kiam

You are welcome. Not sure why the agent you talked to had no clue about the link (that is NOT acceptable for Citigold), anyway, glad you got it worked out. Btw, Emmigrant Direct gives you 3.5% (this is the highest so far) but you won't get to combine the balance (to meet min requirement for citigold).

I am curious why they don't make this offer fully commercialized as it is supposed to.... If on that day I did not happen to notice the pop up, I wouldn't have known.

MilesTalk

I hope none of you are achieving CitiGold balances with cash in eSavings alone....

Because if you are, you are currently paying $500 annually for CitiGold due to lost interest. For example HSBC has a 3.75% online savings compared to Citi's 3.25%. See the dozens of banks beating Citi's abysmal rate here: http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/437553/ Comparing to ING is laughable as we all know ING is no longer competitive with their rates.

$100K annually would be a $500 difference, more if you have more. Their Investment offerings are also extremely overpriced compared to online brokers. Personally I think Citigold only makes sense if you have your >$250K mortage with them. Otherwise you are paying for your perks... and aside from the fee waivers on the credit cards, I'm not sure what those perks are. No Citibank charges for using another ATM? Big whoop. Commerce bank will match that and raise them one by refunding fees charged at other banks too, with no limit, for holding a mere $2,500 with them.

I've looked at this product for some time, but I just don't see the value when the loss in interest or increase in trading fees is more than the fee waivers.

MilesTalk

Kiam: Emigrant is no longer king You can get up to 3.8% with Capital One, 3.75% with HSBC..... As for their not publicizing it? Search Fatwallet Finance for for citibank e-savings and you'll see how much Citi has bungled this account. Many people have yet to receive a dime of interest in 2 months due to account glitches. Citibank also doesn't show your current interest rate online - so they can lower it and you won't know until you get a paper statement or call. It's amazing they can run a bank with the level of incompetence there.

dolmar

daveland you forgetting something very important yes HSBC pays 3.75% vs Citibank 3.25% chances are in you are in the highest tax bracket then the $500 in extra interest is reduced to only $265 after tax so the befints you get from Citigold might be better for you.

Now I have said this before and I will say it again. Citigold is run like any other bank analysis account. So the price you pay per stock trade is affect by 1. your Financial Consultant and 2. Your balance. Also if you balance is higher than 100K then you could get extra befints like free computer checks or rebates on all atm charges and free wire transfers.

I personally have my financial consultant buy for me 1 $100K 35 day muni floater which I use to maintain my balance requirement with. Currently it is paying 2.87% triple tax free or about 4.5% taxable equivilant. I have an e-cash account linked to my Citigold account which I leave my extra cash in till I move the money over to Smith Barney.

The way bonds and floaters work the commision is built into the yeild so if you buying them at par it does not matter where you buy them you going to get them for the same price. Just so you know the largest issuer of minu bonds in america is Citigroup so your chances of getting the bond or floater at par is higher with Citibank over any other institution that has to buy it on the open market or from Citigroup.

Now chaces are if you have $100k+ in cash you are in the highest tax bracket you would be better off putting your money into a tax free investment over a money market account anyways.

Any broker with half a brain can buy floaters for you or recommend a tax-free money market sweep account with a yeild of 2.25%+ today. Vangaurd California Tax Free money market account is paying 2.71% and is 100% liquid vs a floater. Smith Barney's tax free sweep account pay 2.47% which is a tax equivilent of about 4.1% which is not as good as Vanguard's but nets you more than any money market will.

Savings and Money Market account are only good if you not in one of the higher tax brackets.

maulah

I agree with daveland 100% regarding the above two posts. However it is not practical to maintain your account with the highest yied in the market. That way you will keep on jumping every 3 months like a grass hopper. The best move is ideally to park your cash in the highest yeald money market account but if not possible then one of the highest yealds. It is like a package. You go to your favorite supermarket where you think most of the prices are competitive and reasonable. Yet there will always be some items priced above the market average and yet you will still shop there as it is not practical to hop around every store.

In case of Citibank I do not pay any fee for checks, my Citi PremiumPass Elite CC fee of $75 is waived. Two of my DC CC fees which is $95 each is waived. Soon I will be applying for AAdvantage CC without fee. The list goes on. Bottom line is that if you consider everything in totality then the package deal in not bad as you think.

dougef

Once you apply can you have it be "part" of your CitiGold package so it is linked on-line and on the monthly statements. And counts toward the CitiGold required minimum balances?

Thanks.

(Update - I tried the link and when I clicked "apply" it said the promo code expired).

dolmar

here a valid E-savings link and promo code

maulah

Yes it counts towards the Citigold required minimum balance. I did not use the link but I called the number and told them that I am Citigold which made things easy because they were able to pull up all my info. Otherwise if you apply online then you might have to type in all over again.

kiam

Just to make sure, please do call Citigold once the e-savings (and the new checking) is opened and CLEARLY SAY that you want this e-savings to be linked to your Citigold checking BOTH PRICING AND STATEMENT PURPOSES and want the new checking account to be closed.

It happened to me the first month of having an e-savings account being linked online to my CitiGold but not for statement and pricing purposes. Don't know why they did not do it properly at the first place.

For those comments on other higher yield accounts, e.g. Capital one and HSBC, I can't afford yet to have that many accounts opened and money spreading out all over the places. I want all in one place and CitiGold have demonstrated at the time my account was opened) to prove its "overall value."

kiam

Forgot to mention another great things about banking with Citi as Citigold in relating to the new ThankYou Program when banking.

1. Checking Account (CitiGold type)
2. Debit Card (linked to CitiGold checking)
3. Savings Account (of any type)
4. One CD
5. At least one online Bill Payment per month
6. Direct Deposit
7. Loans, Mortgage...etc

With all these activities (7+), you will get 1200 ThankYou points each month without doing anything else. Points can be combined with credit card ThankYou points when redeemed. If you are not Citigold, with 7+ activities, you will get much less points.

Points from spending on Debit Card is not included yet.

maulah

Thank you Kiam for all the helpful info regarding Citigold. You have done such a good job that by now Citibank owes you an icecream or a burger may be. Surprisingly dgordon is suspeciously quiet. Like you she also comes up with all the latest on Citigold. I wonder how she is doing with e-savings account?

neophyte

Well, I fell poor in such society
A lot of people here can afford to park 100K at 3.25% and happy with that, some others are arguing that one can get 50 basic points higher elsewhere.

Sorry, my money have to work harder than that, so I'd need to open conventional or IRA brokerage account. I did write about it in a parallel Citibank thread, but here's the scope - basic online brokerage fees are $24.95 per trade, while the average industry fee is somewhere around $10 even for small investors. Such fees kill off all perks described above for me - and for any equity investor.

It's been mentioned that Citigold does offer $9.99 online trades for some customers on the case-by-case basis, but I can't confirm it after talking to Citigold 5-6 times, neither can I move 100K blindly and then beg for reduced commissions. Why can't they just spell the rules ?

kiam

I think you completely got it all wrong about us (citigold clients). I strongly believe NONE of us stupidly put 100K in that e-savings account thing. If any of us (citigold clients) do, I will be VERY disappointed as they really have no idea what to do with your money.

We have investments, IRAs,....etc in this account, and while we still have some cash left, why not put it in 3.25% savings (as CitiBank normally does not come up with this type of high yield savings that often).

In my opinion, I know HSBC and some other may offer higher interest in sacings account, but looking at overall package (free credit cards....etc), it has value.

dolmar

I said in the other thread i get stock trades for $9.99 but i also said very clearly that price you pay for stock trades is based on your combined balances with Citibank. Citibank will also household any and all of your family members to help you reach another lvl. NO if you open an account $100K you not going to get anything above the normal benfits which are printed very clearly on there web page $24.99 stock trades. if you look at your Citigold statement there is a section called pricing and benfits. ranges i have seen myself are

0-100K - In this range fees will kick in.
100K-250K Most fees are waived
250K-500K They will rebate all ATM charges even other banks fees
500K-1Milion $19.99 online stock trades must be set up by your advisor
1-2.5Milion $14.99 online stock trades must be set up by your advisor
2.5-5Milion $9.99 online stock trades must be set up by your advisor


Now if you have your account household with 3-5 relitives and each carries 200-300K mortage with Citibank you could get the 1-2.5mil pricing easy. Not sure where you live but in a place like Los Angeles it is not uncommen for people to carry mortages for 500K+ on there homes.

Like i posted on my other post still shocked by people that think HSBC is such a deal. You can buy what are called Muni Floaters that reset ever 7 day and have no fees or commsions. They are sold in $100K increments which in almost all states pay a tax equivilent yeild of over 4% and they are not subject to AMT. The only catch to this type of investment is that you are locked into the bond for 7 days. Think of it as a mini cd which if you redem before maturity you loose any and all interest. So no it not as liquid as a MM account but lets be honest 7 day liquidity is almost the same as a MM account.

maulah

Do they require the same address for each person in order to qualify for one household account? What do you mean by relatives? Could that be Uncles and cousons?