[Expired] Citigold Checking Bonuses are Back – 50,000 AAdvantage Points and 40,000 ThankYou Points

• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• Credit card funding: Credit card funding is no longer available
• Monthly fees: $10-$30 (avoidable)
• Early account termination fee: $0
• Expiration date: March 31st, 2016

The Offer

Citi has again released great offers for their checking accounts, you can now get 50,000 American Airline miles or 40,000 Citi ThankYou points when opening a new Citigold checking account. At the end of last year, it was possible to get 50,000 Thank You Points so the ThankYou offer isn’t the best ever – but it’s still very good.

Citi just now sent out these offers again to many people via email; the 50k AAdavantage offer and the 40k ThankYou offer. We don’t yet have the code for the ThankYou offer, but thanks to Bury on Saverocity Forums  and jpoysti on Reddit we have the code for the AAdvantage offer. I’m hopeful that we’ll find out the ThankYou code soon, and we’ll add it to the post.

As always, these bonuses are meant to be for those who received the communication, but it usually works for anyone in that they’ll apply bonus for accounts opened with the correct offer codes upon request.

We recommend calling in to apply over the phone at 1-800-374-9500 so as to confirm that you are eligible for this offer; that way, there won’t be any doubt that you’ll get the bonus.

50,000 American Airlines Offer

Direct link to offer Use promotional code: WD3QFS2Y4C. (thanks to reader Avrohom K)

AAdvantage credit card holders can signup for a Citi checking account and receive a bonus of up to 50,000 American Airline miles. Bonus is broken down as follows:

• 50k AAdvantage miles for Citigold checking
• 15k AAdvantage miles for Citibank checking
• 5k AAdvantage miles for Basic checking

Requirements

For the AAdvantage bonus, you need to do two requirements:

• Make $1,000 in debit card purchases
• Make 1 or more bill payments for two consecutive months

Both requirements must be fulfilled within 60-days of account opening.

40,000 Citi ThankYou Offer

Direct link to offer Use promotional code: 4368UUP5L4 (thanks to reader umc for the correct code)

Citi ThankYou credit card holders can signup for a Citi checking  will receive a bonus of up to 40,000 Citi ThankYou points when opening a checking account package. Bonus is broken down as follows:

• 40k ThankYou points for Citigold checking
• 20k ThankYou points for Citibank checking
• 10k ThankYou points for Basic checking

Requirements

For the ThankYou bonus, you need to make 1 or more bill payments for two consecutive months. Requirement must be fulfilled within 60-days of account opening.

Avoiding Fees

All of the Citibank accounts waive the monthly service fee for the first two months. After that, you need to complete a set of requirements to keep them fee free.

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

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.

F.A.Q’s

Can The ThankYou Points Be Transferred To Travel Partners?

No, this is from the fine print:

“Taxable Points” are Points received for a Citibank checking relationship, Points obtained through activity unrelated to purchases made with your eligible Card Account, as well as bonus Points that may be awarded with no spend requirement. Taxable Points and Points made unavailable for redemption due to signs of fraud, abuse or suspicious activity on your ThankYou Account or due to your failure to make the required minimum payment on the Card Account by the payment due date are not eligible for Points Transfer. (HT to Anthony)

Do I Have To Pay Taxes On These Bonuses?

Legally, all bank account bonuses are treated as interest and as such you should pay taxes on them. The real question most people want the answer to is: will Citi send out a 1099-INT form for these bonuses? You can read our more in-depth answer to this question here.

What’s The Best Way To Fund With A Credit Card?

Update: Credit card funding is no longer available on these accounts.

Funding online doesn’t work, you need to do it via phone or fax. Read our walk through here.

Can I Cancel My Citi Gold Account After Receiving the Miles/Points?

Yes, you can. There is no early account termination fee or requirement to keep the account open after you’ve received the bonus.

Can I Use These The Citi ThankYou Points To Pay For Airfare?

Yes, you can. And if you have the Citi Prestige you’ll get 1.6¢ in value per point for American Airlines/US Airways flights. If you redeemed all 40,000 points for this you’d receive $640 in value which would put you over the $600 limit causing Citi to issue a 1099-MISC. This screenshot again supplied by Kenny from Miles4more shows he is able to use points earned from this bonus for that purpose.

Which Is The Better Offer?

What’s worth more to you, 40k non-transferable ThankYou points or 50k American Airline miles? Everybody will have a different answer depending on your travel goals.

Our Verdict

We wrote up a detailed walk-through of these bonuses in the post: Step-by-Step Guide to Citigold 50,000 Points Checking Bonus. If you have any questions about these bonuses that weren’t covered in this post, you’ll likely find it there.

These are both amazing deals, although the ThankYou one has been higher in the past. The credit card funding makes this especially worthwhile, and it can help meet a minimum spend requirement.

Also, remember, that when you also consider that having a Citi Gold checking account will lower the annual fee on the Citi Prestige by $100, and if you already have the card it will be prorated based on how long you’ve had the card for.

We’ve also discussed other benefits of having these accounts in the newsletter.