Open new Citi checking account for $100 or 20K ThankYou points. Should I bite?

I got snailmail offers for

EITHER

$100 bonus
code C2BN
offer expires 11/30/2009
open 1) in branch 2) 1-866-422-1452 or 3) offer.citibank.com
min $1K deposit, and make at least one of the following three for 3 straight months:
- 1 monthly direct deposit
- 2 e bill pay
- 5 signature purchases with debit card

OR

20K TYN pts
code C2AL
offer expires 11/30/2009
open 1) in branch 2) 1-866-422-3126 or 3) offer.citibank.com
min $1K deposit, enroll at TYN, and make at least one of the following three for 3 straight months for the first 10K TYN pts:
- 1 monthly direct deposit
- 2 e bill pay
- 5 signature purchases with debit card
continue another 3 months for the 2nd 10K TYN pts.

Offers are for existing citi card members who're primary cardholders.
Offers are not valid for existing checking account holders.

Since IIRC citi checking offers are pretty much one-incentive-per-lifetime, should I hold out for greener offer in the future? Has citi ever offered more than the two above before?

Where does it say "one-incentive-per-lifetime"?

Ank329 said: I've alway preferred cash over points.

But I think 20K points is about $200 gift cards.
Unless Thankyou points are worth 50% less now.

I personally would go far the 20k TYP. Most is $200 in 100-gift cards. But, it seems more choices are available at the $50 gift card level, which cost 6k thank you points. Last resort, 14,000typ gets you $100 Visa Giftcard; and 6000typ gets you $50 store gift card.

Either way, both offers, at least what i've seen, state that "...Customer must deposit a minimum of $1,000 into checking account opened in a Citibank account or Citigold account relationship package..." This means a minimum of $6,000 combined average balance in eligible linked accounts.

Thanks for the heads up. I hope this isn't obvious but do you need to keep $1000 in the account throughout the 6 months or do you only need a $1000 opening deposit?

Btw, Citibank also counts the balance (NOT CL) of your linked credit cards towards the $6K. So, if you have any AOR money with Citi, it'll come in handy to meet the $6K requirement. Also, you can receive up to 800 TYP per month for having "The Citibank Account".

johnnybs said: You could probably withdrawal the $1,000, but will still need the $6,000 combined average balance...

Promotions such as this require a high end checking account. The phrase Citibank account does not mean a checking account issued by that bank (as the casual reader might think), but a specific product with that $6,000 requirement for average balances. While some may be met by credit card balances, keeping track of these (what is the average balance?) is hard and you will be tying up significant money for a while.

They sometimes have offers to open a saving account (I just received one) which may help. If you are going to keep that much money idle, having a saving/money market account with 1.5% interest (I believe that is what they are offering now on their best accounts)can help.

They also indicate a long delay before points are credited and that you must keep the account open till then. It is not perfectly clear whether you can convert to an account with no minimum balance requirement while waiting for the points (I would appreciate any comments on this since my wife has taken advantage of such a offer).

I see little advantage of the offered account over the other types of accounts and not enough to justify keeping $6,000 with them you would otherwise not keep with them. Even if you think you will easily meet that requirement, there is a risk you someday will not and incur fees.

With a different bank, my wife signed up for a high end account (without really thinking but just letting the account opening office make the decision on the type of account) and for years met the minimum requirements. However, after a move to a city where this bank lacked branches she withdrew much of the money and fees started accruing. Since she was not using the account it was not being looked at and significant fees accumulated rapidly reducing the remaining balance. ($15 per month for a few months for the convenience of a bank account that you do not use is quite high).

Thus, even if it looks like you will easily meet the balance requirements the time may come when you pay off loans, withdraw savings, etc. and get caught with fees.

CITI seems one bank that does keep track of who has taken their promotions and states they cannot be repeated (I gather people have regularly opened Chase or BOA accounts, closed them and opened new accounts, getting an incentive each time.)

My instinct would be to take this promotion if offered. With cheap money banks really have little incentive to seek new customers with such expensive promotions and may not get more generous. Your opportunity cost is low now since you will not earn high interest on any bank deposit so you might as well keep savings with CITI (their rates on savings are actually respectable now if you pick the Ultimate account). Later, when interest rates are higher CITI may offer more, but your opportunity cost of keeping money with them will be higher also.

Thank you points are being devalued and a similar offer later o may be really worth less (and even when you get these points they may be worth less later).

Just to clarify; For Citibank ThankYou points for relationship banking products every month, a Citi credit card is NOT counted as one for 'your total number of qualifying banking products and services'. The following are Citi products and services that count toward TYP banking relationship monthly rewards when they are linked together:
1)A Checking Account and a 2)Debit card, plus: -Electronic bill payment from enrolled checking acct, -savings &/or money market -CD -Checking Plus (var rate) (overdraft line of credit) -Direct deposit -Personal loan -Ready Credit -Home equity line -Home equity loan -Mortgage -Student loan.

Side note: The current $100 offer and the 20k TYP offer to open new account clearly states "..offer cannot be combined with any other offer"; so, these offers may not allow you to also receive the Refer-A-Friend bonus offer.

i'm not aware of bill pay minimum of $50 and must make mimimum 2 per month (at least to qualify for banking products and services for the monthly reward typ.) It's not in the T&C. There is a 2 billpay minimum requirement for few months, as stated for the particular bonus or offer you received for being and opening up a citi checking account. Even that does not state anywhere of a minimum requirement. And, as stated in the T&C, having a Citi credit card does not count toward typ monthly rewards for banking relationship; you can only just link your typ so that both your banking reward points and your credit card purchases go into the same typ account.

I got the 20K TYP offer in snail mail today, but I had a Citibank account a few years ago(it's closed long time ago), anyone knows if I still qualify for this offer? I don't see anywhere in the mail saying that 1st time customer only.

I once got the TYP for one fewer relationships/products, and it was because I had gone a full calendar month without making a single billpay. I did two or three on the 30th of the previous month, and didn't make any until the 2nd or 3rd of the following month. I can double check later, but I'm relatively certain that I've gotten the points for doing only a single billpay in a month, but I can't attest to the $50 minimum. I've always paid a bill over $50 except for the one month I didn't pay any bills.

As for paying a non-Citi credit card, I don't think it makes any difference at all. I'm absolutely sure there have been months when I got the points for making exactly two billpays over $50, and one of them was for a Citi-Shell Mastercard (push). There was even one month when it took like three weeks to clear for some reason, so I called the number on the back of the Shell card to ask why, and they didn't have any idea. I said it shouldn't take any time because it's Citibank to Citibank and she said Citi Cards is a completely different division on a separate system, and so they have no control over when it clears. I still had the payment credited on the correct day and my overall balance went down, but the available credit wasn't there until it cleared.

I'll check my billpay history later today and report my findings so I can be more specific.

Can someone who got the snail mail offer, scan it up for us, that would be the awesome!

Can anyone confirm if those who've opened (and closed) Citi checking accounts in the past with a previous offer are eligible? I got 40K last year, but it was a pain in the ass.

I don't believe there's a $50 minimum Billpay requirement as I never seem to Billpay over $50 but I do make sure I make two Billpay to two different non-Citi CC's each month.

Here is the list of qualifying Citibank products and services to get TYP every month (the ones that I have are in bold and with my usage description):

* ATM/Debit Card (just by having it as an ATM card; rarely make debit card purchases)
* Certificate of Deposit (good ol' $500 online 4.25% 5-yr CD opened in '07; on hindsight, should've put more money in it... )
* Checking Account (including Student Checking) (used to have the EZ but upgraded to "The Citibank Account" now; so I get 800 TYP every month)
* Checking Plus® (basically the overdraft credit line; used to have a $5 annual fee but no longer charged starting this year, I think; applied in '07 and was given $10K but never used it)
* Direct Deposit (simulated monthly $300 push from the bank formerly known as GMAC Bank)
* Home Equity Line
* Home Equity Loan
* Mortgage
* Online Bill Payment (as mentioned above)
* Personal/Installment Loan
* Ready Credit®
* Savings/Money Market Account (have USA and UMA now; closed e-savings last year, I think..)
* Student Loan

Source: https://online.citibank.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=CBNATYRNRe...

Mithrin said: I was just repeating what I've been told when trying to figure out I got the points for only 6 relationships instead of 7 (happened a couple different months). One of the CSR's thought one of the times was due to not having 2 billpays > $50, but they could have been mistaken. I just remember that after that, I started paying a couple non-Citi CCs using billpay, since my utility bills were not always above $50. Since then, I've always gotten the points for the 7 relationships.

I wouldn't be surprised if Citi's software didn't follow the T&C to the letter though.

If this is like the promotion I recently exploited, it does not say "first-time customer." It says "new account." I closed my Citi checking account about a year ago and a few months later opened a Citi checking account under a different promotion. I had to drag it out of them, but was finally credited for my promotional TYP.

If anyone has a scan or website that has the terms, please share!

Now that my memory comes back, you are correct that CC balance does not count toward the combined average balance for the EZ Checking package.

Rorer714 said: wesleman said: Btw, Citibank also counts the balance (NOT CL) of your linked credit cards towards the $6K.Not on their low end checking accounts.

In the past, I always noticed "the once-in-a-lifetime bonus per account" proviso in Citi's promotional offers. However, this time when I received their offer in the mail, this phrase was nowhere to be seen, and I had a closed account with them. So I opened a new one hoping they would credit me the bonus.

The offer expired. Is there any new offer?