Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $500
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: None
- Additional requirements: Deposit $50,000 in new to Citibank funds and maintain that balance for the next 30 days
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: Waivable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Expiration date: March 31st, 2016
Contents
The Offer
- Receive a $500 cash bonus when you open a Citi Gold Checking account with the promotional code 439G8TGJJJ and complete the following requirements:
- Make an eligible deposit of $50,000 or more in new-to-Citibank® funds into your new Checking or new or existing Citibank Savings Plus account within 30 days after account opening. Maintain a minimum of $50,000 for the next 30 days to receive your bonus
The Fine Print
- The cash bonus will be credited to your new checking account within 90 calendar days from the date when you completed all offer requirements
- Offer is for new consumer checking customers only
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Citigold Account Package $30 Monthly Fee
To avoid the $30 monthly fee you need to complete one of the following:
- $50,000 in combined link deposit or retirement accounts
- $100,000 in all linked deposit, retirement, credit or investment accounts (excluding a first mortgage with citibank)
- $250,000 including linked Citibank mortgages
The monthly fee is usually waived for the first two months.
Early Account Termination Fee $0
We couldn’t find any mention of any EATF in the product disclosures and haven’t heard of anybody being hit with a fee. Your account does need to be open for the bonus to post, though.
Our Verdict
The $50,000 requirement is killer, this account earns at 0.08% APY. If you put that in a 1% account you’d earn ~$40 a month (in a 5% account you’d earn $200 a month). The other thing to consider is you can get 50,000 American Airline miles or 40,000 Citi ThankYou points without this requirement. Those bonuses are both much better than this offer, so this one is a pass for me. We haven’t added this to our list of the best bank bonuses.
If you’re thinking about this deal, think about doing the miles or points offer instead. If you still want to stick with this bonus then read our step by step guide (just keep in mind you can no longer fund with a credit card).
Hat tip to reader Josh G
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
Will downgrading the account from Citi Gold to Citi Priority after 60 days requirement has been met forfeit the bonus?
Deadline has been extended until 4/17, all other requirements appear to be the same.
Can you open up Citi Gold checking using the “get 40,000 TY points”, and then a few days later open up using this “$500 offer for depositing $50,000 or more in new funds into your new Checking or new or existing Citibank Savings Plus account within 30 days after account opening”?? Either way, you need $50,000 in deposit accounts to avoid the high $30 monthly fee for at least 6 months?
Not a bad deal for a short term deposit of 50k, especially for someone without either a AA or TYP card.
JT – I agree with you. There’s no early termination fee, so the account could be closed in 90 days after the bonus hits. That would work out to 4% interest.
The picture says to deposit the $50k into a checking OR savings, and the savings can be new OR existing. But then it mentions that the bonus will be deposited into the checking side.
I just got my 50k AA points today, so I’ll probably close that account and wait a few months before trying again.
Aren’t the miles and points deals targeted? And this isn’t, wouldn’t that alone make this deal worth consideration instead.
“You are not eligible for this offer if you were a signer on or owner of a Citibank consumer checking account within the last 60 calendar days.”
Well, looks like it’s churnable but you have to wait 60 days…
Am i counted as new customer? i opened a citi gold with aa miles last year but failed to complete all the requirement so i did not get the bonus and then i closed the account. I’m wondering if i have the chance to do this one more time. Thank you
Is it not possible to do this deal AND the 50,000 miles? Maybe we could do something similar to a 2BM for bank accounts? 🙂
Nope not possible