Update: Looks like this program already exists.
Citi has sent out a survey to current Citigold clients regarding a new product tier that might be offered in the future titled ‘Citigold Private Client’, this would require $1,000,000 in deposits or investments with Citi. The current Citigold account package requires $200,000 in deposits/investments. Possible benefits of the new Citigold Private Client included:
- $500 recurring relationship bonus for updating financial plans
- Amazon Prime
- Netflix
- TSA PreCheck
- Audible
- Waived Citi Prestige/AAdvantage Executive fees
Citi is rewarding customers that complete the survey with a $50 gift card. Currently Citigold customers receive a $100 discount on the annual fee on the Citi Prestige, so a completely waived fee along with streaming services would be significant. Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program highest tier requires $100,000+ in deposits whereas Chase’s Private Client program is supposed to required $250,000+ but that is rarely enforced.
Hat tip to echen1024
“Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program highest tier requires $100,000+”
Notable and correct. Should be remembered that their are tiers to Merrill Edge and Wealth Management with higher requirements
Would these be taxable benefits since they are associated with a bank account?
Citi quietly launched Citigold Private Client in the US in late March but I suspect that the pandemic has impacted their ability to market this program. Citigold customers with over $1M minimum combined average monthly balance requirements qualify. This survey appears to be related to possible enhancements since currently there is not much differentiating Citigold Private Client from Citigold in terms of benefits.
Let’s do the math, shall we?
$500 = (assuming annual) $500 recurring relationship bonus for updating financial plans
$119 = Amazon Prime
$191.88 = 12 months of Netflix Premium (best case scenario)
$85 = 5 years of TSA PreCheck
$179.40 = 12 months of Audible Premium Plus (best case scenario)
$945 = $495+$450 = Waived Citi Prestige/AAdvantage Executive fees
Total is $2020.28
2020.28/1000000 = 0.202028%
Even in this best case scenario where all the benefits listed above are given, this is roughly 0.2% annual return on your money on top of what Citi’s APY is.
(Note though that this doesn’t take into account the benefits of having a Citi Prestige or AAdvantage Executive card).
The only way this makes financial sense is if you have in $1,000,000+ in investments, not cash.
Almost all of that is worthless to me. You’re better off keeping moving money around for brokerage bonuses, than parking it for this.
But if you DO have a million in investments, then it’s pretty easy money for doing nothing. IRA’s and 401ks count (did $1MM in IRA transfers last yr for $1500×2 sign up bonus). So $5000 first year potentially plus recurring $2000.
Alternative is to move $ around for sign up bonuses every 6-12 months and get $3000-5000/yr every year (in rough numbers).
New landing page for it here, it seems: https://online.citi.com/US/ag/citigold-private-client
Here is a link to the Citigold Private Client Site:
https://citigoldprivateclient.citi.com/index.html
They waive the first year annual fees only.
Note: They have had this program for a while, but it was only available to International clients.
I’m currently a Citigold client. One of the main benefits and imo the only reason to ever both doing this is if you’re getting a mortgage or refinancing for the mortgage relationship pricing. There are other tiers, but $1M in assets gets you 1/2% off your interest rate. They are willing to match a competitor’s quote and then stack the discount on top of it. I’ve done this twice now:
https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/portal/template.do?ID=relationship_pricing_landing
Also, the Citi Prestige annual fee discount is $145, not $100. Brings the net annual fee to $350.
Let me also remind everyone, Citi’s IT and websites completely suck. Only someone who hates using a computer for anything and would rather call in to do something as simple as transferring money from a checking account to a brokerage account would ever want to do any business with them. It’s still worth going through this special sort of hell for this mortgage rate discount, and the good news is that you can take all the assets back out once your closing is done.
I can’t agree more about their IT and customer service department. I had some issues with my citi priority account and they gave me the chase around for a whole week and still couldn’t help me. They weren’t willing to expedite my PIN despite failing to send it the first time – and I ended up closing the accounts out of frustration. Having interacted with both Amex, Chase and Discover, it’s mindblowing how frustrating the experience with Citi is. The only thing that keeps me around is their Double cashback card…
yes, P2 has no interest in chasing points by optimizing cards to purchases, so she has the doublecash and frankly that’s pretty good enough.
Totally agree with you both. I am now in the midst of setting up ACH to my new CPWM a/c and required few 20 minutes long-hold phone calls to get that in. Never would imagine a well-known bank has such a poor system which feel like in the 80’s. Probably would close all accounts after bonus.
phone calling doesn’t helpful on the issues either. it seemed phone rep are outsourced to companies where it’s hard to communicate in English or rep just tells you some dark fairy tales. one example I heard from a Citi tech support was “it’s normal for Citi website and/or your account to work at this moment, then stops working and never comes back for a month without reason” just like black magic
How does citi refi rates compare to owning.com. I get discount at BOA but rate is way too high. Just used owning for 2.25 zero closing cost last month. And today is it 1.99% for 15 years
For Citi refi or mortgage, just get any quote from them, whatever it is. Then shop around, show them the loan estimate from the best offer you found, and ask them to match it. They did that with me both times. Then you stack the mortgage rate discount on TOP of that.
+1; IT system is pure crap. I have received $3400 in household bonuses between P1 and P2 brokerage and bank bonuses. Barely worth all the headaches and dozens of emails and phone calls to get accts set up and get bonuses paid correctly.
Though leaving a million parked there to score the ~$500 worth of free premium credit card and subscription services is certainly tempting. Nice tax free do-nothing approach and I don’t really trade my $1MM IRAs anyway (passive index funds FTW!!).
Hmm if this level of assets is measured similarly to how Citigold is measured, non fee bearing balances in a retirement / IRA account can work. And for some older folks who have built up savings, this may be feasible. I actually had a positive experience with Citigold over the weekend.
Had to buy something with cash (a used fridge, seller changed mind and even though they said they would take a check ahead of time, they decided not to) so i called up CG – got patched into a real live operator – who told me my daily ATM cash limit and where I could fine one (I just went to a BOA atm terminal) and got my cash, and the $3 out of network ATM fee waived.
The Amazon Prime isn’t really an addition to the package, since ordinary CG customers should be able to get that. But Netflix is worth $100 or so per year, and I’d say a Prestige is likely worth $300/400 or so. If they let you get both a Prestige and an AA Exec that would be cool (but unlikely).
Way back when Citigold got you one sub $100 fee bearing card, so we’re grandfathered into a Citi Plat. They stopped that a decade or so ago.