On August 11, Citi broke out with a new rule limiting us to one signup bonus per product line per 24 months. The next day, we heard from our Citi media contact that the new rules wouldn’t go into effect until August 28th.
This buffer zone makes sense: Citi wouldn’t want to start a new rule without giving people – and their approval system – time to digest the change. So while the terms already stated the more stringent requirements starting the 11th, they’ll want to give time before actually implementing them.
If you did apply for a Citi card, there’s often a Bonus Tracker in your login which makes it easy to confirm you are eligible for the signup bonus, and many people are getting the bonus without a hitch.
However, some people are not seeing the Bonus Tracker. Others are being told by Citi reps that the bonus is not attached to their account since they already got the bonus on another card of that product line within the past 24-months.
The first I saw of this was in this Reddit thread, and Milestomemories also had the same experience.
From what I’ve seen so far, the negative reports are mostly from those who only got the final approval on the 28th or beyond.
It’s also possible that approvals from the 27th are considered by the system as being opened the next day (I’m not sure about this). And there might even be some time-zone differences as well.
Oddly, some people who clearly got approved after the 28th are getting the bonus without a hitch (here’s an example). It’s not clear why this varies by the person; it might be that it depends on the card in question or some other factor.
Now, if the final card approval wasn’t until after the 28th, I can see Citi being within their rights to deny the bonus since the terms clearly had the new rules for a couple of weeks. Part of the idea of them putting out this buffer zone was likely to make sure they had some extra time for this kind of lag. Fighting them on that is tough. (We maybe should have stressed this point more; sorry if we caused any trouble!)
Personally, if I were in that situation, I’d probably try escalating to see if I can get the bonus, but I wouldn’t file a CFPB complaint.
I’m not sure if there is anyone who was fully approved with a card-open date before the 28th and is still having trouble getting the bonus. If there are some people who fall into this category, it could make sense to follow up and even try logging an official complaint for the bonus. You can feel free to link the original post or this post when dealing with the issue; maybe it will help. Again, this was an official media reply, and they are very careful with what they allow us to publicize.
Let us know your own experience with the 28th deadline in the comments.
