Citi is currently offering a $700 bonus when you deposit $50k for 60-days (maintenance period). In reality the $50k needs to be on deposit for the 60-days, plus the 90-day bonus payout period until the bonus posts or if it drops below $50k after the maintenance period you will be hit with a $30 monthly fee. If it drops below $50k during the maintenance period you will forfeit the bonus.
For tax year 2020 I made exactly $9978 in bonus and interest earnings as reported by TurboTax. Almost $5k in bonuses, and the remaining balance was interest earnings. Bonuses are a great way to in increase your income earnings during this zero interest period. I track mine on an excel spreadsheet to manage them because if you do multiple at at time it can easily get out of hand and end up costing money in lost revenue opportunities.
Sometimes a bonus looks like a great deal, but is not when you actually run the numbers. I use the APY calculator to tell me how good a deal it actually is. [https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/apy] What I do with a bonus offer is to look at the equivalent interest rate earned and not the actual bonus payout amount. This Citi $700 bonus is paying the equivalent of 3.37% interest when you add the bonus value (3.34%) along with the interest rate paid (.03%) on the account.
The strategy with any bonus is to quickly fully fund the account, keep the funds on deposit as short a time as possible so that the equivalent bonus interest rate value does not erode, and avoid racking up fees by keeping the minimum balance requirements and/or activities that are specified in the terms.
This bonus is easy to do, fully fund account as soon as you open it, keep the balance amount needed to qualify for the bonus ($50k), and keep the balance needed to avoid any fees until the bonus posts ($50k). With this bonus there is no getting around keeping the full $50k on deposit until the bonus posts.
This account does not have a early closing fee so once the bonus posts you can transfer funds out, close the account thereby resetting the bonus clock that is currently every 180-days. If you time this just right you can actually do it twice a year.
Bonus Analysis:
Initial Balance: $50,000
Final Balance with bonus: $50,700
Bonus Equivalent interest: 3.34%
Term: 5-months (60-days to qualify, 90-days to wait for bonus payout period)
The checking account also pays an additional .03% interest for a total combined interest rate of 3.37%
The .03% interest on $50k in 5-months is: $6.25
Total earnings bonus plus interest is: $706.25
Citi is slow to pay so it may well take the full 90-days to see the bonus post to the account as has been my experience with them.
Here’s how to get started
1. Open a new eligible checking account in the Citi Priority Account Package during the offer period 4/2/2021 to 6/30/2021.
2. Within 30 days of opening your account, deposit $50,000 in New-to-Citibank Funds in the new checking account.
3. Maintain a minimum balance of $50,000 in the new checking account for 60 consecutive calendar days.
4. After all required activities are met, the $700 bonus will be deposited to your open, eligible account within 90 calendar days.
Select the Citi $700 bonus from this link
https://www.depositaccounts.com/savings/best-savings-checking-account-bonus-offers/
