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Update 01/10/18 deal is back. It’s still bad.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $700
- Availability: Nationwide, targeted to existing customers
- Deposit required: $25,000-$250,000
- Deposit Length: Until November 30th, 2017
- Monthly fees: $30 avoidable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date:
August 31st, 2017February 5th, 2018
The Offer
- Fund a new or existing Citi Savings Account or existing Savings Plus Account with a minimum of $25,000 in new-to-Citibank funds by 2/5/18
- Maintain the minimum deposit until 5/04/18 and you can earn up to $700
- If you’re not already a Citi Priority Account package holder they will ask you to upgrade first
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
The Citi Account Package has a monthly fee of $30, this is waived if you maintain a combined average monthly balance of $50,000 or more in eligible linked deposits, retirement and investment balances. There is no early account termination fee for this account.
Our Verdict
When it comes to savings bonuses, Citi is the undisputed king of terrible offers. Ranging from misleading to just bad. They have offered this same bonus before and my opinion hasn’t changed. At minimum you’ll need to deposit $25,000 in funds for three months for a 0.8% return over that period (3.2% annualized) (your return gets significantly worse as you go up the tiers. For example depositing $250,000 0.28% return over that period or 1.12% annualized) and in all likelihood you need to keep the funds in the account for longer than that time period (need to make sure they are in there on time and will also take some time to remove those funds). Couple that with the fact you normally need to fight Citi tooth and nail to even get them to honor these deposit account bonuses and you’ve got yourself a terrible deal. This one is an easy pass for me. Better to focus on a high yield savings account that will give you high returns on a regular basis. Really only posting this so readers know to avoid it.
Hat tip to readers @_moarbetter, Chaser123
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
Wish I had read this before I signed up for the bonus. Agree this is a bad deal. The kicker is that you need to maintain the Citi Priority status for the entire time until you get the bonus, which is 3 months AFTER the conditions are met. After having money in the account for 3 months as of Nov 30 I asked them if I could downgrade from Priority, but Citi indicated that I would lose the bonus if I did that. So had to keep 50K tied up in Citi for another 3 months, and I still haven’t gotten the bonus yet. Contacted Citi again today and they said I should have received it by Feb 28th, they are investigating. $300/50K for 6 months gave me a 1.2% APY. Definitely not worth it unless you already maintain Priority status for other reasons.
I recently had a Citibank bonus pay off ($50 after $10,000 deposit). Deposit made 2/27, 90 days elapsed 5/28, money pulled out 6/19, bonus paid off 7/11. I just got targeted again for a savings bonus ($50 for $10,000 by 8/31, 90 days, payout 90 days after that) and will probably do it again with natural inflows. I would not move money out of an existing high yield account to this one, but if you are expecting funds to come in regardless due to salaries, CD expirations, etc. it’s not a bad place to drop it.
Citibank bonuses are terrible! I participated in one offer before which was for AAdavantage Miles. It took about 6 months after numerous emails and phone calls to get it straightened out. First they gave me the wrong bonus and awarded me a $100 bonus instead of the mileage. When I called I was transferred from one department to another and the worse thing was that they sent me a tax form after reversing the $100 bonus and finally giving me the mileage. Took another call and a visit to a branch to reverse the incorrect tax form.
Doc and I are on the same page on this one. It is so bad that I did NOT forward it to Doc.
Truthfully, I do not have that kind of money to park that long.
The sweet spot is the 50k deal, but might as well do the BOA savings offer that earns 300 for that amount.
Ignore this. 25k would be the sweet spot, but BOA offer is still better (although not by much).
Citibank will try everything they can to screw you. They withheld interest and bank bonus on the grounds that they were still awaiting verification. Mind you the account was already opened for 5 months. Opened 2 cases with CFPB that led nowhere. F**k them
this bad bank did not even pay me my feb.opening account bonus for me yet.can we file a complaint together?
Hey, can you combine this with Citi priority checking account bonus and keep $50k to get both the bonuses??
I am probably going to do this, I’ll ACH in 50k to the newly opened savings acct, while simultaneously (maybe wait a day or so) ACH out the 50k from my existing priority checking, since I’m keeping 50k in total with citi anyways I figured I might as well go for the $300 bonus instead of the $200 one.
Yes, I did this last year. Didn’t even have to talk to anyone, both bonuses posted automatically. Make sure to carefully read the T&C for both offers and do the steps in an order that would satisfy both requirements. It goes something like this: open checking account with linked savings using the checking offer, then enroll into the savings account offer using the existing savings account, then deposit money in the savings account.
It turned a good deal (checking bonus) and an ok deal (savings bonus) into one great deal. Very happy.
Also I have no idea how DoC came up with the 0.8%. Earning $200 by depositing 25k for 3 months is a 3.2%. Even if you take into account the monthly fees (which are usually waived for the first couple of months) you don’t get anywhere as low as 0.8%. Even on its own, the savings bonus isn’t a great deal but I wouldn’t say it’s a “bad deal” either.
200 / 25000 = 0.008 = 0.8%
Charles didn’t say APY.
Who talks like that? That’s pretty misleading, especially since in all other posts comparing bonus offers to high yield accounts the reference is either the APY or the actual dollar amount earned.
Either way, a guaranteed 0.8% gain after 3 months is more than any savings account out there.
I’ll add the annualized return since people find it confusing when I don’t. 0.8% gain over 3 months isn’t more than any other savings account, lots of other accounts earn more than 3.2% APY.
As far as I know the only accounts earning more than 3.2% APY are high yield checking accounts or prepaid cards, not savings account. And those typically have a limit much lower than what’s available here.
If I was eligible I would absolutely do this offer: it’s not great but I don’t think it’s bad either. And if you combine it with the checking offer then it actually becomes pretty damn great.
Doubtful as you need to open the priority checking account to get targeted for this offer.
Thanks Doc, mk712 and jts for replying. I will visit Citi branch and try to check if I can pull this off. Cheers.
it’s that time of the year again, when citibank’s shiti deal strikes.
Thanks for putting bad deal in the title lol
With titles I try to convey as much information as possible so readers only click through to posts they are actually interested in reading. Normally I wouldn’t even have posted a bad targeted deal but lots of readers got this one so that’s why I did.