This offer has expired, click here to view the best business checking bonus.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $700
- Availability: Must open in branch [Branch locator]. Looks to be limited to CA, CT, D.C., FL, IL, MD, NJ, NV, NY, VA
- Direct deposit required: Not required
- Additional requirements: Deposit $50,000 and enroll in cash management services or deposit $200,000
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $30, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Expiration date: September 30th, 2017
- Household limit: Not mentioned
The Offer
No direct link, must open in branch
- Open a new Citibank business checking account before September 30th, 2017 and deposit $50,000 or more in new-to-Citibank funds before October 31st, 2017 and get a bonus of $500 when you also enroll in one of the following cash management services:
- Citi merchant services
- CitiBusiness Online ACH Origination
- Citibank Remote Check Deposit
- Payroll Manager
- Offer is also available to existing business checking customers. Same requirements as above but obviously no need to open a new account.
The Fine Print
- The cash bonus will be credited to your Citibank Business Checking Account within 90 days from the end of the month in which you complete all offer requirements.
- New Business Checking Customer Offer: To qualify for a $500 cash bonus, (1) by September 30, 2017, open a CitiBusiness (Analyzed), Streamlined or Flexible Checking Account; (2) by October 31, 2017,
deposit $50,000 or more in new-to-Citibank funds into your new Business Checking Account; and (3) by October 31, 2017, enroll in one of the following cash management services: Payroll Manager, Citi
Merchant Services or Citibank Remote Check Deposit. - Existing Business Checking Customer Offer: To qualify for a $500 cash bonus, (1) by September 30, 2017, have an existing CitiBusiness (Analyzed), Streamlined or Flexible Checking Account; (2) by October
31, 2017, deposit $50,000 or more in new-to-Citibank funds into the existing Business Checking Account; and (3) by October 31, 2017, enroll in one of the following cash management services: Payroll
Manager, Citi Merchant Services, or Citibank Remote Check Deposit. - You’re required to pay taxes on all bank account bonuses
Avoiding Fees
The easiest account to keep fee free is the CitiBusiness®Streamlined Checking Account, this has a monthly fee of $15 and is waived have an average monthly balance of $5,000 or more. There is no early account termination fee to worry about. I’m not sure what any of the cash manage service fees are, if you know please share in the comments.
Our Verdict
Update: Not worth doing due to the fact you need to enroll in cash management services. More about this in this comment here.
They have offered something similar before, but there was also a bonus for $700 that required a deposit of $200,000. The good thing about this bonus is that there doesn’t seem to be any minimum deposit length for the $50,000. Most people won’t have $50,000 sitting around to move into an account like this. Still it might be worth considering if you do, I think this is comparable to the Discover savings bonuses offering $200 for depositing $20,000 with no minimum deposit length. You can view the best business checking sign up bonuses here. There are also currently bonuses of $300 or $500 on Citi personal checking accounts.
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Found a kind of labor intensive workaround for the merchant services- there is something called a Clover (remote credit card acceptance for your phone) which is only $40 and the merchant services guy I was matched with gave me a $100 credit to cover that.
Opened the account in branch and was told that the account is fee free (not sure this is true), but worst case is an hour of emails to get the Clover, 45 minutes in branch to get the account opened, $30 total in fees and $500 about 2.5 months from now.
After reviewing the cost for requirement (3), it turns out that this $500 is a bad deal, at least not for most of us. Not worth the hassle to walk in and find out all the costs through a business account banker if you ask me.
(3) by October 31, 2017, enroll in one of the following cash management services: Payroll
Manager, Citi Merchant Services, or Citibank Remote Check Deposit.
Payroll Manager: When searching for Citi Payroll Manager, I find this webpage: https://online.citi.com/JRS/popups/CitiBizPayRollSpeedbump.htm
It re-directs me to a company website called “Sure Payroll” http://www.lps.surepayroll.com/CITGbanker
Citi Merchant Services – Not published in public. Below quoted from their online sales rep via chat:
“All of our rates and fees are customized in a program to fit the individual business needs of the merchant. We will need to collect pertinent information about your business operations in order to proceed.”
Citibank Remote Check Deposit – $60 per account monthly service fee (can be offset by earnings credit if you have a CitiBusiness Checking Account). Other deposit and set up fees apply. Purchase of scanner required for service (base cost, single-feed scanner $325)
Source: https://online.citi.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=CitiBizRemoteChkDeposit
for merchant services, I mean the fees are not published in public. But there is certainly fees and quite a lot of them I believe.
JASON, thanks for this. Probably not going to do it then.
Thanks, will update the post.
So the only info I could find on cash management services is the payroll manager, which is $60 per month.
So it’s $500, for $50k deposited and $300 ($60 times 5 months) in fees, knocking the true value down to $200.
I’m applying for the Thank You Business card in branch in a few days and intend to see what the cheapest option for cash management services is, but I suspect it’s not going to be worth it.
No, not just that $60/month. It says Purchase of scanner required for service (base cost, single-feed scanner $325). so another $325 plus tax, eating all of your profit at the end.
This has in my local branch for a while, but all the required services come with a monthly fee if I am no wrong.
Did Chase ever have a $500 deposit for biz account? I’d love to get in on that…
It used to be pretty frequent. A $500 bonus was available for most of 2016 (see DoC’s post for the last one that year):
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/now-public-chase-business-checking-500-bonus-no-direct-deposit-required-branch/
Who knows when it’ll come around again, though.
+1. Some people have received $300 targeted bonuses recently, fingers crossed $500 comes back soon.