This deal has now expired, click here to view the best saving sign up bonuses.
Reposting as deal is available online and being advertised somewhat heavily. Still not a good deal.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $700
- Availability:Â Available in branch only [Branch locations]
- Deposit required:Â $25,000-$250,000
- Deposit Length: December 31st, 2018
- Soft pull: Yes
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Early account termination fee:Â None
- Household limit:Â None
- Expiration date:Â September 30th, 2018
The Offer
- Fund a new or existing Citi Savings Account or existing Savings Plus Account with a minimum of $25,000 in new-to-Citibank funds by September 30th and receive a bonus of $200-$700. Funds must be maintained through 12/31/2018 to receive the bonus
- $25,000-$49,000: $200 bonus
- $50,000-$99,999: $300 bonus
- $100,000-$249,000: $400 bonus
- >$250,000: $700 bonus
The Fine Print
- Funds must be new to Citi.
Our Verdict
You basically want to fund the account as close to 9/30/2018 as possible and then you have to maintain it for basically three months. The Citi savings account itself earns at a base rate of 0.08% (or 0.1% for balances over $100,000). A 2% account would earn $125 over that period. Reader YAR provided this helpful
As you can see the $25,000 option is probably the best and that is only a rate of 3.28% for 3 months, personally I don’t think it’s worth doing at all as you can get higher earning savings account rates and moving funds around for only a 3 months return isn’t really worth doing.
Any update on verbage in T&C regarding stacking with Checking offer? Theoretically you can obtain $400 from checking ($15,000 deposit in checking/savings) and another $200 from savings ($25,000 depsoti in savings). So if i deposit $25,000 in savings in one shot, doesn’t that meet the requirements for both offers, thus $600?
Had my money for 5 months. Had to file a claim with CFPB to get my $300 bonus. Long story. Got it mailed to my house 6 days later. Overnight DHL. Why when opening the account you get an American-and get Mexico or India when inquiring about your bonus? It’s like a racist bait and switch.
@john mccann They’ve had my money over 3 mos, looks like I’ll have to wait another 2 mos. Do you mean that after 5 months they still didn’t pay the bonus?
I had to leave the money in there for 90 days. Then they had 60 days to pay the bonus. July 2nd I expected the bonus. They said they need a W-9 tax form. Sent them the form-TWICE. They wanted me to send them a third one. Pissed. Closed the account then. Filed a claim with CFPB to get the $300. Got it 6 days later. Got a bonus with them before-no problem. Why now? Give it 5 months(90+ 60). If it gets to be a hassle-file. Good luck.
Both CITI and CHASE are going to need to step up their game and offer a far better bonus to lure savings for 90 days. These promotions were of interest with savings rates at 1-1.5%. But with 2% and up so widely available now it’s as many of you have already concluded: why bother?
Agreed. Just give a fair rate for savings and a smaller bonus. PNC gives 1.3% for Virtual Wallet customers and that is the highest rate out of the big banks. Give a $100-300 bonus and instead offer 1.5% rates like Citi used to do with the Ultimate Savings Account – not the best but definitely top ten.
Why does anyone do this crap? Best case scenario is 3.2% @20k, gets worse from there. Plus the risk of the bonus not going through, hassle of setting it up, another chex inquiry…
Are you guys just sitting on large sums of univested cash? Not smart.
No chex inquiry if you are just funding an existing savings. Just registration. Agreed with the rest.
What a joke.
&^%# Citi. Just hung up with them. Opened the 15k checking/savings combo and just complete 60 days. Logged in to confirm so I can withdraw 5k. 15001 in checking 49 in savings. See that they charged me 25 fee on 7/5. Call in and was told it was because I didnt link my accounts. Even though I opened together and see them both when I log in. They “linked” on phone and as a “one time courtesy” they refunded the fee. The incompetence here is unbelievable. Is $400 worth the PITA? I ask myself this every time i churn them. Always some new issue.
I’m having the same experience with them except for the fact that they managed to charge me $25 for two months in a row (with subsequent refunds and apology). Now they are telling me that I have to wait for up to 90 days after 60 days to get my bonus. Thinking of starting a draft to CFPB…
They charged me $25 twice also on my Savings account. Supposedly they “fixed it” and now both accounts are “linked”. Waiting 90 days after 60 days has been the norm with Citi in the past… which is why a lot of people on here don’t do the Citi bonuses anymore.
@DIMI they told me 90 days as well but it was actually more like 40 days
This does appear to be publicly available, and can also be opened online or over the phone, according to their excessive T&C’s
https://banking.citi.com/cbol/18/Q3/savings/700/nt/default.htm?intc=1~1~52~6~BANR~2~Save700_NatPMa~XPX&BT_TX=1&ProspectID=A4BE6685BA66445E96CC01CACFF8F33D
Some goodies included in the fine print:
“If an Eligible Customer does not have an Eligible Checking Account, he or she is encouraged to open such an account by 9/30/18 to qualify for this $200-$700 Cash Offer.”
“Enrollment and participation in this promotion does not guarantee eligibility.”
So I’m not exactly clear if you need to have a checking account in order to get this. And they make it sound like they can weasel their way out of paying this, if they so wish.
And it also looks like you can open the account, wait to fund it until ~9/30, then maintain the funds for ~90 days.
See “Who is eligible for this offer?” item (3).
You need to have Gold/Priority/Citibank checking account, and they specifically rule out Basic/Access.
It makes sense if you could get it to stack. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi-400-600-personal-checking-savings-bonus-available-nationwide-direct-deposit-not-required/
Would funding $50k in a new-within-180 days Citi Priority qualify for both the $600 and $300 bonuses? You would just be opening a Citi Priority online with the $25 minimum, and then walk into a branch and ask to have the bonus code applied for your $50,000 deposit. That’s 7% for a $50k deposit, and possibly lower annual fees on Citi Prestige and whatever other premium cards one wants, which isn’t half bad.
One could stack but wouldn’t that require 50K + 25K (separately) for checking and savings ?
Also the offer you reference already requires both Citi checking + savings accounts to be opened. Wonder how this second savings account could stack with that.
The T&C says new and existing savings accounts qualify for the offer on this page. I just closed my account with Citi in March so am outside the 180 day window to try out.
I closed my Citi checking in the middle of March. My last statement date is March 31. You think I can open the checking and deposit money on Sept 30 in order to qualify?
Wonder if these would stack as well. Just opened checking/savings two days ago.
I will be stacking as well. Opened the checking savings package 1 month ago.
How are you going to stack? Are you going to fund them seperately?
I’m thinking if you put $25,000 into savings you will qualify for both the checking offer ($400) and the savings offer ($200)
Could we tag these offers with something like “Garbage bank bonuses” or “Ripoffs”?
The lowest level on this one isn’t bad, if you wait till September to do it so you don’t have to leave the money there as long. $250k would be ridiculous, of course.
Isn’t doc great? I do appreciate the honest comments on whether or not it’s worth all the hoop-jumping. Other sites just throw the offers out there…..
Good, I was really having trouble coming up with something to do with this 250k I have under my mattress.
hey some of us really do have 250k under our mattresses 😉
I’d like to offer you a free mattress trial, I even offer free delivery and most importantly free removal of your old mattress.
I recommend you get yourself a fireproof mattress.