On Monday we posted about an offer from Citibank that gives you up to $100 for completing some basic tasks (Bill Pay, Mobile Check Deposit & Outgoing Popmoney transfers) I told readers that this would be most attractive to those already earning ThankYou points with their checking accounts with Citibank.
This post will guide you through earning Citi ThankYou points with their deposit accounts. In a post next week we will look at redeeming these points.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: 15,600 ThankYou points (~$156) without credit products (e.g Mortgage) or 25,200 with credit products (~$252).
- Availability: National
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified. See what’s triggered the direct deposit requirement in the past
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft, they will do a ChexSystems inquiry though
- Credit card funding: Yes, unspecified amount
- Monthly fees: $0-$30, all waive-able
- Early account termination fee: None
- Expiration date: None specified
For example, if an account requires you to have combined deposits of $50,000 per month to stay fee free then a husband & wife can each have $25,000 and still qualify. You must live at the same address for this to be applicable. You can combine
Contents
CitiGold Checking
This is Citi’s most premium offering and as such has the biggest earning potential. It also has the highest monthly fee and the highest requirements to have this monthly fee waived. They regularly offer sign up bonuses on this account (up to $500 back in January & semi targeted offer for 30,000 AAdvantage miles currently available).
Earning Potential
- Direct deposit & Bill Pay: 900 points per month
- Auto save: Â 150 points per month
- Savings / Money Market account: 250 points per month
- Credit products:
- Mortgage: 225 points per month
- Home Equity Line/ Loan: 225 points per month
- Personel / Installment Loan: 150 points per month
- Custom Cedit Line: 200 points per month
Fees
This account comes with a hefty monthly fee of $30 per month. This fee can be waived if you meet any of the following requirements:
- A combined average monthly balance of $50,000+ or more in all linked deposit or retirement accounts
- A combined average monthly balance of $100,000+ or more in all eligible linked Citi accounts including investment and loan balances but excluding mortgage balances
- A combined average monthly balance of $250,000+ including all of the above & 1st mortgages
CitiBank Checking Account
This is Citi’s second tier checking account and also regularly has sign up bonuses attached to it. They offered up to $250 back in January & currently offer up to 15,000 AAdvantage miles.
Earning Potential
- Direct deposit & Bill Pay:Â 625 points per month
- Auto save:Â Â 100 points per month
- Savings / Money Market account:Â 200 points per month
- Credit products:
- Mortgage:Â 125 points per month
- Home Equity Line/ Loan:Â 125 points per month
- Personel / Installment Loan:Â 75 points per month
- Custom Cedit Line:Â 100 points per month
Fees
This account comes with a monthly fee of $20. This monthly fee can be waived if you meet any of the following requirements:
- Maintain a combined monthly balance of $15,000+ with Citi (includes all accounts and mortgages)
- Receive a direct deposit from one of Citibank’s “Citi at Work” partners.
CitiBank Basic Checking/Student Checking
Student checking & basic checking accounts are the same from CitiBank. The only difference is that student accounts are never charged a monthly fee, whilst basic checking accounts have a waviable monthly fee of $10.
Earning Potential
- Direct deposit & Bill Pay:Â 425 points per month
- Auto save:Â 50Â points per month
- Savings / Money Market account:Â 125 points per month
- Credit products:
- Mortgage:Â 0 points per month
- Home Equity Line/ Loan:Â 0 points per month
- Personel / Installment Loan:Â 0 points per month
- Custom Cedit Line:Â 0 points per month
Fees
As we mentioned previously, the student checking account does not have a monthly fee associated with it. The basic checking account has a monthly fee of $10 which is waived if you complete any of the following
- Maintain a combined daily average balance of $1,500 or more in all linked deposit accounts (checking & savings)
- At least one direct deposit per month and one Bill Pay per month
Our Verdict
It’s not worth opening any of the credit products just for these points, you should shop around for the best interest rates on these products as this will make far more difference to your bottom line than earning a small number of ThankYou points. All of the accounts offered by CitiBank have low interest rates so it’s important to work out if it’s worthwhiled holding the funds in those accounts or not.
For example: The CitiGold has a $50,000 requirement to keep it free free. You would earn $500 per year if you held this money in a high interest checking account earning 1%. Â At most you’d be getting $252 in ThankYou points and $50 in interest (this account currently has an interest rate of 0.1%). This means you’d be making a net loss of $198 per year.
Another example: CitiBank checking has a $15,000 requirement to keep it fee free. You would earn $150 in interest if this was kept in a high interest checking account earning 1%. At most you’d be getting 11,100 points without credit products ($111) and then an additional $1.5 in interest (0.01%) which means you’d actually be loosing $37.5 per year.
Final example: The basic/student checking has no minimum balance requirement so there is no need to keep funds in there to keep it fee free. Without credit products you’d make 600 ThankYou points per month ($6) which would result in a profit of 7,2000 ThankYou ($72) points per year.
The only way to really make this work is to either only do it with the basic/student checking accounts or do it with two people. That way you only need to meet the minimum deposit requirement on one account, but you can reach the bonus on both. This would result in a profit of $54 for the CitiGold account and $72 for the CitiBank checking account.
Even then you’re going to be much better off completing a separate bank account bonus that pays all of the money upfront and doesn’t require on going transactions to earn the rewards. The bonuses we consider the best can be found here. Alternatively you can view a full list of sortable promos here.
F.A.Q’s
How do you set up Auto Save?
Setting up auto save is easy, just follow these instructions.
- Open a savings account with CitiBank (fee free), this should automatically link with your checking account. If it doesn’t, call Citibank and they will link it for you
- Click “Payments & Transfers”
- Click “Transfer between linked accounts”
- Click “Set up a recurring transfer”
- Set up a transfer from your checking account to your savings account
As far as we are aware there is no minimum requirement.
How do you do a Bill Pay?
- Click “Payments & Transfers”
- Click “Pay Bills”
- Click “Set Up Recurring Payment”
- Click “Add New Payee”
If you don’t have any bills that need to be paid (you cannot paid a Citibank credit card) then you can pay an individual by selecting “Pay An Individual” (this can be your spouse, yourself or anybody you need to send money to). We believe Bill Pays must be a minimum of at least $1.
