Citi Checking/Savings $700 promo Worth It?

[Anonymous]

Just curious, as of now I have my savings in Discover with 0.50 APY, I have a Citi Double cc, they have been bugging me to open a checking/savings account with them for year or so now. Would it be better to leave Discover for the $700 bonus? From their website it looks like I would qualify for a $700 bonus AND a $200 bonus.

[Anonymous]

You can only pick 1 of the 4 offers. I might go for the $700. Soon after the 60 days convert to the basic and 1.5k.

[lyTENciL]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Soon after the 60 days convert to the basic and 1.5k.

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Is that allowed? I thought you had to keep the original account open until bonus hits. DoC mentions it could take up to 5 mos.

I'm doing the 400 bonus so it's 10K to keep it fee-free, but obviously would be great to free up those funds.

[Anonymous]

According to the T & C it can be done only after the 60 days. You can double check.

[AndySoCal]

I keep getting offers from Citi and Chase for checking /savings and I throw them away.  Earlier this year I switched from US Bank to Discover for checking. I already had saving account(s) with Discover. If you look at the Discover Debit card checking it is almost fee free. I think there is one fee they do charge.

https://www.discover.com/online-banking/checking/?ICMPGN=PUB_HNAV_BANK_CHECKING

Also your savings acount will earn less than .10% interest at Citi.  The reason I left US Bank was the rate they paid on their package money market acount which is /was .01%. I got tired of that and having to transfer the money to Discover in order to get a better rate.

[lyTENciL]

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@Anonymous wrote:

According to the T & C it can be done only after the 60 days. You can double check.

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The T & C is self-contradictory on this. Says you need to have the eligible account open to receive the bonus - in this case, the required package includes savings and checking. Then it says if eligible checking is closed, it will post to savings. I'm not going to risk it so I'll just hope they don't take the entire 60 + 90 days to post my bonus. I'm considering it my emergency fund money anyway.

[DaveInAZ]

You have 30 days to deposit the funds, then you must maintain the balance for 60 days, then they wait to pay the bonus up to 90 days later. That's basically 6 months to earn the bonus. Pass for me, much easier and much faster bonuses to be had. 

[OmarR]

I did the $500 promo around Jan/Feb 2020. I don't know if things have changed, but I got my $500 about 10 days after the 60 days had passed.

[lyTENciL]

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

You have 30 days to deposit the funds, then you must maintain the balance for 60 days, then they wait to pay the bonus up to 90 days later. That's basically 6 months to earn the bonus. Pass for me, much easier and much faster bonuses to be had. 

I consider it as a 5-month 9.6%APY CD, at the $400 bonus level (15K/60d for bonus but drop to 10K to keep it fee free while waiting to post). And there's no DD required. But if you need the money sooner, that $25/mo fee is going to take a big chunk out of the return.

For the $700 level, you'd have to maintain 50K the whole time or eat 30/mo fees. That's 3.4%APY in my 5-mo CD formulation. Not too bad if you have the extra cash. I'm sure there are better returns to be had, but this one comes with certainty at least.

edit: @Anonymous better decide soon though. This one expires today!