If you have never had a deposit account with Citibank then you might be eligible for this promotion Citibank is running through August 31, 2007. Open Ultimate Savings Account, enter promotion code CSLN, and receive a $100 bonus within 90 days of your first statement.
Citibank has actually just sweetened this deal from $50 to $100 so if you see any mentioning of a $50 bonus — old news. Also, 4.75% APY seems to be a pretty good deal by itself compared to these other options.
You can open your account online (link) or by this number 1-877-695-9400. I called the customer representative at this number and she confirmed the offer. However I am already a Citibank customer and so I was not eligible.
If you do go ahead and open an account, please tell me about your experience in the comments.
It is nice to get free money just for opening an account. However, I feel these giant bank chains have lost the personal touch that is offered by a small, independent bank. A bank where you can know someone by name, and can make decisions locally on credit lines, etc. To me, this is much more valuable than a one time collection of $100.
technically, to get the no-fee Savings you need a ‘Citibank Account’ (or one of their other packages, which may be no fee on the checking, but may incur a fee on the Savings), which requires a $6000 minimum (between your checking and savings).
There’s probably a tricky way around it if you use the phone, but online, it directly drops you into the ‘Citibank Account’ and Ultimate Savings setup.
i’m trying to decide if it’s worth the trouble… if i could just drop $6K into the savings, it might be worth it.
Personal Finance Info:
Large banks have certain advantages over smaller ones. While you may not be getting the personal touch you do get extra features that you can rarely find at the local bank. I personally like Citibank for their online banking. Also, when I went to Ukraine last month, my local credit union simply disabled my debit card while Citibank was willing to deal with higher risk of banking fraud.
ragaskar:
The promotion terms say that you can combine Ultimate Savings together with “EZ Checking” which lowers your minimum balance to $1500 if you want to avoid monthly fee. When you apply online, the default selection is the regular Checking and I couldn’t find how to change it. You probably need to call them to do it the right way.
When you go to the http://www.citibank.com and specifically tell it that you want banking, Ultimate savings and enter the code, you get the following promotional disclosure:
PROMOTION DISCLOSURE
Promotion Code: CSLN
When you applied for your Ultimate Savings Account, you identified the special offer code of CSLN to receive a $100 bonus. Below are the terms and conditions that you must meet in order to obtain the benefits of this special offer.
Terms and Conditions:
• To receive this offer you must apply for and open a new Ultimate Savings Account by 08/31/2007. $100 will be credited to your Ultimate Savings Account within 90 days following your first statement cycle. Account must be in good standing at the time of the $100 credit.
• All accounts are subject to approval. Customer must be a citizen or resident alien of the United States (U.S.) with a valid U.S. taxpayer identification number. The amount of any bonus payment will be reported to the IRS as interest earned in the year credited. Persons under 18 years of age are not eligible. Offer may be modified or withdrawn at any time without notice and is not transferable.
©2007 Citibank. Citibank, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Citibank and Citibank with Arc Design are registered service marks of Citigroup Inc.
Notice that it says nothing about checking accounts. Also, be forewarned that if your Driver’s License expires later than 2016, it will complain. I had to enter 2016, even though my DL expires 2017. It said 2017 was a “date in the past”. Go figure. I don’t know what’ll happen with it though. I’m 2/3 through the application now. We shall see.
BEWARE – DO NOT OPEN CITIBANK ACCOUNTS!!! IT IS NOT WORTH THE HASSLE AND HEADACHES YOU’LL GET!!! Citibank has the worst online new accounts “specialized” dept. They are inefficient, unprofessional and lazy! I opened my ultimate savings and EZ checking account for over 5 months now. They suddenly closed my savings yesterday without sending me a letter or calling me. When I found out and called them, they said I lack verification. I told them I have already sent everything and even have file# for both accounts and have a fax confirmation. Also the thing is, both accounts are link together, and they said my checking has complete docs, but not my savings. I can’t believe that it took them over 5 months to figure that out and they are still wrong. I believe they either lost it or misfiled, or the employees are merely sleeping all day long. Also do not expect to get your $100 after 90 days, you will need to keep following up and make sure you remember your code, else they will definitely pretend they forgot about it. I am so angry at citibank because they also did this on my mother. Since her state ID# is 99-999-9999 given by State of Illinois for certain senior citizens, they closed her account without notification ’cause they cannot verify it. They should complain to the State then, why some senior citizens are assigned that number. And it took over 2 weeks to receive the check back, my poor mother. Its also very hard to be able to talk to somebody in that department. I will closed my checking as soon as they credit the money they promised, its over 5 months I still haven’t receive it yet!!! Do yourself a favor, open account somewhere else, or just go to a branch. Citibank’s online just want to get customers in but don’t really want to pay what was promised. Once they close your account and you need to reopen, they tell you, you are not eligible to earn the promo anymore!
Just tryed to open the online account during 1 month at citibank. well it s true it s horrible and that s scary, they ask you for your social security number, a signature sample, the home address,the landline phone number. But the things is that I don t need a landline phone number so I sent my electricity bill instead and my cellphone number. After sending everything I got a fist call for somebody asking for my address after few days, I gave it again over the phone, few days later another guy called me again asking for my address again :) I gave it again… few days later I got a letter asking me for my signature and all the informations again (I already sent it by fax) but I sent it again… few days later an indian called me to ask for my landline phone number, I said I dont have it and I tryed to explain him what I was going trough and he hang up on me :) :) I called back the customer service, asked for a manager, I got a guy and he told me he his not responsible for new account and was not nice at all. I got another woman, she said sorry about that, was nice and said give me your business phone number and somebody will call you in the next 48hours. 2 days later, nothing… I called back another person asked me the same questions I gave again everything, nobody called… I I received a second letter asking me for this informations again. I sent everything by fax. I got another person calling asking me if everything was ok (LOL) I said no, I explained the situation and she told me… oh it s ok it can take between 6 or 7 days to be processed and as of today… 1 month later still nothing. I just wrote them an email to cancel my citibank account request because if it s that hard to be customer at citi, I don t want to know what happen when you have a issue to solve. I did my account with a competitor and guess what… it took few days… don t waste your time, just hope they improve the customer service and the process.