Money Account must also appear on the same statement as your checking account. Regular Checking accounts do not earn interest. Fees may apply to the checking account.

I not sure how much clearier footnote 4 needs to be but I called up and confirmed anyone with existing Citibank checking account can open this account.

I confirmed with CS if you send your self 2 bill payments for a min of $5 each or make any 2 bill payments for min of $5 each that will count and you will earn 5% on this account. Any existing Citibank customer can open this account except if they add this account then there checking account will still be subject to whatever requirement it was before you opened this account. You would not qualify for the free no requirement E-Z Checking account promo as this promo is only for new customers.

timothy86 said: Thanks Dolmar, just opened one.

Now I have an e-savings, ultimate savings and ultimate money!

Whatever one is highest I use and the rest sit at $1.

I don't know why Citibank is confusing everyone with their savings accounts.
Agreed. But I won't complain about having an account at 5% again.

I already make 2 $10 bill payments a month to my Fidelity 1.5% and my Merrill+ cards, as I know I will have the spending there, for the TY points, so the bill-payment requirement means nothing to me.

timothy86 said: I'm waiting for another 5.5% CD from Citi.

Why bother? Just buy a 28 day ARS from Citibank broker inside the bank currently they are paying between 5.29-5.34% which is an APY of 5.42-5.48% just require as little as $25K and thoses balances count towards the balance requirements of your banks accounts too.

LustfortheMoment said: What's so impressive about a 5% MMF???? CITI isn't competitive.........

That is where you are 100% wrong.

Citi isn't competitive with the online banks (well, actually they are with ING and a few others).

But they are very competitive with other B&M banks.

I, for one, find this interesting. I don't keep a huge amount at citi, but citi is my primary bank, and I like to keep some money in a savings account there and keep my checking balance very low, and I dont like pulling from an online bank every time i need to push money into savings.

Thanks to the OP for posting this.

LustfortheMoment said: I'm sorry, Timothy, but CITI has to compete with on-line banks. With Net banks, it only takes a couple of clicks to ACH cash into one's checking at CITI or BofA or Wells Fargo.I do want to walk away from my Citibank account paying an anemic 4.75%. But it is so damn convenient and the local branch went the extra mile when I had an issue earlier this year. They can also pull money up to $1k from other bank accounts in 1 day. Sometimes extra service (and the convenience of quick access to funds) makes it worth the opportunity cost.

AFAIK you can have unlimited links to your checking.

I actually have 12 accounts linked together with Citi.

Just log on to Citi and then click banking, find this savings account and it will be open in less than 60 seconds.

dolmar said: timothy86 said: I'm waiting for another 5.5% CD from Citi.

Why bother? Just buy a 28 day ARS from Citibank broker inside the bank currently they are paying between 5.29-5.34% which is an APY of 5.42-5.48% just require as little as $25K and thoses balances count towards the balance requirements of your banks accounts too.

Well for me I cannot get permission to open citi brokerage account from our compilance dept so I cannot buy ARS.

"Why bother? Just buy a 28 day ARS from Citibank broker inside the bank currently they are paying between 5.29-5.34% which is an APY of 5.42-5.48% just require as little as $25K . . ."


Hmmm . . . I am a Citibank customer and I had $30K in their 5.5 APY CD until a couple months back and now the cash is sitting in my money market account waiting for an opportunity to do a bit better than 5%. Forgive my ignorance, but I wonder, what's an ARS and how do I sign up?

Be careful if you just signed up with Citi for a bonus ($100 sign-up, etc) for a bonus promotion. Changes to your account could void your ability to get the money. I signed up for the EZ checking and E-savings combo for $100, I would prob be fine as long as I kept the e-savings open... if I removed it or converted my checking account to get this new savings account - bye bye $100.

Thanks for the heads up OP. I am a longtime Citi customer and use online bill payment to pay just about everything. Have a ton of different Citi accounts and it took seconds to click and open it once I was logged in? Why not do it? It pays more than the esavings now.

Citi is competitive with the B&M banks in my area and there is nothing to say that I keep all of my eggs there. I do have other online institutions, but Citi is convenient for me. And I like getting Thankyou points for doing nothing. As it is now I don't have to charge a single cent and I get 800 pts automatically credited to my account. Works for me.

BrotherHesekiel said: Thank you for your kind response.
To answer your question: what I did not understand is what an ARS is.

Link Explaining what ARS are and how they work

meehawl said: Anyone done this and seen what the hard inquiry hit is like for credit reports? Last time I opened an account with Citi it hit me with three inquiries across all three major agencies. I already had checking and credit cards there, and was not applying for an account with an overdraft facility. Three hits is severe for an account like this.
When I opened up my USA with them they didn't do any hard pull, or any of my CD's. Only my initial EZ Checking account on one agency (TU or EQ, but not EXP). Yesterday's TC pull didn't show any pull for this, haven't done today's yet.

icecube said: 2.80% now

icecube said: 3.20% now.

yurgreat said: hanlong said: Down to 3.25% now

next tues is when citi adjusts their interest rates.

probably will go down some more since the fed cut .75%

2.80%? wow.. glad i xferred $ to a cd at 3% last week. (altho ultimate money was 3.2% last week.)

yeah, i took a gamble and came out .2% ahead w/the cd.