Many of us signed up for a Citigold checking account within the past year for one of a few different bonus offers, see Step-by-Step Guide to Citigold 50,000 Points Checking Bonus.
So we’re now holding after getting the bonus. Time to close the account, right? It has a $30 monthly fee after all.
Not so fast!
The Citigold account package comes with a $30 monthly, and when you close out the account Citibank apparently charges that fee for the month the account was closed. Not only will you get hit with a $30 fee after the account is closed, you may also get hit with a $34 overdraft fee as well.
The best way out of this mess is simply to downgrade from the Citigold package to the Citi Basic package. To keep the Basic account package fee-free, there needs to be $1500 in the account or have a direct deposit and bill pay.
Be sure to put $1500 in the account, and then downgrade it. A month later, it should be safe to close out and request a check for the balance. I verified with Citi chat that if there is a balance in the account you can request to close the account, and you’ll get a check within 5-7 business days.
We wrote in the previous post a more creative reason to keep the account as a Basic without closing it. Whether or not you plan on keeping the Citi Basic account (and tying up $1500), you definitely want to initially downgrade and not close. Save the hassle of having to deal with those fees.
On a related note, we’ll mention here that it’s worth doing the downgrade well before the end of the month since it’s not instant and you want to give it time to settle before the monthly fee comes due.
HT: Reddit
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