Originally Posted by
bobert24
This information may already be out there somewhere, but I'm not sure. We know that Citi's "3 months" in which to complete minimum spend is actually a little more than 3 months, but I got a letter that let me figure out the actual number. It appears that the timeframe is actually 105 days from the date of approval.
This makes sense mathematically as a number someone would set as policy - 3 30 day months, plus another half month. This of course allows for slow card delivery, purchases made at the very end that don't post immediately, stuff like that. Basically, this helps Citi avoid headaches and angry new customers.
Obviously we still want to complete any spending well before 90 days, much less 105. But for the people who come in every month or two having accidentally missed their spend in the required timeframe, this could be useful info. Should it be added to the wiki?
It's probably in a pre-Aug-2016 Citi AA Plat thread (ie, not the current thread but one of its predecessor threads). There was a famous complaint letter in a major newspaper a few years ago about someone who got their spending done 3 months from receipt of their Citi card and Citi denied the bonus because they didn't get it done "in 3 months". Sometime after that we found out that Citi was adding an extra 14 days, presumably related to the bad publicity they got as a result of that letter.
Having said that, I once had Citi take well over 14 days from approval to get me a card. First they cliamed it had been sent, then when I didn't get it 10 days or so later I called, and they realized they hadn't sent it and sent it then, and then of course it took another week+ to get to the west coast. (But that's presumably the exception rather than the rule.)
And, now, having said
all that, the wiki gives better advice instead: Don't try to do your own calculations, and ask Citi what your deadline for making the required purchases is. Who knows when Citi might change it again? So asking them for your specific deadline on your specific card seems the most foolproof (if the website isn't displaying it for you in an online tracker).