radheykrishna said:I just applied last night, but did not fund it. I have saved the CC funding pdf. I saw the quick summary and BOA funding is treated as purchase. Has anyone used MBNA. Is that treated also as purchase. Thx

Well, MBNA is BofA now, right?

esphan said:FWIW....I was told by a rep that bill payments must be a minimum of $25 to satisfy requirements of offer.

Has anyone that opened their accounts at a branch been able to fund by credit card, and was it done at a branch, by phone or by faxing in the form?
On my promotion terms, I see no specified minimum amount for bill payments. You should print or save your promotion terms, and if Citibank tries to vary from them, you should have a good case to prevent that.

esphan said:glxpass said:
On my promotion terms, I see no specified minimum amount for bill payments. You should print or save your promotion terms, and if Citibank tries to vary from them, you'll have a good case to prevent that.

Yes, I know a minimum bill payment amount isn't mentioned in the terms, I just wanted to share what I was told so others could possibly prevent a hassle later on.
I'd ask the CSR for documentation of that; CSRs are often wrong. I certainly wouldn't adhere to that $25 minimum, based solely on what a CSR told me, and especially with what he/she said not even mentioned in the disclosures for the promotion.

I applied online on 5/16 and specified initial CC funding amount which is above my CL. I was hoping to use my wife's credit card with a higher limit, but when I got to the last step (CC authorization form), I noticed that the cardholder's name must match the name on the account...

Any data points on funding the account with an amount other than specified on the application? Also, the authorization form does not ask for the account numbers anywhere nor does it ask how much to put into savings and how much into checking...

Has anyone here done the offer at the branch where they give 20k thank you points for money market plus account and the one online which gave 20k thank you points for money market plus account? If so can it both be linked to the same checking account or does it have to be different

My deposit of 32K showed up as purchase from Charles Schwab Visa.

Thanks OP.

juggler451 said:All is not lost. You can call Chase and ask them to issue you a second card on the account in your name. Then, ask them to expedite sending out that card, and Chase will either overnight it or send it second-day guaranteed.

Citi won't fund the same CC number over for you, but they will run a new CC number that is on the same account so long as it matches your name.

Good luck.

Nice thought except normally VISA/MC authorized user cards always have the same number. Only real AMEX issues authorized users cards with different numbers. I know for a fact Citi AMEX, Visa and Mastercard authorized user cards have the same number as the primary card holders, and Chase Visa and Mastercard do as well as my GF cards have the same number as mine. The only difference between her cards and mine is that her name is printed on her cards and 3 numbers(4 for Citi issued AMEX) on signature strip are different on her card than mine. The numbers on the front are the same for both her cards and mine. Citi nor Chase statement separate charges by card number.

Now on my AMEX issued Charge Card her card last 4 number on her card are totally different than mine. On the statement all her charges are bunch together as well under her card number and separated from the main card member charges.

Just another data point, now that my Ultimate Savings Account (USA) is funded. In this post, I use the word "Citibank" to refer to the division of Citibank that deals with deposit accounts, such as Checking, Savings, and Money Market accounts. I use the phrase "Citi Cards" to refer to Citibank's credit card division.

5/13 - Applied for USA via phone call to Citibank, offer CSX2 for 20K TYP using existing Citibank checking account. Funded at the same time with Citi CashReturns card for 38K (out of 43.8K CL). Was told that it would count as a purchase.

5/16 - Despite advance notification to Citi Cards CashReturns customer service, putting a note on my account warning of 38K purchase with Citibank, as others warned on this thread, the 38K transaction was declined and my CashReturns card was blocked. A call from a Citibank new accounts CSR late morning advised me of this, and gave me some additional information:

1. Citibank is aware of the problem with transactions funding with a Citi card getting declined, and is tracking the occurrences.
2. Citibank is working with Citi Cards in order to either prevent this from happening, so that Citibank doesn't have to expend twice the effort than they should in order to put through a single transaction. I guess they're not happy at the time and thus money being wasted doing this, especially from their own credit card division!
3. Citibank always codes funding with a credit card as a purchase.

I immediately called the Citi Cards CashReturns CSR, had the block removed, and was assured that the transaction should go through when Citibank retries it. I then called Citibank and was told that they'll retry the transaction within 24 - 48 business hours.

5/19 - Went to Citibank online and my USA account now shows as funded with 38K. Looked at my CashReturns card online, and my credit available has been reduced by 38K, although my current balance isn't yet affected. Called a CashReturns CSR and was told that the 38K was coded as a purchase.

I also received my welcome booklet for my new USA. Page 2 shows the "Promotional Disclosure..." for CSX2. Unfortunately, the Terms and Conditions say that the USA must be opened by 03/31/08, and accounts funded remotely via www.citibank.com or CitiPhone Banking must be funded by 4/30/08. Of course, the terms have the standard admonitions about depositing a minimum of 25K with funds not currently held at Citibank, and that the promotion can't be combined with any other offer. I called a Citibank CSR, and found out the following:

1. She researched promotion CSX2 and confirmed that the opening deadline was extended to 5/16, and the remote funding extended to 5/30. A note was put on my checking account record for future reference. She also filled out a form to be sent to the appropriate Citibank department advising them of the incorrect dates in the USA welcome booklet.

2. "Funds not currently held at Citibank" refers to deposit accounts, not funding with a Citi credit card. This is contrary to what others have reported, and there's no way to know the truth until enough time has passed after meeting the requirements to earn the TYP. I wouldn't advise funding with a Citi card unless the benefits of doing so outweigh the value of the 20K TYP.

3. The (now expired) Citibank MVS4 promotion giving $200 bonus for a new checking account, providing certain bill pay or direct deposit terms are met is totally separate from CSX2, and thus I should get both the $200 and the 20K TYP. A note was put into my account to that effect. (I also noted this information, along with the CSR's employee ID#.)

5/21 - The 38K now shows as a purchase on the CashReturns card and is reflected in the current balance. Paid it using a "trusted" checking account, so I hope the payment will post within the next couple of days. After that happens, I will use the CashReturns card to fund my wife's USA, which was opened online on 5/13, but not funded at that time. I also hope that the funding for her USA will go through without any delays. We shall see.

5/22 - My 38K payment posted to my CashReturns card, and the balance has been reduced, and my available credit has been raised by that amount. I'll now work on funding my wife's USA, for which we applied on-line on 5/13. (Later this morning...) I've just faxed the "Citibank Online Credit/Debit Card Deposit Form", with my wife's signature for 34K, and specifying "FOR ULTIMATE SAVINGS ACCT" with her account number. We used my CashReturns card on which she's an authorized user, so I hope the second time around is easier than the first. I asked the CashReturns CSR to put a note on the file that a 34K charge was imminent.

5/27 - The 34K CashReturns funding on my card with my wife's signature (she's an authorized user) with the faxed form now shows on my wife's Citibank online USA balance and and available balance. We had called Citibank earlier today in order to see what was taking so long. The CSR said not to worry about the 5/31 deadline for funding, as long as we had initiated the transaction (e.g. faxing the credit card authorization form) by the deadline. IOW, it wouldn't be our fault if Citi is slow to process the funding for the USA. The 34K reduction shows in my available credit, but not yet in the current balance.

The nice part is that the transaction didn't initially get declined, as did the previous 38K credit card funding of my USA. It just took a long time for Citi Cards to process the transaction.

Sorry for the longish post; I hope this information is useful.

ETA: No hard credit inquiry shows on my credit report for opening the USA by phone.

tuffghost said:glxpass said:

2. "Funds not currently held at Citibank" refer to deposit accounts, not funding with a Citi credit card.



I would love to believe this, but experience was that all 3 CSR's I spoke to on 5/16 told me that I could not fund it with a Citi credit card and qualify for the promotion.

I have a Cash Returns card as well that I'm thinking of using. Maybe I will use it to fund the checking account instead of the USA.
It's hard for me to know who to believe. Even if I don't get the TYP, the 5% bonus for using the CashReturns card far exceeds the value of those TYP, which is why I used that particular card. If the TYP value exceeded the CashReturns bonus, I wouldn't have used that card to fund the account.

Updated my post here (see below entry), where on 5/19, after a re-try, my Citi CashReturns funding of my Ultimate Savings Account (USA) transaction went through, reducing my available credit, but not yet showing on my current CashReturns balance -- although it does show the funding amount in my USA balance:

5/21 - The 38K now shows as a purchase on-line on the CashReturns card and is reflected in the current balance. Paid it using a "trusted" checking account, so I hope the payment will post within the next couple of days. After that happens, I will use the CashReturns card to fund my wife's USA, which was opened online on 5/13, but not funded at that time. I also hope that the funding for her USA will go through without any delays. We shall see.