Free round-trip ticket (20K TYP) w/ $25K Citi MM+ deposit

glxpass said: 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.
If you're worried about not qualifying for the bonus, you could always, (after opening and before the promo cutoff), deposit a check for $25k drawn on another financial institution too, just to give yourself soom wiggle room if you have to badger them about the bonus later.

markkundinger said: glxpass said: 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.
If you're worried about not qualifying for the bonus, you could always, (after opening and before the promo cutoff), deposit a check for $25k drawn on another financial institution too, just to give yourself soom wiggle room if you have to badger them about the bonus later.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd rather spend that 25K to fund my wife's account and get 5% of that 25K back. IOW, if Citibank allows opening additional accounts with funding by credit card, and that seems more profitable than the possible TYP, then it's an easy choice.

glxpass said: 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 think you're right. However, it's simple enough to make $25 billpays. What you can do is, you just make $25 worth of the minimum payment on two of your 0% credit cards (or on the same credit card twice). On the other hand, though, as you point out, it's the CSR, not the documentation, that says $25. If there really is a secret "requirement," who knows if it's $25, $50, or what.

But if you did make $25 billpays to a checking account, you could just pull them from the account you made the billpays to, sending the money around and around and around in a circle for 6 months.

RagingBull said: When funding with a credit card, can you still do this option if open the new savungs account but then login with your old checking account login information?
Yes.
Login to your account.. open new savings account -> get account number
Call Citi and tell them you want to fund a new account with credit card.

glxpass said: GroveStreetOG said: But if you did make $25 billpays to a checking account, you could just pull them from the account you made the billpays to, sending the money around and around and around in a circle for 6 months.
Although such an idea is perfectly legal, I'd rather avoid activities that might raise suspicions -- totally unwarranted of course -- of something illegal or fishy. The idea of bouncing the same money back and forth between two checking accounts makes me uneasy.

There's certainly no law against moving your own money from one checking account to another. Furthermore, Citi's terms for all these offers only say you must make two payments per month with their billpay system. They say nothing about who you can or can't pay or that you can't return the money to the account.

How is everyone getting around Citibank's annoying outgoing inter-institution transfer limit of 2k/day and 10k/month? Would like to quickly move my money out of Citibank and back to higher yield accounts now that I've met the funding requirements.

glxpass said: I probably could have stated it better, but with all the adverse action people have been getting, especially from Citibank (although admittedly this pertains more to credit cards than to deposit accounts), I just don't see a reason to bounce the same money back and forth if I don't have to. I'm not suggesting anyone else not do this; I'm simply stating that I tend not to do things I'm uncomfortable with, unless there's strong justification for it. IOW, why should I play games like bouncing my money back and forth between accounts if I feel there's no good reason to do so?
WOW, someone actually using common sense.

Wow Money Market Plus is down to 1.25%. I hope folks have gotten out of this account into a better one, and still get there 40,000 points.

EugeneV said: Any idea for how long the balance on USA must be remain 25K+ and on Checking 1K+ in order to qualify for the promotion? It is not clear from the terms. CSR told me 60 days, but I think he was guessing.

You need 6K combined balance to avoid monthly fee on checking (switching to EZ Checking with other waiver options will disqualify you from the promo). I would at least move the 1K to USA if I knew it was "safe".
I'm not sure which promotion you have, but mine mentions only that 25K must be deposited to an Ultimate Savings Account (USA), and doesn't say anything about any length of time that the funds need to stay there. The account itself has no minimum balance requirement. A CSR told me there was no minimum amount of time that the funds had to remain in the account. This was CSX2 for 20K TYP. I was told for that promotion (for people with an existing Citi checking account) that EZ Checking was a valid account to which the USA could be linked.

I still need to make my initial deposits before 5/31. I know this will be a dumb question, but can anyone tell me, if my credit limit on a particular cc is exactly 25,000$, can I make a charge for the full 25,000$ amount or do I need to leave some cushion room at the top. I assume I should be able to charge teh full amount since its listed as my "available credit", but the reason I ask is because whenever I make balance transfers they never allow me to use the full credit limit, I always have to leave about 200$ available (even after considering a balance transfer fee).

It looks like round two of using my CashReturns card to fund a Citibank USA (this time for 34K) went fine. My wife's USA shows both a 34K balance and 34K available, and my CashReturns card, on which she's an authorized user, shows the available credit reduced by 34K, although it's not yet showing in the current balance. A brief summary of the timeline thus far:

5/13 AM - I applied by phone for a Citibank USA under promotion CSX2 for 20K TYP in order to link to my existing Citibank EZ Checking account. At that time, I requested funding for 38K on my CashReturns card.

5/13 PM - My wife applied online for a Citibank USA under promotion CP76 -- same terms as CSX2 -- for 20K TYP in order to link to her existing Citibank EZ Checking account. No funding was done at that time.

5/16 - The 38K charge was declined by Citi Cards -- as expected -- despite advance notification of the impending charge. The credit card block was removed, and notified Citibank to try again.

5/19 - My USA account shows as funded for 38K, my CashReturns available credit has been reduced by 38K, although the current balance isn't yet updated.

5/21 - The 38K now shows as a purchase, and is reflected in the card's current balance. Set up a PIF payment from a "trusted" bank account on the Citi Card website.

5/22 - The PIF payment shows as posted. Sent in the credit card authorization form with my wife's signature and name for 34K to fund her USA.

5/27 - My wife's USA now shows with a 34K balance and 34K available, and my CashReturns card online shows its available credit reduced by 34K. The amount isn't yet reflected in the current online balance. Unlike the 38K charge, the charge went through with no problems. I was told by a Citibank CSR that my wife's signature on the credit authorization form was less likely to allow problems, than trying to fund by phone, since there's no signature involved with the latter.

5/29 - The current balance now reflects the 34K transaction, and it shows as a purchase. I paid the balance in full on-line at the credit card web page, using a trusted account. The payment should post today, and I should see the updated balance tomorrow.

So it looks like a second high charge on the CashReturns card might go through OK, despite problems with the initial high charge. At least, that's what happened with me.

6/14 - Received Citi CashReturns bonus check, which included the 5% Cash Back from the 38K and 34K funding of my USA and my wife's USA. There are still a few months to go before we know if we'll each receive the 20K TYP.

Funded savings with Citi CashReturns (charged 25000)
Paid the credit card and then Funded checkings with same card (charged 25000)
I am done with mine and now, am funding my wife's. Funded wife's savings with same card. Next step is to fund her checking a/c.

tolamapS said: Quick question:

has anyone been successful in opening the savings + checking combo twice, using different promo codes?

I opened the two accounts in March / April using a promotion code that already expired, and was interested in doing it again using one of the new promotion codes.

Mostly interested in funding using a CashReturn$ for the 5% rebate.

TIA.
Except for a possible $200 checking promotion, I wasn't aware of any others (for existing Citibank customers) whose opening dates hadn't already expired. If you're mainly interested in using the CashReturns card with the 5% Cash Back, couldn't you just open a new Citi account, and fund it with the credit card authorization form previously referred to in this thread?

I sent them an email asking if I am still qualified for the offer since I moved my money to Ultimate Money Account and they wrote back:

Thank you for your message requesting to know if you still qualify for the promotional offer. It will be my pleasure to assist you with your inquiry. I have initiated action to determine if you will still qualify for this promotional offer. Please allow up to 30 calendar days for this review to be completed. The status will be mailed to your account address:

glx,

On your second go around with the CashReturns funding, are you listed as a joint account holder with your wife as the primary? I'm planning on using my parents (individually) with me as a joint holder so my CC can be authorized as a source of $$$.

TIA

Thanks glx.

Did your wife get a hard inq. when you added her as an authorized user? I forget the rule of thumb when it comes to adding authorized users since the issuer asks for their SSN.

I funded my accounts over the phone on 5/27 and went to a branch office to turn in my signature card on the same day.

I funded my checking account using my Penfed Visa card, maxed to its $20K limit. It appears to have successfully charged as a purchase so hopefully I'll earn a 1.25% Cash Back bonus on it.

The savings account I funded by pulling from my AAFCU checking acct. Both deposits showed up in my Citi accounts on 5/30. The charge posted to my credit card on 5/31. But the 25K still hasn't shown up yet on my AAFCU account! Which is great since I assume I'm earning interest on that money in both accounts since 5/30.

Now I need to figure out how to withdraw the money back into my AAFCU account. Citi won't let me do it online, since I have to wait until 14 days after I register online before I can set up an external account to transfer money to! And AAFCU doesn't allow you to pull from other accounts.

ETA: It looks like Citi will allow me to use billpay, so I assume I can use it to mail a check to AAFCU?

For how many months does one have to maintain the 25K amount the saving account to get the 40K bonus?

I received an odd message from Citi today. Apparently their email distribution system is VERY SLOW:Thank you for your recent application to open a Citibank Ultimate Savings Account.

There is still one step left:
Fund your account today.
As of 04/24/2008 we still have not received your initial deposit to fund the account.
Please note: If we do not receive your deposit by 05/24/2008, we may have to close your account. You will then have to reapply online.It was funded with $25k on 5/5/2008 (statement printed on 5/19/2008). Strange.