Citi Checking Up To 30,000 American Airlines Miles Bonus, No Direct Deposit Required

You can get the bonus as long as you have a Citi American Airlines credit card open. If  worried, you can always call up and apply over the phone – making sure you confirm your eligible first (and getting a reference number).

I have written a post about this bonus before, but it was getting quite cluttered so I thought a new post was in order. There is one important difference in this bonus, it’s only for new consumer checking customers. In the past it was possible to do this every two years.

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: 30,000 AAdvantage miles
• Availability: Nationwide, must have a credit card that earns American Airline miles open
• Direct deposit required: No
• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• Credit card funding: Yes, $100,000 limit (be wary of cash advance fees, click that link to see what has/hasn’t been a cash advance and set your cash advance limits appropriately).
• Monthly fees: $10-$30, avoidable
• Early account termination fee: $0
• Expiration date: September 30th, 2015

The Offer

Direct link to offer (promotional code is 4YQY4RMDRM, this is not unique)

Regardless of which account is opening, you need to complete the following requirement in addition to the debit card purchase require. Make one or more qualifying bill payment for two consecutive calendar months.

• Open a Citigold account and make $750 or more in qualifying debit card purchases and receive 30,000 American Airline miles
• Open a Citibank account and make $375 or more in qualifying debit card purchases and receive 15,000 American Airline miles
• Open a Basic Banking account and make $125 or more in qualifying debit card purchases and receive 5,000 American Airline miles

The Fine Print

You can view the full page of fine print by clicking promotion disclosures to the left hand side after entering the code.

• Offers for new consumer checking customers only
• AA miles will post to your account 90 days from the end of the statement period in which you complete all offer requirements
• Limit of one offer per customer and account
• Qualifying bill payments are those made using Citibank® Online, Citi Mobile® or CitiPhone Banking®. Bills paid by making a transfer between linked accounts and/or transfer payments made to accounts within Citibank or to accounts with Citibank affiliates do not qualify as bill payments for this offer
• Qualifying purchases are those made using the Card to buy goods and services and are net of returns and other adjustments. ATM withdrawals, cash back and bill payments do not qualify as Citibank Debit Card purchases. Net qualifying purchases are determined in Citibank’s sole discretion and must post to the new account within 60 days of account opening
• All accounts must be in good standing at time of bonus posting to be eligible
• This offer is available to Citi® / AAdvantage® credit cardmembers who receive this communication, as mentioned previously this hasn’t been enforced in the past

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
• Hold a CitiBusiness® Preferred Banking account (minimum of $15,000 to keep fee free)

Citibank account Package $20 Monthly Fee

To avoid the $20 monthly fee you need to have a combined average balance of $15,000 or more

Basic Banking $10 Monthly Fee

Make a direct deposit (the following methods count as direct deposit, click to view) and 1 bill payment each month or keep an average balance of at least $1,500 in the previous calendar month to avoid the monthly fee.

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 miles to post though.

Our Verdict

At bare minimum you’ll need to keep the account open for 5 months (two months to complete the bill pay requirement and three months to wait for bonus to post),  Citi waives the monthly fees for the first two months this means you have two options for the highest bonus:

• Pay $90 in fees
• Keep $50,000 invested for 3 months

If you put $50,000 into a 1% checking account for 4 months, you’d earn $125 in interest, so paying the fees is the best option as Citi pays basically nothing in interest. If we add in another month to give us some cushion room, the numbers turn out like this $120 in fees or $166.67 in lost interest.

$120 in fees for 30,000 AA miles is a decent option, but we also need to take into account the $750 in spend requirement. Putting that on a 2% card would earn us another $15, so we’re now paying $135 in misc charges, getting a ChexSystems inquiry and having to do two bill pays for 30,000 miles.

That’s still a pretty good deal, but personally I’d prefer 40,000 ThankYou points, which is another offer Citi does. The only different is that it doesn’t require any debit card spend. Keep in mind if you have a Citi gold account, you also get a $100 discount on the annual fee of the Citi Prestige card.

F.A.Q’s

How does Citi know when you deposit your American Airlines miles?

Citi are able to locate your AA number through your social security number. They already have your AA number & SSN through your application for a Citi AA card.

Do I have to pay taxes on these miles?

Typically when you receive a bank bonus you do have to pay taxes, I don’t think Citi has sent out any tax forms for this bonus since 2011-2012. As always, you should speak to a tax professional regarding your tax liability.