Citi Checking Account Bonus $200/$400 in Gift Cards

Citibank is offering new checking account customers a bonus of either a 20,000 or 40,000 ThankYou points, worth $200 or $400 in gift cards. You must:

Open a new Citibank checking account in the Citigold or Citibank Account Package by 10/31/2011.Enroll the new checking account in Citi ThankYou Rewards.Within 45 days after account opening, initiate one direct deposit AND complete one electronic bill payment for two consecutive months.

ThankYou Point Value Recap
There are a decent number of options for these poitns. 10,000 ThankYou points = $100 Wal-mart Gift card, which you can sell for a $95.55 Amazon.com gift certificate or $91 cash at PlasticJungle.com. Alternatively, can be worth $100 towards Expedia travel, a student loan, or paying down your mortgage. More details in the Citi $500 ThankYou card post.

Citibank Account: 20,000 ThankYou Point Bonus (Easier)

$100 minimum opening deposit$6,000 minimum balance in linked accounts (checking, savings, personal, credit card balances) to avoid $20 monthly fee.

Citigold Account: 40,000 ThankYou Point Bonus (Harder)

$500 minimum opening depositThere’s no monthly service fee for the first 2 statement cycles. After that, in order to waive the $30 monthly service fee you need the combined average balance of your eligible linked accounts to be: $50,000 or more for all linked deposit and retirement accounts OR$100,000 or more across all your eligible linked Citi accounts, excluding a first mortgage with Citibank OR$250,000 or more if your Citibank first mortgage is included in the total relationship.

For most people, I think the 20,000 ThankYou point offer will be the easier one to qualify for if you have $6,000 to move over there instead of an online savings account earning only 1% APY. $6,000 would only earn $60 over an entire year, at that rate. Even it takes 6 months to get your $200 bonus, that’s a 6.67% annualized return.

I thought that the Citigold might be doable since the monthly fees are waived for the first two months, but I saw in the fine print that the points might take another 90 days to post and your account must be open until then. This option would only work well if you have a mortgage with Citi.

The bonus ThankYou Points will be credited to your ThankYou Member Account within 90 days from the end of the statement period in which you satisfy all offer requirements. New checking account must be open and in good standing at the time the bonus ThankYou Points are posted to your ThankYou Member Account.

Afterwards, if you wish, you can downgrade to the Basic Account which offers a way to avoid monthly fees with no minimum balance, if you make 5 “qualified transaction” activities per month (direct deposits, debit card purchase, bill payment, ACH payments, checks paid, ATM withdrawals).

Update: Citibank has updated their checking account to have different restrictions starting with statements ending on 12/9/2011.

Find more in Banking, Deals & Offers | 10/4/11, 5:09am | Trackback

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Ally Bank Checking Review, After 3 Months As Primary Account

(Update October 2011: Ally has just announced that eCheck online deposit is available to all interest checking, online savings and money market accounts. So even if you just have the online savings account, you can deposit checks into it via scanner from home. I’ve updated my review below accordingly.)

It’s been a few months since I opened up an Ally interest checking account to complement my existing 5-year CDs and online savings account. Click here for a rundown of features that show why I made the switch. I’ve managed to try out many of their “perks”, including their official Perks program. Here are my experiences:

Unlimited ATM Rebates Anywhere in US
I’ve made a few ATM withdrawals at random ATMs, and the surcharges have been credited at the end of the month as promised. (I wish they were credited immediately.) Actually being charged those fees made me realize how fast $2-$5 a pop can add up. My fee rebates were almost higher than the interest I earned one month! I actually feel bad making Ally pay for something I could avoid, so whenever possible I still use my local bank’s ATM card for now. International ATMs are not eligible.

Free Overdraft Transfers from Savings
The checking account pays less interest than savings, so it is best to open both and keep as much money as you can in the savings. The Ally online saving account currently pays APY, and is one of the places I keep my emergency fund cash. With their free Overdraft Transfer Service, Ally will automatically transfer the required funds from savings if your checking goes negative. I actually initiated this last month when I wrote a check, here’s the screenshot from my account:

Ally transferred an amount equal to a round number near the overdraft amount plus $100. Alternatively, you can set it to auto-transfer a preset amount over if your checking balance dips to a certain threshold.

eCheck Online Deposit
Ally eCheck Deposit is a feature where you can scan in your checks over the internet with a desktop scanner. A smartphone camera-based app is supposedly in the works. This is now available on all interest checking, online savings and money market accounts. I have made multiple deposits successfully on a Mac after following their instructions carefully. (On Mac OS X, users have to use 32 bit mode for Firefox or Safari and Javascript. Chrome is always 32-bit.)

The process is straightforward. You must endorse your check with your signature, the phrase “For Ally eCheck Deposit Only”, and your account number. You can also deposit directly into your Online Savings account. The funds availability policy is such that checks submitted before 4pm Eastern will post the next business day, otherwise the 2nd business day. Your deposit starts earning interest as soon as the check posts, although for large deposits you may have a hold preventing immediate withdrawal.

Ally Perks Debit Card Rewards
This is a free rewards program that is linked to your Ally Checking debit card. It’s not a % cashback program on everything like that offered at PerkStreet Financial, but instead is more of a coupon-style service that works at specific online or brick-and-mortar merchants. I did see a few opportunities for some easy savings, for example $1 off a $1 minimum purchase at iTunes, $5 off $50 at Lowe’s in-store, and $2 off $7 at Subway.

You don’t need any coupons or codes, just pay with the Ally debit card and the discount amount is deposited directly into your checking account. I plan on checking in from time to time for any useful discounts, but this program certainly won’t convince me to buy things on their debit card. I’ll stick with credit card rewards.

Find more in Banking | 10/26/11, 6:43pm | Trackback

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Chase Bank $125 New Checking Bonus In-Branch or Online

Chase Bank is offering a $125 bonus for new customers if you open a new Total Checking account with $100 and set up direct deposit within 60 days of account opening. They state that the direct deposit must be “an electronic deposit from your employer or the government of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security)”, but I’m not sure if they manually check. You must keep the account open for 6 months. To avoid a monthly fee, you must do one of the following each statement period:

have at least one direct deposit of $500 or more post to your account (two or more direct deposits that add up to $500 or more do not qualify), orkeep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more in your checking account, orkeep an average balance of $5,000 or more in qualifying accounts with Chase.

Otherwise, a $12 monthly Service Fee will apply ($10 monthly Service Fee in CA, OR and WA). Per the fine print, if are not a current customer and you’ve closed an account more than 90 days ago, you count as a “new” customer again. However, you can only receive one checking account-related bonus per calendar year. Thanks to reader Andy for the tip. Offer expires 10/7/11.

Find more in Banking, Deals & Offers | 10/4/11, 4:57am | Trackback

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