Update 1/3/25: Extended through 3/31/25
The Offer
- Citi is offering a bonus of up to $3,500 when you open and enroll in a new Citi Personal Wealth Management account. The bonus you receive depends on the amount of funds you fund the account with within two months of account opening, the funds must remain there for three months after account opening and you must enroll in eDelivery of statements. The bonus tiers are as follows:
- Fund $50,000 – $199,999 and get a $500 bonus
- Fund $200,000 – $499,999 and get a $1,000 bonus
- Fund $500,000 – $999,999 and get a
$1,500$2,000 bonus - Fund $1,000,000 – $1,999,999 and get a
$2,500$3,000 bonus - Fund 2,000,000+ and get a
$3,500$5,000 bonus
The Fine Print
- To qualify to earn a cash bonus reward, accounts must be funded in cash or securities and the account enrolled in e-delivery of statements within 2 months of account opening and the balance of the account must be maintained through the end of the month shown in the chart below. For example, an account opened in October must fund their account and enroll in e-delivery of statements between 10/1/20 and 12/31/20, then must maintain funds until 1/31/21.
- Offer valid for clients who are 18 years or older who fund a new individual or joint Citi Personal Wealth Management account between October 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. Account and asset eligibility requirements are explained below. Citi Personal Wealth Management reserves the right to change or cancel this offer at any time.
- Cash or securities must come from an external, non-Citi, source through a standard transfer method (e.g., a standard Transfer of Assets form, check, electronic funds transfer, ADM deposit). “New-to-Citi Funds” are 1) funds deposited from external accounts or payees other than Citibank, N.A. and 2) must be deposited using domestic ACH transfer, Direct Deposit, checks drawn on banks other than Citibank, N.A., wire transfer, trustee to trustee transfer, or ACAT securities transfers.. Cash deposits, Citi Global Transfers, international ACH transfers, and person-to-person transfer services such as Apple Pay, PayPal®, Venmo, and Zelle®, do not qualify as New-to-Citi Funds. New-To-Citi funds may be deposited into a Citibank retail account and transferred to the new CPWM account during the account funding period outlined in the chart below. However, transfers of existing funds from a Citibank retail account are not considered New-To-Citi funds for the purpose of this promotion.
- To qualify to earn a cash bonus reward, accounts must be funded in cash or securities and the account enrolled in e-delivery of statements within 2 months of account opening and the balance of the account must be maintained through the end of the month shown in the chart below. For example, an account opened in July must fund their account and enroll in e-delivery of statements between 7/1/20 and 9/30/20, then must maintain funds until 10/31/20.
- The total funding for purposes of determining the bonus level funding considered for the promotion is defined as the total amount of eligible cash or securities received in the account minus withdrawals and transfers of securities out of the account as of the deadline to fund the account based on the month of account opening. Distributions, interest, and dividends from investments will not be counted. Market fluctuation will not impact eligibility for a particular bonus level.
- The amount of the cash bonus reward is based on the funding received during the promotional period. The cash bonus will be credited to the Citi Personal Wealth Management account for customers who were enrolled in the promotion and have met the qualifying requirements stated in the offer based on the date the account was opened.
- Limit one bonus per customer. If multiple accounts are opened or funded by a customer, the offer will apply to the eligible account with the highest balance. Multiple account balances in the name of the same beneficial owner will not be aggregated for purposes of this offer, except if one account is a non-managed brokerage account and the other account is a managed account, in which case the eligible funding from these two accounts may be aggregated for bonus qualification purposes. Any additional accounts opened during the promotional period will not be eligible for bonus eligibility. Citi Wealth Builder accounts are excluded from eligibility for this bonus. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer. All requirements of the offer, including the dates in the above chart, pertain to both the eligible managed account and brokerage account.
- For purposes of this offer only, the primary owner of a joint account will be considered the customer. All accounts are subject to approval and applicable terms and fees. Account must be open and in good standing at the time the bonus is credited to receive the bonus.
- The promotion is only available for certain account types, including individual and joint accounts. Accounts not eligible for this promotion include but are not limited to corporate and other business/entity accounts, trust accounts (except Living Revocable Trusts and Family Revocable Trusts which are eligible), retirement plan accounts other than IRAs and SEPs (e.g., 401(k), money purchase pension plan, profit sharing plan, and other ERISA plan account), estate accounts, UGMA/UTMA accounts, 529 college savings plan accounts, robo-advisory accounts under the Citi Wealth Builder Program, and insurance products (including annuities). For questions about eligibility, please speak to a Citi Personal Wealth Management representative.
Our Verdict
This looks to be a good brokerage bonus as the cash/securities only need to be in the account for roughly a month (e.g fund at the end of the second month and keep the funds in there for a month after that). Knowing Citi there might be a gotcha that I’m missing here.
According to the comments this works for self directed accounts, but the set up process is extremely slow due to it all being manual.
Hat tip to reader EW
Post history:
- extended through 12/31/24
- Extended to 9/30/2024
- Update 4/2/24: Extended to 6/31
- Update 1/16/24: Extended to 3/31
- Update 10/2/23: Extended to 12/31/2023
- Update 7/5/23: extended to 9/30/23
- Update 5/17/23: extended 6/30
- Update 11/1/22: Deal is back and valid until 12/31/22.
- Update 7/5/22: Extended until 09/30/2022. Deal is better on the higher tiers. Hat tip to Mawney
- Update 4/6/22: Extended until 06/30/2022
- Update 1/2/22: Extended until 03/31/2022.
- Update 1/4/2021: Deal is back and valid until 6/30/21. Hat tip to reader savingwizard
- Update 10/11/20: Deal is back until 12/31/20.
Is there some way to deposit $1 first? The website is hard to navigate/ seems like I can only transfer in funds? I don’t see a way to deposit funds from checking so I can make sure my initial funding period is Feb
I believe you have to ask them for a form to link external accounts. I’d imagine that form asks you how much you want to transfer. I did an ACATs and had to provide brokerage info and a statement. Maybe someone who funded via ACH could confirm
For someone who has a Citi Checking or Savings, ACH into the Checking or Savings and then transfer into the Citi brokerage account is considered new-to-citi money despite the middle step.
You can also do a wire transfer into Citi brokerage account. Citi doesn’t charge fee for incoming wire. Call Citi and they will give you wire instructions. Some banks/brokerage like Fidelity doesn’t charge fee for outgoing wire. Fidelity’s online wire form doesn’t have all the fields that Citi gave, but call Fidelity CS and they can initiate the wire over the phone.
How are you opening the account, in branch or calling in? I called the 1-833-350-2258 Citi Wealth Management number at 3:08pm ET and got a recorded reply with “the department you are calling is closed. Call during normal working hours” ….thats all, without even saying what are the hours.
Today’s a bank holiday.
got it, thanks
Has anyone done back to back quarters and received the bonus and if so how long after withdrawal of funds did you sign up for the current quarter? Thanks
Opened account today. Is my understanding right?
Fund $1 by end of Feb.
Make sure I fully fund (i.e. ACAT) by end of Apr.
Hold funds through end of May.
Once June comes, I can withdraw funds; bonus will be credited by Sep 1.
Sounds about right. I am in the same boat.
Yes, just make sure those funds (including the initial deposit) are all new-to-citi funds
My maintain funds period just ended 1/31/25 for Q4. Can I withdraw funds and then enroll in q1? I would then deposit a nominal amount later this month and fully fund by April 30.
Better to withdraw fund this month, then enroll and have initial funding next month.
I’m wondering the same thing. I’m curious whether Citi Wealth Management retrospectively reviews the account balance at a specific cutoff date to determine if the “new-to-Citi” money requirement has been met when customers enroll in these offers alongside existing accounts.
For example, many banks have a cutoff date for existing customer offers. Take Live Oak’s offer: customers must maintain the pre-existing balance as of 2/3/25 and deposit an additional $20K by 03/31/25 to qualify, whereas new customers only need to deposit $20K. In that case, if a customer already has $20K as of 2/3/25, they must add another $20K and maintain a $40K balance during the 60-day promo period. This practice—looking at the account’s balance at a specific point or aggregating balances across account types—is fairly common.
I wonder if Citi has a similar balance cutoff requirement, or if it only looks at the balance increase from the day of offer enrollment. If it’s the latter, a customer could theoretically withdraw funds before enrollment and then re-deposit a “clean” amount.
I reviewed Citi’s offer terms and didn’t see any reference to a retrospective balance look-back for brokerage accounts or across all accounts. The closest reference is the clause about new-to-Citi funds needing to be deposited into a Citibank checking or savings account on or after 1/1/2025 before being transferred into the eligible CPWM account:
This wording does not mention any look-back of pre-existing balances in the brokerage account itself. I might have missed something, though, so I’m interested to hear from others who have navigated this offer before.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
Account 1: Open 2/2025 (Q1), maintain funds through 5/2025
Account 2: Open 6/2025 (Q2), maintain funds through 9/2025
Account 1: Enroll 7/2025 (Q3), maintain funds through 10/2025
Account 2: Enroll 11/2025 (Q4), maintain funds through 2/2026
Whole process takes around 13 months. You’ll have some periods where each account is enrolled in a different quarterly bonus (June is Q2, July is Q3), so you’ll need 100k to target both bonuses concurrently. Otherwise, you’re effectively draining the account after the maintenance period ends, then enrolling the other account in the next bonus right afterwards.
I’ll be trying this approach through the year and will report back on my datapoints.
Thanks,
Jimmy Johns 🔗. That makes a lot of sense.
I opened my first account in January, so based on your calculations, I believe I can open the second account in May and follow this adjusted timeline (shifting your timeline forward by one month since my first account was opened in January instead of February). Does this look correct?
Two-account strategy:
This setup is a lot more efficient than using just one account since it allows for four promotion periods within 13 months instead of only three in 14 months with a single account. Did I interpret this correctly?
Single-account strategy (three periods in 14 months):
You have an two account openings scheduled in Q2 (May and June), only one bonus per quarter. I prefer June and July since it straddles two quarters and I can just hold the funds in the June account for an extra month
Good catch! Thank you
Jimmy Johns 🔗 !
So the timeframe should look like this?
Just realized one thing, don’t we need a month spacer between the end of the holding period of one account and the enrollment month of the other account? I mean, for example, the holding period for the 1st account ends in 4/2025, the funds can be pulled out in 05/2025, if the 2nd account is enrolled in 05/2025 as well, then wouldn’t the withdrawal from the 1st account be deducted from the “new money to citi” for the 2nd account? If so, it seems only one account is needed, and need one month space in between enrollments:
I’m going off the assumption that pulling the funds at the start of a month has no impact on enrolling in the next bonus at the end of the month (while technically the same month, the actions are 20+ days apart)
Thanks
Jimmy Johns 🔗 . And I just saw Christopher’s comment in the link, it does look like the withdrawal at the start of the month has no impact on enrolling in the next bonus in the same month later.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-wealth-management-up-to-3500-bonus/#comment-2009428
One more question, you mentioned “I prefer June and July since it straddles two quarters and I can just hold the funds in the June account for an extra month”, do you mean that the funds for Account 2: 6/2025 – 9/2025 should stay in the account till the end of 10/2025 since Account 1 is enrolled in the next promotion for 7/2025 – 10/2025?
After the withdrawal, I was assured over the phone that I can now enroll in February for the Q1 promo and make an initial deposit in February into the same account.
The rep did put me on hold twice to confirm this. The rep also emailed me to confirm my enrollment in the Q1 promo and attached the flyer.
I hope she is right.
Thanks,
Christopher Robin! So only one account is needed, and there’s no waiting period between promotions. That’s great news!
Thanks
Christopher Robin . I just enrolled in my first promotion in January, and the holding period ends at the end of April. I’ll withdraw the fund in early May and call them in late May to ask them.
Why do you say that?
Just want to play on the safe side in case the system is looking for the net deposit/balance of each calendar month.
As of November 2024 (see my comment below from then), I believe there weren’t any DPs for this scenario. I’m in a similar situation as you, I just had my IRA funds freed up and am researching what to do next.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-wealth-management-up-to-3500-bonus/#comment-1949745
edit – looks like there’s been a bunch of discussion on this since then
“Market fluctuation will not impact eligibility for a particular bonus level.” I interpret this to mean that if you transfer in 50K of stocks, and and then their price dips to 49K, you’re still eligible for your bonus?
Does Citi Wealth Management charge fee for partial ACAT out? Their fee schedule says $95 for ACAT outgoing transfer, I guess full ACAT out would result in such a fee, but I am wondering whether they charge it for partial.
they don’t charge for partial
Good to know, thank you
Orin !
How do you convince Citi Wealth Management advisor to open a self-directed brokerage account for this bonus? It seems that they just want to manage the money for you. Is this similar to the JP Morgan Chase where you just have to let them do it for the first time? Citi also has a separate self-directed brokerage deal with smaller bonus.
i did it and just transferred my assets
What is the difference between the Self Directed which can only be opened by Citi Wealth Management advisor (max $5000 bonus) and the Citi Self Invest brokerage which can be opened online ourself ($500 bonus)?
When I called I didn’t need to convince them. The advisor asked whether I’d like a self-directed account or a managed account. They were pretty transparent about the options and you just need to tell them you want the self-directed account.
Thanks for your suggestion. It depends very much on the person you talk to. The person I spoke with said I could just do a self-directed account without his help. I am not sure if that means the lower bonus deal or not.
same deal. just ask to make sure they apply it
Not sure which account you opened. Is advisor Self Directed different from Self Invest brokerage? Per their terms, the $5000 max bonus offer excludes Citi Self Invest. See below.
What accounts are eligible and ineligible for this offer?
The promotion is only available for certain account types, including individual and joint accounts. Accounts not eligible for this promotion, include but are not limited to:
Corporate and other business/entity accounts
Trust accounts (except Living Revocable Trusts and Family Revocable Trusts, which are eligible)
Retirement plan accounts (except IRAs and SEPs, which are eligible)
Estate accounts
UGMA/UTMA accounts
529 college savings plan accounts
Citi Wealth Builder and Citi Self Invest accounts
Insurance products (including annuities)
Do I have it wrong or does the 50K tier not make financial sense? It’s about 120 total days of holding, which is about 775 bucks on a 4.5% APY account – more than the 500 reward.
Sorry, this isn’t correct. It’s only 30 days of holding. So only about $216 in lost interest.
It is a brokerage account, you can purchase money market fund that has 4.2% ish dividend so no lost interest
I’ll be transferring 50k from an external Savings account I linked (and already did a small initial funding transfer from) close to March 31st, and would need the funds for sth else by early May.
So only want to have it at Citi for the minimum needed time of the month of April.
Was thinking about just keeping it in cash, but if you (or anyone else reading) can instruct me how to get the APY for April while being able to easily transfer out cash back to my Savings account in early May, I’d appreciate it…
Update:
favo🔗 , so that answers my question above.
reading a bit further down, I see that you also just started your journey with Citi Wealth
Would still be very much interested if you could share
Thanks in advance…
I went with AEAXX, which has a current 7 day yield of 4.24%. It holds 40% treasury, 19% treasury repos. I assume there is a percentage of the dividend waived for state tax. The system alerted the fund had a front load, but CS confirmed it didn’t. Overall I think it is comparable to similar vanguard or fidelity funds.
Also
Christopher Robin is correct, you can purchase SGOV as well.
Thanks to both of you for your response.
Will look more into it once I do my full funding in late March…
Could I transfer a combination of taxable and IRA ETFs to get a higher bonus? Ex. Transfer $50,000 taxable and $150,000 IRA assets via ACATS to get the $200,000 bonus?
The short answer is yes, but it takes some work talking to the financial advisor to get approved.
“Multiple contributions in the name of the same beneficial owner will not be aggregated for purposes of this offer, except under the following conditions:
In either of the above two cases, your Financial Advisor must request the exception and the eligible funding from the two accounts will be generally aggregated for bonus qualification purposes. Any additional accounts funded during the promotional period will not be eligible for bonus eligibility. If both IRA and non-IRA accounts are funded and aggregated, the bonus will be generally allocated between the IRA and non-IRA on a pro-rata basis based on the amount of funding. All requirements of the offer, including the dates in the above chart, pertain to both eligible aggregated accounts.”