patrick.net

Can you tell me a little more about the citibank account, personal/business requirements? That would be helpful to a lot of us.

There is some fine print. They are increasing minimum deposits now, which probably nullifies this, but the offers are larger, which I find interesting. Losing interest on the deposit for a month or however long they think you need it in there is enough to make it a bad deal in my opinion.

As a valued Citi® credit cardmember, you can get up to $200 with a regular checking account from our retail banking affiliate Citibank.

Here is how it works:
1. To qualify for the first $100, open a Citibank regular checking account in The Citibank Account or Citigold® account package by 10/31/10.

2. Then complete at least one of the following qualifying activities each month for two consecutive months within 60 days of opening your regular checking account: 1 direct deposit OR 2 electronic bill payments OR 5 or more debit card purchases.
3. To qualify for another $100, deposit a minimum of $25,000 by 10/31/10 in funds that are not currently held at Citibank or an affiliate of Citi into a new or existing Citibank® Savings Plus Account and complete one of the above qualifying activities for an additional third month.

haha, #2 is doable, I can direct 10% of the direct deposit

but #3 is not good at all, If I put 25K new funds with citi, I can get at least $500 bucks of perks in return in HSBC or anywhere else.

A disgruntled Chase teller recently told me that whatever I do, do not cancel my old checking accounts. He said that old checking accounts have some terms/rules that the big boys do not like, and cannot change, and will be grandfathered in. The new checking acounts won't have them.

According to him, my old Wamu checking account offered free checks, unlimited withdrawals, free money orders, free cashier checks, no direct deposit requirement, no minimum balance requirements, and no fees (basically free everything).

I believe many of the new checking accounts I've seen only lets you withdraw 3 times before charging you some money, unless you have a large minimum balance. Then there are dumb rules like you have to make 2 transfers and make X amount of credit purchases or they will charge you $x - unless you have their Platinum Premier (or whatever they wanna call it) Savings account linked to it, which has another large minimum balance and dumb rules like the checking account. I think you catch my drift.

Chase has been sending me lots of updates to terms that have been pissing me off, and I really want to cancel all my accounts there. But after speaking with this disgruntled employee, he's saying none of it applies to me, and that my reaction is exactly what they expected - the bankers wanted me to close accounts.

I think I'll take his advice about not cancelling my old checking account. The perks are just too awesome compared to today's offerings. If I take a new checking account, I'll just leave $1 in this one forever. No fees, no BS, and they can't mess with me - only try to piss me off.

I agree with the $500 elsewhere vs the $100 they are offering. HSBC always has the best deals.

I'll have to look at the airmiles card though. If they are offering 75K, I'll have to redo all my airline cards. Standard/Gold/Platinum and collect up 200K!

I hope we're onto credit card offers 2.0! I loved the original offers they were giving this decade.

@Vain

If you look at HSBC, you'll likely find a bank that does everything you would want a bank to do and offer. Friendly service, great products.

I hate Wellsfargo with a passion. I've never used the word "dirty" before, but that is exactly how I feel after leaving that bank, every time I am forced to go in there. Of course, after learning that it's Warren Buffets favorite bank, things started to add up and make sense!

In credit card terms, 10,000 points is about $100 dollars, and they convert pretty consistent whether we talk about miles, points or whatever. 75K miles is = $750. What does it take to get that?

Signup! Standard weekly mailer that normally offered 20,25,30,35K in miles, this time they pushed it to 75K. After spending $1500 you ended up with $75,000 points. I didn't read it much more indepth than that.

Actually I saw it and thought "shoot, depreciation on miles is coming faster now... " I think 10K is worth closer to $75 now, probably $50. The last time I went to use my miles, the 20K flights where 25K, and from there, nothing was available anywhere unless you put up 35K-40K.

Brazil used to be 40K, but now it's 60-80K. They still list it as 40K, but it's no where to be found in the rewards!

> but #3 is not good at all, If I put 25K new funds with citi, I can get at least $500 bucks of perks in return in HSBC or anywhere else.

Really? Over what time period?

It's an informal arrangement. Just talk to the acccount manager and they will may get you a 500 gift card. You may have to give a verbal agreement to leave the money at least six months.

A trade only happens if there is mutual benefit. You figure a bank can churn at least 1k profit with your 25k deposit, so it's reasonable to ask for 500.

$25000 @ 5% / year is roughly $105/month. So leaving the money in essentially a 0% interest account for 1 month is going to cost you that $100. I just haven't seen a print add for citi of that size, which I found unusual.

The airlines deal looks legit as well. It appears to be online as well, even though when I searched for it earlier, I didn't see it.
http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/score-75000-aadvantage-miles-now/

It even states "Good for 3 domestic flights!" Interesting. And to boot, I found some flights for 40K on AA today to Brazil. I have to advance book, and not great times during the year, but those flights are $1100 minimum. Not bad for visiting relatives.

True, in your case you're moving it around enough that it makes sense. Although HSBC still offers 1.5% interest, which is better than the .025% or whatever chase/wellsfargo have been handing out. Not much better, but better.

How have you been spending your airmiles? I assume you collect up a decent number per year?

I was in a position where I was racking up about 20K/month on my credit card for 2-4 years. I went through a lot of airmiles during those times flying around. I never used them for upgrades though or first class. I used them for last minute flights. A wedding no one bothered to tell me about until 3 days before. A sick parent. Last minute birthday, etc. Basically when the flight was over $200, I would use them.

I have friends who put 40K/month on theirs, and twice a year BA offers a 2:1 deal to them to switch from Air Canada over, so he moves over hundreds of thousand at a time. Then flys first class everywhere, through europe, asia, etc. A nice perk, as long as he never gets caught for tax evasion. At which point it's going to be an expensive bill :)

Now I just save them for emergencies, and have learned to optimize my travel purchases.

Looking at us.hsbc.com just now, the best rate I can see is their online savings account at 1.10%. (Discover offers slightly better than that - 1.3% I think, or 1.5% if you're a "premium" customer.)

So I'm slightly skeptical that an HSBC manager can make an informal arrangement to give you the equivalent of 4% (per annum) on a checking account ? (Maybe you have a dumb manager. :-)

zovieleeuwj, it happened not only to me, but my mom as well. Manager's have account quota's and incentives to meet, particularly new accounts and premier accounts. They would be thrilled to open a premier account, it is worth a lot more to them than to you, it's called leverage. Deposits drive their business and 25K checking accounts are few and far between. Many banks offer $100 just to open an account with $500 and direct deposit, 25K is worth at least 10X more. They only offer it with new money, not existing money.

If HSBC can retain me as a customer of their checking and savings, they would be making several thousand every year, well worth the $500 investment.

All you have to do is ask what is the benefit to open a premiere account and if you mentioned someone got a $500 gift card offer, they can authorize it. Just because it's not advertised doesn't mean it's not available. It's no different than signing up for a credit card and get 25K bonus miles. These programs drive enrollment and membership, a key statistic of any financial institution.

Well, I have >25K with them, currently getting the afore-metioned 1.10%

Perhaps I should be asking them to "incentivize" me not to leave?

You can try, but new money is much more of an incentive so you are bargaining from a much weaker position.