[Expired] Citi Priority Account Package (Checking) $500 Bonus - $50,000 Deposit Required

This bonus has expired, you can view our new coverage of Citi checking bonuses here.

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $500
Availability: Nationwide (can be done online)
Direct deposit required: Not required
Additional requirements: Maintain $50,000 for 60-days
Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
ChexSystems: Unknown
Credit card funding: None
Monthly fees: $30, avoidable
Early account termination fee: None
Expiration date: April 14th, 2017
Household limit: Not mentioned

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Open an eligible consumer checking account in the Citi Priority Account Package (this replaces Citigold as that now has a $200,000 deposit requirement) and receive a bonus of $500 when you complete the following requirements:
- Make a qualifying deposit of $50,000 or more in new-to-Citibank funds into the new checking Account or your new or existing Citibank Savings Plus or Citi Savings Account, and maintain a minimum balance of $50,000 for sixty (60) consecutive calendar days following the date you made your qualifying deposit:
- Enroll your new checking account in Paperless Statements.
This account also lowers the annual fee on your Citi Prestige card by $100

The Fine Print

New-to-checking customers only. To be eligible for this offer, you must not currently have a consumer checking account with Citibank or have been a signer on or owner of a Citibank consumer checking account within the last sixty (60) days.
Accounts must have been opened within sixty (60) calendar days of enrollment in this offer. Customer can have an existing Citibank Savings Plus Account or Citi Savings Account , but must meet new-to-Checking criteria described
The new checking account in The Citi Priority Account Package must be open and in good standing at the time the cash bonus is credited to the Account. If qualifying deposit is made into a Citibank Savings Plus Account or Citi Savings Account , this account must also be in good standing at the time the cash bonus is credited to the new checking account.
All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

The Citi Account Package has a monthly fee of $30, this is waived if you maintain a combined average monthly balance of $50,000 or more in eligible linked deposits, retirement and investment balances. There is no early account termination fee for this account.

Our Verdict

The major problem with this bonus is that it requires $50,000 to be deposited for 60 days to be eligible (currently there is a $300 bonus that only requires $15,000 to be deposited for 30 days). Citi also offers low interest rates on this account, absolute maximum seems to be 0.1% APY. Let’s compare how much interest you’d earn compare to other accounts:

0.1%: ~$8.2
1%: ~$82
3%: $246
5%: $410

As you can see you’re losing out on quite a bit of lost interest if you put that $50,000 into a high interest savings account. Simple fact is a lot of people just don’t have $50,000 sitting around in cash. If you do then it’s really up to you/what savings accounts you have to decide on this offer or the $300 offer (although that did used to have the same requirements for a $400 bonus). Personally I much prefer the $300 offer, I think this new offer will mean that the old $400 offer for the lesser account won’t come back.

As always, Citi can be a pain when it comes to dealing with bank account bonuses so keep that in mind. We will likely add this to the best bank bonus page as well. The other thing to keep in mind is that this will lower the annual fee on the Prestige by $100 as well.

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