Update 11/22/23:Still have to open in branch, just lets you input information online Deal is now available online. Hat tip to Adam D
Update 10/5/23: Extended until January 9, 2024.
Update 7/13/23: Deal is back and valid until October 4, 2023.
Update 1/5/23: Extended until 7/12/2023. Can try this direct link.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $2,000
- Availability: Must open in branch [Branch locator]
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: Deposit up to $200,000
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $15, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date:
December 31st, 2019June 30, 2021
Contents
The Offer
No direct link, being offered in branch
- Citibank Business is offering a bonus of up to $2,000 when you open a new business checking account. The bonus you receive depends on how much you deposit, balance must be maintained for 60 calendar days after deposit.
- Receive a $200 bonus with a $5,000 deposit
- Receive a $500 bonus with a $15,000 deposit
- Receive a $700 bonus with a $25,000 deposit
- Receive a $1,000 bonus with a $50,000 deposit
- Receive a $1,500 bonus with a $100,000 deposit
- Receive a $2,000 bonus with a $200,000 deposit
The Fine Print
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
The easiest account to keep fee free is the CitiBusiness®Streamlined Checking Account, this has a monthly fee of $15 and is waived have an average monthly balance of $5,000 or more.
Early Account Termination Fee
There is no early account termination fee to worry about.
Our Verdict
Reader Jay was able to get this offer just by going into a branch and asking if they had any current promotions for opening a new account. Entirely possible it won’t be available in all/most branches, but feel free to share your data points in the comments below. Similar to a previous targeted bonus, with higher tiers available as well. The return gets worse as the bonus increases as unfortunately.
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
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Post history:
- Update 7/6/22: Extended until January 4, 2023.
- Update 1/21/22: There is now a direct link for the offer.
- Update 1/5/22: Extended through 7/5.
- Update 10/4/21: Extended through 1/3/22.
- Update 7/2/21: Extended until 9/30/21.
- Update 4/30/21: There is now a direct link for this offer.
- Update 4/8/21: Deal has been extended until June 30, 2021. Hat tip to reader EW
- Update 1/28/21: Deal is back and valid until 3/31/21. Hat tip to reader EW
- Update 9/23/20: Deal is back and valid until 1/5/2021. Hat tip to reader KJ Z
- Update 1/10/2020: Deal has been extended to March 31st, 2020 as per reader B
Please reply to this post
I opened the citi business streamlined account and the IMMA account at 4.5%. The business banker said that it may be possible I will not qualify for the $750 bonus if I transfer $5000 to my checking and $15,000 to the IMMA. Instead, I would probably get $300 and not the $750 bonus. Can someone confirm this true?
I opened the citi business streamlined account and the IMMA account at 4.5%. The business banker said that it may be possible I will not qualify for the $750 bonus if I transfer $5000 to my checking and $15,000 to the IMMA. Instead, I would probably get $300 and not the $750 bonus. Can someone confirm this true?
Delete this because I didn’t setup notifications for new posts
1/5/24: Account opened
1/10/24: 20,100 arrives in account
3/18/24: 15,000 withdraw
4/18/24: No bonus! called banker who opened account. Says she’s looking into it and filed to the bonus team.
All my other bonuses have posted from other banks, opened in the same time frame.
You withdrew funds too soon because you mistakenly assumed that the 60-day Maintenance Period began the day on or after your balance reached $20K. The Maintenance Period doesn’t begin until 21 days after account opening, no matter how early you deposit the $20K. The 30-day Bonus Payout Period doesn’t begin until the start of the month after the month in which you meet the requirements.
Here’s the schedule you should have followed:
01/05/2024. Day 0. Account opened.
01/25/2024. Day 20. Deadline for establishing a $20K balance of new money.
01/26/2024. Day 21. Start of 60-day Maintenance Period.
03/25/2024. Day 80. End of 60-day Maintenance Period.
03/26/2024. Day 81. Earliest day you may reduce balance below $20K.
04/01/2024 – 4/30/2024: 30-day Bonus Payout Period.
Oops. I was going by the offer that I’m enrolled in, which runs from 1/10/24 to 7/8/24.
You evidently enrolled in an earlier offer. I don’t know if what I said applies to the offer you enrolled in.
No problem. The other offer had different terms. The 60 days started when u established the balance. The offer ended 1/9/24. Its in other posts on here.
“The Cash Bonus for which you qualify will be credited to your Citibank business checking account within 90 days from the end of the month in which you complete all Offer requirements.”
Please keep us posted if you can actually get the bonus earlier.
To avoid the confusion/complication of when the maintenance period start, I normally fund the account fully at the end of the funding period.
I may be churning this bank acount for the $ 700 offer but only $25,000 deposit required. If I also open a IMMA 5% with this account offer and keep majority of the funds in the IMMA account, would that also qualify me for the bonus?
According to a Citi banker, it should work. I am doing that right now.
Based on the offer disclosure, you could keep all the funds in the business IMMA if you want.
The only reason to keep any money in the checking account is keep the account open and to avoid the monthly service fee.
The citi banker said that I couldn’t get the 4.5% promo rate with the funds deposited for the $750 bonus. And that the system may even only grant a $300 bonus instead of $750 because it obly recognizes $5000 kept in the checking and not in the IMMA account.
Your banker is misreading the offer.
I did the same CitiBusiness checking bonus offer last summer. I kept just $1 in checking and the rest in a business IMMA. and received the FULL bonus. (I paid one lousy $15 Monthly Maintenance Charge.)
Here’s a link to the offer that runs from 1/10/24 to 7/8/24: Give Your Business A Bonus With This Limited-Time Offer | Citi.com
I suggest you read it.
According to the offer disclosure (for my ZIP code, at least):
Funds can be deposited in your new, eligible business checking account,
OR your new, eligible business checking account AND a new or existing CitiBusiness Insured Money Market Account (“IMMA”) that in the aggregate meet one of the Qualifying Balance Levels.
Starting on the 21st day, maintain at least $5,000 in your new, eligible business checking account,
OR your new, eligible business checking account AND a new or existing IMMA, for 60 consecutive calendar days (“Maintenance Period”) after a Qualifying Balance Level is met during the 20-calendar day funding period to remain eligible for the Cash Bonus.
Your Cash Bonus will be based upon the highest Qualifying Balance Level in the new business checking account,
OR the new business checking account AND an IMMA(s), that is maintained for the entire Maintenance Period.
Footnote 3: The Qualifying Balance Level may be maintained in the new business checking account AND any new or existing IMMA(s), provided the Tax ID Number for those accounts is identical.
Based on the above citations from the offer disclosure, the inescapable conclusion is that you may keep ALL the funds in the business IMMA.
Since the earned bonus will be deposited to the checking account, the only reason to keep any money in the checking account is keep that account open until the bonus is paid and to avoid the monthly maintenance charge on that account.
Here’s a link to the offer that runs from 1/10/24 to 7/8/24: Give Your Business A Bonus With This Limited-Time Offer | Citi.com
In my ZIP code, the offer requires only $20,000 to earn a $750 bonus.
Looking to do this offer in the coming weeks, have any folks seen indications that the IMMA will maintain a competitive/5% interest rate in the near future?
Looking around the Citi business sites, but am not seeing mention of the interest rate like we did in March…
Called up two local branches here in California, both mentioned the checking offer is active, but the IMMA is down to 4.50%
Looks appealing but would come out ahead by putting similar funds into an account offering 6+% APY such as Keystone.
This Citibank offer ties up $20k for 60-90 days to earn a $750 bonus.
That’s an annualized return of at least $750/$20000 x 360/90 = 15%, not counting the 5% APY the Citibank IMMA pays.
Surely that beats 6% APY.
Correction. After reviewing the Citibank offer, I see that it ties up $20k for 60 days to earn a $750 bonus.
That’s an annualized return of $750/$20000 x 360/60 = 22.5% (not counting the 5% APY the Citibank IMMA pays).
how much would it be after factoring in paying taxes @ 12% bracket?
19.8%
If the IMMA account is closed before the interest is posted, do we still get the interest payment later on?
See p. 19 of the CitiBusiness Client Manual:
“Interest is compounded daily and credited to your account after the close of business on the last business day of your statement cycle, after deducting any amount which we may be required by law to withhold for income tax purposes. If the account is closed before the date interest is credited, interest will be paid up to, but not including, the closing date of the account.“
whats an IMMA account?
IMMA = Insured Money Market Account
Has anyone gotten the bonus paid out recently? I opened back in September, met the requirements in December, but nothing yet. Per the terms they have until the end of the month (90 days from the end of the month in which I fulfilled the requirements) but I’ve never had to wait this long for a Citi bonus and am doubtful that it will auto-post.
Connect with the banker that opened it for you in advance and get bonus confirmation prior. This will prep them if you don’t get the bonus and help with a manual push later.
Yep, I went into the branch a few weeks ago and talked to him. He confirmed that I met the requirements but said I needed to wait until 3/31. He seemed very confident that the bonus would post by then without any issue so we’ll see.
got $750, emailed the banker the day i opened to have proof in case but wasnt needed. posted 1/26, forgot when i opened but its the h/t dp
Thanks. Will’s h/t to you was on 11/22/23, which is two months after I opened my account. So sounds like the bonus isn’t going to auto-post for me. Ugh.
I did this offer once for the first time and never got my bonus and had to escalate it with CFPB.
Last year I went into a branch and complained to the manager. She got the bonus paid for me.
Signed up for another round.
Will do the $1500 tier since I’m also getting a nice APR putting the money into an IMMA.
So good stacking opportunity.
Hope they keep it at 180 days between cycles and not go to 365 days like the personal ones anytime soon… 🙂
Details can be seen here (after inputting zip code):
https://banking.citi.com/cbol/small-business/checking-offer/Default.htm?BT_TX=1&ProspectID=24D21044053B440B8855E42F19FADB9B
(1) Is there any reason to keep more than $50xx in the checking account, with the rest in the IMMA? For some reason, I had put in my notes that I should keep $25k in checking and the rest in the IMMA — but for the life of me I cannot now remember why I wrote that.
(2) Is it reasonably safe to assume that the IMMA 5% rate will be extended for accounts opened after 3/29?
(3) To what extent is footnote 1 (about funds needing to be available to count) really enforced? I usually do check deposits for bonuses since I live in an urban area with branches of most banks close by, but this sounds like everything needs to move by ACH or wire unless you add significant lead time.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond.
1.) That is what I’m doing. There are 4 different types of business accounts one can open, all with different monthly fees and requirements to waive it. The easiest is ‘Streamlined Checking’, which qualifies for the bonus and only needs a 5k average balance to waive the $15 monthly fee.
2.) I’m not sure on that. It could very well go down a bit, but combined with the bonus should still be a good payout. Accounts opened before that deadline should have the 5% guaranteed till the end of June, if I remember the current terms correctly.
3.) You have 20 days to fund the account after opening. Considering you can move everything except 5k into the 5% IMMA account right away, I wouldn’t worry too much about losing interest, esp. if doing a higher tier.
Last time, for some unknown reason, I wasn’t able to link the account to my hub and ended up doing a wire push. This time around, linking worked, and I’m pushing the money in via ACH.
One thing to note: every account opening goes through the central back office, which might be the reason why sometimes there are problems with getting the bonus credited automatically. Having a competent banker in a branch who can help you can therefore be important (mine recently even managed to get me a retention bonus courtesy credit before closing the account, even though I technically didn’t meet all requirements (edit: this was for a personal account, not business))
Thank you!
Jay
Regarding your 3rd question about footnote 1.
If Citibank doesn’t enforce the “available” requirement, then why do they include it?
Assume it will be enforced.
The banker who took my application and enrolled me in the offer advised that if I fund by check, make sure the deposit won’t still on hold at the end of the funding period.
That being said, I am not going to play with fire here, and will fund by wire. I need to wait a few days to see if they bring back the 5% IMMA APY, though, because I missed the window for opening the account before it expired.