Thinking about opening a bank account with Citibank and want to know what their best promotional offers are?
You are in the right place!
As banks compete with one another for your business, a lot of them are turning towards cash bonuses. Considering how complicated our finances are, changing banks is not easy. You have to change so many things and if you make a mistake, late fees can be quite expensive. That’s why you should be paid for your time to change and this post will help you understand the bonuses that Citibank offers for new accounts. (also, review our guide on bank account bonuses to know what to watch out for)
Citibank is one of the oldest and largest banks in the world. To give you a sense of size, they have over 60,000 ATMs across the world in their network. They have a fully-featured app that lets you link non-Citi accounts, deposit checks, and 24/7 fraud protection. The bonus is just the cherry on top of what is a very large and established bank with a large geographic footprint.
Read on to learn about the four different cash bonuses available when creating a new account with Citibank.
Table of Contents
Citi Priority Account Package — $700
The Citi Priority Account Package has a juicier bonus but a higher minimum balance requirement. To get $700 from Citibank, you’ll have to open a new eligible checking and savings account and:
- Within 30 days of account opening, deposit $50,000 in New-to-Citibank funds into your new checking and savings accounts
- Maintain a minimum balance of $50,000 between your checking and savings accounts for 60 consecutive days.
It’s a $700 bonus to you for bringing $50,000 in new funds to Citibank.
The Citi Priority Account Package has a $30 monthly service fee if you do not maintain a combined average monthly balance of $50,000 or more.
This content reflects the author’s opinion, analysis and/or assessment and is that of the author’s only. This content has not been provided or reviewed by Citi.
Citibank Account Package — $300
Citibank will give you $300 if you open a new eligible checking and savings account and:
- Within 30 days of account opening, deposit $15,000 in New-to-Citibank funds into your new checking and savings accounts
- Maintain a minimum balance of $15,000 between your checking and savings accounts for 60 consecutive days.
That’s it! Once you meet those requirements, $300 will be deposited into your account within 90 days.
So what’s the catch? The account has a monthly service fee of $25 that is waived if you maintain a combined average monthly balance of $10,000 or more. That should be easy to meet considering you need $15,000 to get the $300 bonus.
Learn more about this offer
(Offer expires 6/30/2021)
Citi Basic Banking Package — $200 [EXPIRED]
This offer is no longer available but here were the details just in case they bring it back. It was the smallest bonus but has the lowest requirements of the bunch.
You can get $200 from Citibank if you open a new eligible checking and savings account and:
- Within 30 days of account opening, deposit $5,000 in New-to-Citibank funds into your new checking and savings accounts
- Maintain a minimum balance of $5,000 between your checking and savings accounts for 60 consecutive days.
The Basic Banking Account has a $12 monthly service fee that is waived if you make one qualifying direct deposit per statement period and one qualifying bill payment per statement period OR maintain a $1,5000 combined average monthly balance.
Citigold Account Package — $1,500
If you have $200,000 sitting around, you can add an additional $1,500 to it. Just open a Citigold Account Package and deposit $200,000 or more in New-to-Citibank funds between new checking and savings account, maintain that balance for 60 days and the cash is yours.
It’ll be deposited into your account within 90 days. We list one list, despite being such a high bonus amount, because it requires a lot of cash.
Citi Savings Account — up to $2,700
The Citi Savings offer has returned, this time with a bonus that is truly eye-popping if you have a cool million sitting around the house.
This is available to new and existing Citi customers:
- Open a new eligible Citi Savings Account account by 6/30/2021.
- Within 30 days of opening your account, fund your Citi Savings Account with at least $25,000 - $1,000,000 or more in New-to-Citibank funds and keep the funds in the account for 60 consecutive calendar days
- Get up to $2,700 deposited to your account!
The bonus is based on how much you deposit into the account:
| Minimum Deposit & Minimum Balance | Cash Bonus |
|---|---|
| $25,000 – $49,999 | $75 |
| $50,000 – $99,999 | $135 |
| $100,000 – $249,999 | $275 |
| $250,000 – $499,999 | $675 |
| $500,000 – $999,999 | $1,350 |
| Over $1,000,000 | $2,700 |
Learn more about this offer
(Offer expires 6/30/2021)
How Do These Bonuses Compare?
If you’re talking strictly bonuses, it’s comparable to current Chase offers. Chase Bank will give you a bonus of $350 if you open a Total Checking and Savings account. The new cash requirements are a little trickier to compare but for Chase, you need to bring $10,000 to the savings for 90 days. No such requirement for checking. With checking, you need to set up a direct deposit.
The requirements to waive the monthly fee on those accounts are comparable – set up a direct deposit of $500 or more or keep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 in checking or keep an average daily balance of $5,000 in all your accounts. You also cannot close the account within 6 months of opening or you forfeit the bonus.
Chase — $350
Chase offers a $350 bonus if you open a Total Checking and Savings account. The terms are that you open up both and deposit at least $10,000 into your Chase Savings account within 20 days and maintain a $10,000 balance for 90 days. There are fees but they are waived if you set up automatic transfers or meet certain minimum requirements. The linked page above has all the details.
Wells Fargo — $200
Wells Fargo offers a $200 checking bonus (currently expired though) that only requires you to open an account, deposit $25 to fund the account, and then, within 150 days, receive a total of $2,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits into the new checking account within 90 days from account opening. The $10 monthly service fee is easily avoided if you just satisfy one of four conditions (one condition is a $1,500 minimum balance).
Learn more about the Wells Fargo offer
We list these and other bank bonuses on this page – if you’re shopping around.
Chris says
Buyer beware: We’ve been contacting customer care for months trying to get our Citi Priority bonus. They’ve told us that we qualify for it, but they’re unable to release the bonus because they haven’t received our W-2 form. They give us an address to send the W-2 (at our own expense), and we mail it to them. But the next time we call, they claim that they never received it, and we need to send it again (at our own expense again). I’m giving them one more chance. Our next step will be to file a complaint with the Federal regulators for unfair / misleading banking practices.
Harry says
File the complaint. They jerked me around once on a bonus, but of miles and not money. Once I filed the complaint they sang a different tune.
Derrek H says
Ask for a fax number or take a picture of your W-2 form and send it to them through secure messaging on your online Citibank account. That channel is theirs, is secure, and there are time stamps for when you send it. They should see it within however long it takes their customer service or imaging dept to see it, which for large financial firms is usually like 2-3 business days (my estimate). Sen it thru there, then call them and ask them to look for it there. They should be able to find it. But the point is, it won’t get lost in the US mail or in Citi’s mailroom/bureaucracy. Good luck!
Kenneth F. LaVoie III says
it’s actually 150 days on the citi. I just opened one and am STILL trying to get a straight answer. I DO THINK it’s like this:
1. open the accounts and put 50K in.
2. Maintain that balance or greater for 60 days.
3. After 60 days you STILL HAVE to leave it open but it can go below the 50K threshold.
4. At the end of 150 days you will receive your 700 bonus.
Derrek H says
@ Kenneth F. LaVoie III, you are correct. I opened a Citibank Account Checking and Savings package. I funded it with $15,000 b/w both accounts right away to get the clock started: 60 days to keep the $15k in there and then another 90 days to receive the $400 bonus. On 6/3/20, I funded the accounts with $15k ($14975 in Savings to get more interest, and $25 in Checking b/c that was the minimum required to open the Checking account). Then on 8/4/20, I called Citi and verified with a rep that about 63 calendar days had passed, and I was eligible to earn the bonus and to lower balance from $15k to something to minimum $10k to avoid fees and still earn the bonus. She confirmed yes. Then I expected to wait from about 8/1/20 to 10/31/20, which would be 90 more days within which Citi had to pay me. They paid me $400 on 10/15/20, which was about 75 days after my first 60 days. So it works. Just need to follow their rules and read the fine print -or call customer service- to calculate the waiting periods correctly.
Erica says
Can you close your account and then do this again in a year?
Jim Wang says
There are typically restrictions on how many bonuses you can receive in a period of time. The terms for Citibank are usually that you can’t be a signer on a Citibank checking account within the past 180 days.
It’s under “Eligible Customers” in the terms and conditions at the bottom of the page – double check that before you sign up because that may have changed since I wrote this comment.
Tim says
Citi is not honoring their $1500 bonus. They are stating that I need to provide proof of the promotion. Make sure to screenshot the promotion the day the account is funded as they update their website with new dates. Better option might be getting in writing from Citi that you are eligible for the promotion before funding. Crooks. Going to file with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Jim Wang says
Thanks for letting us know, I’ll add a warning at the top for other readers. I’ve gotten several emails about this too and many have had to escalate it to get it resolved.
Fortunately, the Citigold promotion is still active and the landing page is still available – https://banking.citi.com/cbol/citigold/offer/default.htm?Promo_ID=4FWVDEFPBWCCMG&BT_TX=1&ProspectID=FC055BF2FBB340689B7C15CD729FE9A4
IJ Johnson says
I did the Capital One offer. LOVED IT! My $400 bonus hit right on time with no hiccups at all!!
I’m almost certain I will keep the account. I love the online banking platform – I love the electric external transfer functions – and I love how i can seamlessly pay my CapOne cc payments!
CapOne is the way to go!