Update: 30k AA bonus has also returned, more information here.
The Offer
Direct link to our full coverage of this bonus
Citibank is again offering you 40,000 ThankYou points when you sign up for a Citigold checking account, this promotion is valid until September 30th, 2015. To receive the bonus you only need to make one qualifying bill payments for two consecutive months. We’ve covered this deal in extreme detail here before, so I’d recommend reading that post in full to better understand this promotion. The promotional code is: 4YQY4RMDTT
Four Reasons Why You Should Sign Up For This Deal
These Citi checking promotions are must do’s in my eyes and here are four good reasons why:
- You can fund large amounts with a credit card. The upper limit seems to be around $100,000, but most people won’t have credit limits that high. Make sure you check to see what has/hasn’t coded as a cash advance in the past and remember that it’s possible to reallocate credit limits from one credit card to another, as long as the credit issuer is the same (e.g Chase Freedom to Chase Sapphire Preferred). This should help you increase the credit limit on the card you want to use.
- Having a Citi gold account lowers the annual fee on the Citi Prestige by $100. This card usually has an annual fee of $450, if you have a Citi gold account it’s automatically reduced to $350 (and you’ll receive a refund of $100 if you’ve already paid the annual fee). This card comes with a 50,000 point bonus, or 60,000 points if you apply in branch (with a much larger minimum spend requirement). It also comes with a $250 air credit (which includes all airline purchases), which you can get twice and only pay the annual fee once and some free rounds of golf each year as well plus lounge access.
- This bonus isn’t taxable. Most bank account bonuses are subjected to taxes, you’re not required to pay taxes on this bonus as long as you earn less than 60,000 TYP from bank bonuses.
- It comes with 40,000 ThankYou points. We’re used to seeing these types of bonuses on credit cards, but this is ridiculously high for a bank bonus, especially when you consider that you only need to pay two bills online to trigger the bonus.
Again, if you’re interested in this deal please read our full in depth post on this first. If anybody knows of a working promo code for the 30,000 American Airlines offer, please let me know in the comments below. We’ve added this bonus to our list of the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader P
Can you fund the account using a US Bank card and not be a charged a cash advance fee?
Funding with Citi Double, so far so good.
If my Citigold account balance is at $0, will I get charged for an overdraft when the monthly $30 fee hits?
Yes you will. This is exactly what happened to me as I was charged about $60 in fees earlier this month. Fortunately I had called before this to downgrade my account and the representative messed up so my fees were refunded.
FYI on closing the account after getting the bonus. You only have 60 days after closing. I read on a previous post that it would be OK to close the CitiGold account after receiving the points as long as you have another TYP earning card open as the points will be combined. This is somewhat misleading. Yes, you won’t lose the points, but you only have 60 days.
For reference:
What happens if my Citi Account is closed?
…
If you have a Citibank® consumer checking account enrolled in ThankYou Rewards, you will have 60 days from the date that Citi Account is closed to redeem any accumulated ThankYou Points associated with that Citi Account. After that time, you may lose the ThankYou Points that you earned through that Citi Account and through ThankYou Rewards. If all your Citi Accounts are closed, ThankYou Rewards reserves the right to close your ThankYou Member Account.
Do you think I am qualified for CitiGold promo if I have CItibank package right now?
and
Do you think I am qualified for CitiGold promo if I had any CItibank package in the past?
Can you explain further the process of having the fees waived by having a secondary signer who has a citi gold account? Is this a simple process that involves a few signatures and a fax/email/mail rather than an actual branch visit?
does citi enforce the “you have to have a citi TYP earning card” to get this promotion?
Scroll up and you’ll see William answered me. The fine print says yes, a few data points say you might succeed without one but it’s YMMV.
I’m personally not going to risk it. I’m still figuring out which card to get before I pull the trigger on the bank bonus.
does anyone know will I incur CA fee if I fund with my AA citicard?
thank you
funded this with 4k from premier
I don’t recommend their product. I opened a gold checking account six weeks ago but I have not been able to access after three weeks of use. I have spent more than two hours on the phone with their incompetent reps and I get shifted to different phone numbers and departments. No one can tell me my account is not accessible. Good thing that I did not transfer any money into the account or provide them with my main bank’s information. The point offers were tempting, but I’ve wasted too time with them.