Thinking about opening a bank account with Citi 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 Citi offers for new accounts. (also, review our guide on bank account bonuses to know what to watch out for)
Citi 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 Citi.
Table of Contents
Citi Priority Account — $300, $700, or $1,500
The Citi Priority Account has a juicier bonus but a higher minimum balance requirement. To get $300, $700, or $1,500 from Citi, you’ll have to open a new eligible checking and savings account and:
- Within 20 days of account opening, deposit New-to-Citi funds into your new checking and savings accounts
- Maintain a minimum balance between your checking and savings accounts for 60 consecutive days.
The amount of the bonus, is based on the amount you deposit according to this schedule:
| Minimum Deposit And Minimum Balance | Cash Bonus |
|---|---|
| $15,000 - $49,999 | $300 |
| $50,000 - $199,999 | $700 |
| $200,000 or more | $1,500 |
If you deposit $50,000 and maintain it for 60 days, you get $700.
The Citi Priority Account has a $30 monthly service fee if you do not maintain a combined average monthly balance of $50,000 or more across linked deposit, retirement and investment accounts.
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.
Citigold Account Package — $300, $700, or $1,500
If you’ve been interested in a Citigold account, you’ll want to hear about this welcome bonus.
Just open a Citigold Account Package and deposit $200,000 or more in New-to-Citi 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 this one last, despite being such a high bonus amount, because it requires a lot of cash for the highest bonus amount.
If you don’t have $200,000, you can still get a welcome bonus. They recently expanded the bonus to:
| Minimum Deposit And Minimum Balance | Cash Bonus |
|---|---|
| $15,000 - $49,999 | $300 |
| $50,000 - $199,999 | $700 |
| $200,000 or more | $1,500 |
Citi Savings Account — up to $2,000
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 9/30/2021.
- 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 $2,000 deposited to your account!
The bonus is based on how much you deposit into the account:
| Minimum Deposit & Minimum Balance | Cash Bonus |
|---|---|
| $10,000 – $24,999 | $20 |
| $25,000 – $49,999 | $50 |
| $50,000 – $99,999 | $100 |
| $100,000 – $249,999 | $200 |
| $250,000 – $499,999 | $500 |
| $500,000 – $999,999 | $1,000 |
| Over $1,000,000 | $2,000 |
Learn more about this offer
(Offer expires 9/30/2021)
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.
Citi Priority Account – $300, $700, or $1,500
Citi is offering $300, $700, or $1,500 bonus when you open an account by 10/4/2021. Then, within 20 days of opening your account, deposit at least $15,000 in New-to-Citi funds and keep it there for 60 days. The bonus amount is based on how much you can transfer but the lowest tier starts at $15,000.
Chase Total Checking® – $225
Chase Bank will give you $225 when you open a Total Checking account and set up and set up direct deposit within 90 days. There is a $12 monthly fee that is waivable with a monthly direct deposit of just $500, so no gotchas on this deal!
Capital One 360 Checking – $150
Capital One 360 has a $150 cash bonus when you open a new account and then receive 2 direct deposits totaling $250 or more within 75 days of account opening. Valid for new 360 Checking account customers. If you had a 360 Checking account with Capital One on or after January 1, 2018, you are ineligible.
HSBC Premier Checking – $600
HSBC has an offer where you can get up to $600 with a 3% cash bonus checking offer on qualifying direct deposits each month for the first six months of opening. It’s one of the more interesting deposit bonuses as it doesn’t rely on your account balance being a certain size. Click here to learn more about this offer.
Bank of America – $100
Bank of America offers a $100 cash bonus if you open a new account and set up and receive at least 2 qualifying direct deposits of $250 or more into that account within the first 90 days of opening. It has a monthly fee that is easy to have waived, you can learn more about this offer here.
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?
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.
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!