We’ve written about the two Citigold checking offers which have a bonus of 40,000 Thank You points or 30,000 AAdvantage miles. We wrote a step-by-step guide to signing up for these as well.
Just now, two separate reports (1, 2) came in that there appears to be a problem with the AA offer and it’s apparently not available. This is despite the fact that the offer details are still showing clearly in the promotional terms and indicating that the offer is valid until 9/30/15.
Both reports come with the same conclusion that Citi agreed to instead add the Thank You promo to the account, after the fact, as that promo is still valid and current.
It’s odd that they’re pulling a promo in middle of its time and that they haven’t updated the terms of the offer to indicate that it’s expired. In any case, for now it would make sense to avoid the AA offer, until we hear from Citi that it’s valid again.
Those who recently applied for the AAdvantage offer would be wise to verify that the offer is added correctly to their account. You can do this over the phone or via chat. If the AA offer was not added correctly (more likely if you applied within the past couple days), you should be able to get it swapped over to the Thank You offer instead.
Would like to provide our experience.
I had not seen or overlooked your post updating the status of this offer.
I had applied in mid-July via phone (due to fraud alerts on my credit report) and was confirmed for the offer and received a full packet in the mail with the offer terms, etc.
We decided to wait for my husband to apply since we were meeting other signup bonuses with our spend.
He applied last week online. We entered the offer code on the initial screen and we noticed that on the next screen the box in lower right had a different offer code, so we changed it to the AA offer code. Application went through. We kept copies of the screen “application being processed” and the “promotional disclosure” showing the AA offer code and its terms. We received the debit card 2 days ago, PIN last night and activated the account last night.
Then I found this thread late last night. PANIC. Online chat couldn’t help, so sent a secure message.
This morning called Citigold and they confirmed he had the offer. I noted rep name, time of call, etc. since there is probably a recording if we needed to dispute.
Just now he received a reply to secure message. What it says may be interesting to others. It was a very, very detailed reply with instructions on setting up bill pay, etc., but this is the relevant excerpt:
“On your behalf I contacted our New Account Servicing and they have confirmed that your account was successfully enrolled for the promotion code 4YQY4RMDRM to earn the 30,000 AAdvantage bonus miles.
Initially only certain Credit Card holders were targeted for this offer and should have been offered by email, by phone or with a letter in the mail. However, non-Credit Card holders somehow obtained this promo online which was not apart of the distribution. Since you have an existing Citi Credit Card, you qualify to receive this promotion.”
This last sentence apparently reveals the key to success in getting this promotion applied.
Thanks for alerting us to it in the first place.
Oh, one more thing. Online applications do not receive any documents in the mail, as I did with my phone application. If you apply online, the only documents are the ones presented to you during the online application process. We matched them up to my printed packet so that we did not have to print out a huge number of pages. Luckily we copied the Promotional Disclosure page and printed it out – so the printout had the date. We would have used that in a dispute, but luckily we didn’t have to go that far.
Great to hear!
My process.
Applied for and opened an account 08/04 (AAdvantage 30K). Funded with Arrival+ and everything seemed good. Logged in and set up my direct deposits and sent a secured message to confirm the promotion was applied correctly. Two days later, I received my debit card and called to activate. This is when the issues started happening.
Once the debit card was activated, I was locked out of my account online until I could enter my pin. OK fine I could just wait for my PIN to arrive and be set. Week goes by, nothing. Another week goes by, maybe i’ll try the last 4 or something. Nope. So I give them a call and apparently they never even sent the PIN or Welcome packet. I request for them to send it. One week later, nothing. Call again. CSR says they have yet to send my PIN and will do it overnight so I can get started. Two days later, I receive another Debit Card. Sigh. Call again, tell them what happened and they say they’ll send my PIN/Welcome Package again! Two days later, finally receive the welcome packet but….no PIN. I end up biting the bullet on my lunch break and driving 20 minutes out to the nearest branch just to set my PIN. FINALLY have access to my account a month later. Check my secured messages and the Promo isn’t attached to my account.
Call CSR again for round 2 of issues. CSR informs me that I needed to apply on the phone for the account promo to be applied. Tell them what happened and I guess this person was having a bad day or something but was curt and just told me no it wasn’t applicable. Having had enough of incompetent CSR reps, I decided to try and get this sorted out through Secure Message now that I had a PIN. Sent a message with the Promo Code for the AA 30K promotion to confirm that I had met requirements (I had set up bill pays and did the debit card transactions) to see what they would say. Good news! CSR rep thorugh SM says that I have fulfilled requirements and that points would post within 90 days of the statement promotion was completed. OK cool 3 months isn’t bad. TWO DAYS LATER, another SM form another CSR rep. Sorry but we made a mistake and you are not eligible for that promotion but we are going to give you the 40K promotion.
So after all this, I’m just going to wait for the 40K to post and close my citigold account. I was actually planning on using their accounts for a bit to see how they are but their customer service has been terrible. If you have any issues, DO NOT CALL. Send a Secure Message so you have a paper trail of every conversation. Good luck!
I have called for several days trying to get my account funded by credit card. It kept “getting stuck in automation” and they would have to clear something and reset it. After several attempts they haven’t even attempted to fund my account, according to both Citibank and my credit card issuer. I asked about the TYP promotion. She said that they were not going to honor the code because I did not receive a letter in the mail targeting me to apply, and because I did not open the account over the phone and get it approved at the time of applying. I asked about speaking to a manager to have the promotion code applied since I had a ThankYou Premier credit card with them. She said that management was no longer approving these requests because the code had been leaked to several websites, and that even though it was a valid code that would show up when you applied for the account on their website, it was no longer going to be honored for non-targeted customers even though it was applied successfully. I ended up having to cancel my application.
My AA Promo experience,
Signed up online Aug 2, received checks and debit card Aug 7, and called to fund and confirm promo. CSR said AA promo not attached to account and forwarded me to a personal banker. Personal banker informed me that I need to apply over the phone to qualify for AA promo. And I needed to close account opened Aug 2 and apply again. Personal banker and I start a new application. She paused and placed me on hold. She came back and said that the promo code was not valid. BUT a NEW code would be available next week and that she would call me next week. We never completed an application over the phone.
Aug 13, personal banker called back and attached the New promo code to my existing account (the account I opened online Aug 2). Confirmed 30K AA miles and funded with CitiCard (cash advance at $0). CRS said it would post as debit.
Of course the process took a LOT longer than the 2 minutes it takes to read this. Hope this helps? Without the Doc’s step by step post, I would have never attempted this offer. Thanks Doc!!!
what number did you call and do you happen to have the promo code by any chance?
Which Citi card version did you use for funding? Did it post as a purchase with no Fee?
Zorro, same phone number in post to fund. no code.
Naveen, TRIED to fund with Citi Bank AA Advantage card , but went through as cash advance. Ended up transferring from my checking account.
How you did you try to transfer from your AA card.Did you call customer service and reduce the cash advance limit before doing this?
In my case the limit is 10,000$ on my AA citi card and cash advance is 3000$.what I did is I called customer service and ask them to make cash advance zero but they said 750$ is least they can go, I said ok and they reduced to 750$ then I funded the citi gold with 4500$ which is way more than my CA limit and it went though fine and posted as purchase with no charges in just 1 day..
Did you get miles when using your card?
So I signed up for the AA 30k miles and funded with my barclays aviator account via fax. All went as planned. After reading here that people had problems with the AA offer, I called. I was told that the code was not valid and the seemingly clueless girl was willing and said she was able to attach the CTY offer to my account. I had called citigold at 888-248-4465
My husband also opened this same account. I told him to call and do the same thing. When he called last night we were told by the 1st rep we needed to call AA. I knew this was inaccurate and we hung up on him. The 2nd rep was adimant and told us that she was the wrong department and that we needed to speak to new account services at 800-321-2484 Option 1. She said only they have the power to attach codes to new accounts.
Today I called New Account services and spoke to Maria. She was VERY knowledgeable. She says this AA offer was “targeted” and you were supposed to apply over the phone. However, since so many people (obv us), have applied for it…what they are doing is sending an email to management to verify if we were “targeted” for the offer and if so, then will give us the 30k AA miles even though it was supposed to be a phone application and not online.
As I was not targeted, I have little hope that I will actually receive the 30k AA miles….but hey you never know.
Does anyone else have any information on this as well?
How likely will we see another citigold checking promo like this in the next 6-9 months? Or is this too good to pass up?
Has anyone has any luck funding their business checking accounts with credit cards?
I have had back and forth with their 800# and the branch people. Everyone is clueless and they think I am crazy (even though I have funded personal accounts twice with credit cards.)
So at this point I have no clue how to fund their business accounts.
applied for citi gold aadvantage promo on july 29. called two days ago to verify the promo and they couldn’t find it. they sent me a letter with the ‘resolution’ and said no promo was attached to my application (did it online). will be sending them a letter with code, a web image of the promo with the 9/30/2015 deadline and if all fails, ask them to switch me to Thank you points. i hope it works!
I chatted with Citi regarding the AA promation code, and he confirmed that it is not in their system. This looks dead.
How often do the AA offers appear? I’m not that interested in TY points that cannot be transferred.
applied and funded my account last week with the AA promotion code: 4YQY4RMDRM.
Went on chat and they apparently can’t find that promo code…