Received my $200 bonus from Citi Double Cash Today

[longtimelurker]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

• Welcome
  A Citi representative will help you in approximately 0 minutes 2 seconds.
• For your protection, we'll never ask you for passwords, PINs, User IDs, security words or any part of your social security number during a chat. Other information may be required to help us verify your identity. This chat may be recorded or monitored for quality purposes.
  
  You are now chatting with CSR.
• Jared: Hi
• CSR: Welcome to Citi Live Chat.  We appreciate the opportunity to service you.  How may I help you?
• Jared: I was curious, on my citi double cash card, if I claim my cash back as a statement credit, will that still count as a payment towards the account, thus earning the 1% bonus cash back for making a payment?
• CSR: It will not, no.
• CSR: I'm very sorry.
• Jared: Alright. Thank you very much!

I was surprised I got a straight answer, and not the spiel about "With your citi double cash card, you will earn 2% cashback! 1% on every purchase, and another 1% when a payment is made to your account!" 

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So a 1.99% card if you redeem for statement credit, which I guess isn't very significantly different from 2%  in most cases!   (And for more largest uncategorized spend, gift cards difrectly from Amex, can't use Citi cards anyway).

[s_haliz]

Excellent.....

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry but I don't think your right about it would be 1.99%.  Here's how.

Balance $100

Purchase Tracker $100

Statement credit $100

If you use your statement credit to pay off the balance

your purchase tracker will still be at $100 and your balance will be at 0, thus you only got 1% for your purchase, because you never made a payment.

This is just an example.  In this scenario, there will always be something in your purchase tracker while your balance is zero because you never made a payment, thus you lost the opportunity to get that other 1%.  There fore you are only getting 1% for this credit card.  Please reply if I am wrong.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you will never be able to reduce your purchase tracker to zero if you redeem as a statement credit, thus you will not be getting as much as possible out of your card.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, you will never be able to reduce your purchase tracker to zero if you redeem as a statement credit, thus you will not be getting as much as possible out of your card.

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I guess the most logical solution would be to get a statement check, deposit it to your bank account, and then use that money to pay off your credit card, hence more rewards!

[Anonymous]

Correct!

If you keep redeeming with statement credits you will just keep losing money.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Correct!

If you keep redeeming with statement credits you will just keep losing money.

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Citi is so sneaky with this trick! My Capital One Quicksilver never had this issue, then again these are 2 totally different cards. I don't mind statement checks, will be a bit slower and potentially susceptible to being lost / stolen, but I'm fine with that.

[Anonymous]

I don't even have the card but I read a lot about the card since I plan on getting it.  When somebody else posted their chat with CITI and I saw that statement credits don't count as payments, it all made sense.  A lot of people won't catch on though.  Until they notice that the amount in their purchase tracker is double their balance.  I really like quicksilvers rewards program.  Redeem at any amount, automatic redemption, statement credit, and checks.  It works really nice for the card since when you redeem with a statement credit you can just spend more on the card.