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$150 Gift Card Bonus on Citi Checking

Posted in Bank Deals & Bonuses by Hans Thorsen
June 23, 2008 07:09 AM - 29 Comments

Citi is running a bonus offer on their checking account. Sign up and deposit at least $1000 in your account, and fund your account with direct deposit, and Citi will award your account with 16,000 ThankYou points, redeemable for a $150 gift card.

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  1. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 07:29 am

    i was reading the fine print, and it seemed to indicate that one could do 5 debit card purchases or 2 electronic bill payments per month INSTEAD of the direct deposit. any confirmation on this?

    also, can people who had checking accounts in the past qualify?

    any fees associated with the checking account?

    does this offer apply to interest checking too?

  2. Bankaholic.com said:
    on June 23rd at 07:42 am

    You are correct… The fine print is a bit wordy and hard to understand:

    “you must (1) enroll your new checking account in ThankYou® Network and (2) complete one direct deposit per month, two electronic bill payments or five signature debit card transactions and continue for three consecutive months.”

  3. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 07:49 am

    what about monthly fees? citibank’s website says that you have to have at least $6000 in your account to avoid monthly service fees (for the “citibank account”) is that true?

  4. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 07:53 am

    and the fee’s $9.50/month for regular checking if you don’t keep at least $6000 in there right? if that’s so, then one would probably want to avoid this offer, as the regular checking account doesn’t even pay real interest, and citibank charges fees for everything. just to get your pin mailed to you it’s $7, and they won’t mention to you that they charge for that if you request your pin to be mailed. even INCOMING wire transfers cost money! i’m glad i stopped filling out the application, i would have been screwed. they charge you $25 if you close out your account early too.

  5. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 07:58 am

    i just confirmed it- the minimum balance with this account to avoid a monthly service fee of $9.50 is $6,000, and you don’t get interest on it!

  6. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 08:00 am

    wow, even their interest checking accounts only get 0.25% APY!! that’s right, 0.25%!

  7. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 08:01 am

    i think i’ll stick with my 3.25% i’m getting from my max rate checking with etrade

  8. jacob said:
    on June 23rd at 08:01 am

    only 13 times better!

  9. Bankaholic.com said:
    on June 23rd at 08:06 am

    This deal sux!

  10. joe said:
    on June 23rd at 03:52 pm

    Its not worth it. Bankaholic.com is right.

  11. ken said:
    on June 23rd at 03:54 pm

    being a citi employee helps somewhat here…if you are affiliated with citibank (like myself) no minimum balance required…and interest rates are 2% higher…also lower APR on cash advances…

  12. lee said:
    on June 23rd at 05:10 pm

    what can i use the gift card for?

  13. tom said:
    on June 23rd at 06:18 pm

    ok thanks for the info ken. apparantly if you’re a CITIBANK EMPLOYEE it’s a decent deal, but if your not it really sucks. good to know! too bad i don’t know anyone who works for citi so it’s a horrible deal for everyone i know

  14. joe said:
    on June 25th at 02:53 am

    I guess its a good deal for citi employee but crappy deal for citi customers.

  15. tom said:
    on June 25th at 01:14 pm

    citi has a credit card promo running right now w/ 25,000 miles after $750 in purchases which is a whole lot better than this offer

  16. Dave said:
    on June 27th at 05:57 am

    I opened mine couple of weeks back. if you got some bucks , you can play the banks for their specials and collect some good deals.

  17. tom said:
    on June 27th at 09:38 am

    i agree, but this particular offer is not a good special to take advantage of. do you really want $6,000 of your money tied up in an account that is making 0% interest for over 7 months??? all for a gift card? hopefully you won’t need your pin number if you do sign up, cuz that will cost you also!

  18. tom said:
    on June 27th at 09:41 am

    i made an easy $50 off a citibank savings account offer a few months back, but this offer is different, and seems to be designed to take advantage of the people that routinely do these offers without thinking about all the fine print; you think you’re getting a good deal like you always have in the past, but then you realize this offer is not like the others. by the time you realize after opening an account, they got you, because there’s an early close-out fee of $25 or $10 in monthly service charges for 0% interest account that you have to wait up to 7 months to get your reward with- pick your poison!

  19. matt said:
    on June 28th at 03:11 am

    talked to an agent today she said a person can choose from reg or interest checking acct. keep avrg $6,000 and you get no fees. after you satisfy terms and get gift card you can close out the acct.

  20. jacob said:
    on June 29th at 12:36 am

    matt r u on crack? the interest acct is only .25% interest, u have to do the direct deposit thing for 3 months, and then after that, they say you have to wait up to 120 days (another 4 months for the points). not only will it take your time but you’re losing out on over $130 of interest that you could be making on the $6,000 with a 4.0% short term cd. go ahead and sign up anyway partner

  21. professor said:
    on July 2nd at 10:50 pm

    It is a lame deal. I wanted to get back something having lost 500k on C since last summer and this isn’t it. The dummies at the branch told me there were no monthly fees, but the girl at the 800 number kept telling me there would be unless I had 6k…I went back and forth between the two.
    I ended up giving up on C all together. Too bad I didn’t sell my stock last summer at 55. This deal is a complete waste of time.

  22. johnnycash said:
    on July 10th at 11:24 am

    The agreement says “combined” balances of $6000. It may be possible to link a credit card with > $6000 to avoid the fee. Maybe even get a $100 bonus for the credit card.

  23. I opened this account said:
    on July 10th at 01:36 pm

    6000 is combined accounts. Open some CDs and Saving account and earn interest on that 6000. Plus opening more accounts gt you more thank you points every month. Min to open CD is 500 and they dont have great but decent rates. So dont think that u r losing out on interest. And also credit card balances count towards 6000 limit

  24. oliver said:
    on July 17th at 07:18 am

    i just applied for a $6000 cd from citibank (9months at 3.5%) so that i could apply for this offer and not have to pay fees. when i applied for the c/d, citibank automatically enrolled me in the citibank account (checking account from this offer) without being able to enter the code for the $150 gift cards! i retraced my steps, and there was no way to have applied for the cd without being signed up for the “citibank account.” now i have to cancel the account they automatically signed me up for and reapply with the correct code. i hate citibank!!!!!!

  25. o said:
    on July 17th at 01:31 pm

    actually it didn’t open a checking account, apparently the “citibank account” can have two different meanings. so if you hate citibank, this offer isn’t a bad way to get back at them as long as you open up a 3.5% 9 month cd with $6k to avoid fees on the bank account. hopefully the rewards won’t take too long

  26. o said:
    on July 19th at 05:48 pm

    this actually isn’t a bad deal with the $6k 3.5% apr cd to avoid monthly fees

  27. o said:
    on July 19th at 05:53 pm

    over the 9 months, u lose about $23 by not getting 4.0% on the 9 month $6k cd, but that’s basically all, because you can withdraw most of the $1000 u deposit in the checking account, so $23 is all you’d have to give up in exchange for $150 in gift cards, which isn’t bad considering the stores u can get it for.

  28. casey said:
    on July 19th at 05:59 pm

    With this offer, you can opt for $100 cash instead of $150 in gift cards if you want.

  29. tom b said:
    on August 12th at 08:03 pm

    i did this offer, opening up a cd w/ $6k and a money market account with $5. by getting a debit card and making $3 online payments once a week to my Chase credit card I’m getting 600 thank you points every single month that are in addition to the 16,000 I’ll get in a few months. All that, and no fees. Not a bad deal after all, but definetely a hassle

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