Pulled the trigger on Citi Prestige

[Anonymous]

You can go ahead and apply for Citigold now, you'll get the $100 AF reeduction

Unfortunately the odds of you getting the ariline credit for this year are near zero

Citi counts the year for airline credit as the last statement that closes in Dec

Your first statement will 99.99% close in January, so it will count for 2016

[PointLager]

oh no.  

does the actual statement have to close in Dec or as long as the charge posts? 

if the statement needs to close then maybe i can accelerate the closing date?  

If this fails then, would i still get 2x$250? i am wondering if then i would be able to capture the credit in January 2017?

thanks

[Anonymous]

The statement has to close in Dec, it doesn't matter if the transaction is in Dec if the statement closes in Jan

You could try to get it changed, but I've heard of many people being denied

You could still get it Jan '17 and cancel the card and get the second AF refuned though

[PointLager]

Also. Should I wait until Prestige approval to open the Citigold online?

I assume that I don't need to do this in the branch (the opening) in order to get the $100 credit.

Thanks again !

[Anonymous]

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@PointLager wrote:
Also. Should I wait until Prestige approval to open the Citigold online?

I assume that I don't need to do this in the branch (the opening) in order to get the $100 credit.

Thanks again !

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You should wait for the approval and then fund CitiGold with the Prestige.  You'll meet your sound that way and if you get a nice limit you can get lots of extra TY points that way

[Anonymous]

You'll get the $100 discount regardless of how you open the account.

I would open Citigold now because there's a small chance that your Citi online account will get locked out until you receive your debit card in the mail, and it'd be best to get that out of the way.

You have 30 days from opening Citigold to fund with a CC, so there's no need to wait for Prestige approval

[PointLager]

Perfect!

Thank you very much. That was what I was wondering: whether CC funding of the account happens right when you're opening the card.

Should I get denied for some reason I do have an arrival + and according to reports Barclays doesn't post as a cash advance either.

[Anonymous]

Just be aware that the CC funding has to be the first funding for it to work, so if you're gonna fund with a CC a few days after approval be sure you don't fund with anything else like your checking account!

[PointLager]

The checking offer is what tilted me in favor of the ThankYou /citi program.

I was originally looking at the ritz card but dropped the idea after reading about how hard it is to monetize the airfare credits. Plus the reports that retention offers aren't cash based for this card. (Lack of a 140k point offer, which could be converted to 60k United was another reason).

[PointLager]

soooo,

I called Citi to check if the SSN form was received and nothing yet.   Then the lady tells me that I need to wait for the form to arrive via snail mail (I had downloaded it from SSA website) and that I need to send in the signed form and a copy of my SSN card too?  I would think that only the form is sufficient? 

The form, with my SSN on it, and my application ID should be sufficent, no?