Citi AAdvantage Miles Ahead Savings Account
 

Has anyone taken advantage of this offer? If you have, how has your experience been with CitiBank?

I considered the offer and decided I did not need more AA miles, but I'm now reconsidering. Not because I need more AA miles -- they may soon be worthless -- but because I thought I remembered from the original promotional material that the interest rates on the account were guaranteed for 12 or 18 months. In the current environment that could be very useful. However, I threw away the mailer and the current info online says the rate can change even before the account is opened.

I'm thinking I may have just imagined the rate guarantee. Without that I don't see this as a particularly attractive offer.

I have had two Citi cards for some time (AA and Costco) and have no complaints about service. No recent experience with checking or savings though.

I signed up. The experience/process was pretty much what I would expect, all online, nothing challenging/tricky. I transferred funds into the account immediately from my bank; it took 2-3 days for the deposit to be confirmed. Received the debit card as promised but no PIN, so I can't validate the card. Not a big deal as I'm not planning on tapping into this account; just let it sit and grow and transfer the balance out when I feel it's run its course.

I have had good experience with CitiBank in general, in the past years I've had a business account and Citi miles-earning credit card.

They have resolved every issue to my satisfaction.

On the other hand, I see no need to accumulate miles. I have plenty and I'm having a tough time finding availability for the flights* I need. (YMMV)

*Confirmation at the time of booking. I don't want to play Last Minute Roulette.

It seems the sweet spot for a deposit is $50,000 usd for 40,000 miles. Otherwise you need $200,000. For 50,000 miles

I signed up in March and just saw my May 1 statement. The interest rate was cut from 1.01% ($10-50k deposit tier) to 0.50%. I do understand that rates are coming down and the offer said (in fine print) that the promo rate is subject to change, but I probably would not have signed up if I knew the rate would come down that soon.

Not AA mileage related, CITI Bank up until 5 days ago was offering 3 MONTH CD's @1.01% (minimum dep $500) all of their other terms 6, 9, ..., 5 YEARS were approx. 0.20%; now the rate is 0.75%.
With a CD you LOCK in your rate. I've seen SUPER UP FRONT BONUS promos, but when you read the fine print the interest rate is 0.01% = [1/100 of 1%:td:]
If you don't need miles, Chase, CapitalOne and lots of others have better deals.

I signed up 2/20 with 50k and it was 1.21%.
if it was not for this post i likely would not have caught that it went down to 75pbs.

Also, has anyone received their bonus yet? 4/20 was my 2-month period and i have yet to be credited my AA miles.
if you have, how long did it take?

We signed up on March 3rd with $50k each. I figured we might was well split the $100k and get 40,000 miles each. Fast approaching 8 weeks as well with no sign of those 40k miles. I believe the mailer said to allow 6-8 weeks for miles to be credited, so perhaps next statement cycle.

If history repeats expect a 1099 issued for these miles from Citibank that values them at higher value than anyone on flyertalk.

Those who have opened this account and have the Citi AA Mileup card do you get 25% bonus on the base earning of 1 mile/$ at grocery stores or on the full 2 miles/$. Meaning in the end it is 2.25 miles/$ or 2.5 miles/$.

Looks like I got the 25% on the supermarket bonus as well as base.

I deposited on Feb 20, but has not received any bonus miles yet. Please let me know when you receive your bonus.

I assumed the bonus miles would post 6-8 weeks after one hit the 2 month minimum.

Miles Ahead savings account offer
 

Does anyone understand what is happening with the Citibank miles ahead offer? I got an email - two actually - inviting me to open a savings account,'but when I clicked and went
to the site, the offer appeared on my screen for a split second then vanished and was replaced with a message - no longer available. I just sold some property and have to put the money somewhere. I would like to put it in this citi savings account, but...they don't seem to want my money. Is the account still around? Anyone know what the requirements are?
Any information gratefully received.

Try using this link: citi.com/earnmoremiles and see if that works.
You do have to live in an area where Citi is offering the plan. I do wonder if they're doing away with it. After they give you your bonus miles, there does not seem to be much of an advantage to keep your money there. For example, there is no on-going bonus like Bask Bank offers on their AA mileage deal.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, that was the problem. I actually have two homes. In one state, the offer is not available. In the other state, it is.
So I applied using my other address and yes, there was the offer. I'm just waiting for approval, which really strikes me as odd. I'm waiting for them to tell
me "Yes, we will accept your money."

Note that it could take up to 5 months to get your bonus miles. I deposited on February 27 and have not received my bonus miles yet.

When I called Citi, the CS agent said I met the requirements (keeping funds for 60 days) but it could take an additional 90 days before the bonus miles are deposited. I can’t recall reading that fine print on the mailer!

Well, that does sound alarming. I'll keep an eye out for such shenanigans and let FlyerTalk know if I also have a problem.
Thanks for the warning.

Since there apparently is no incentive for us to leave the account open once we get our miles, this is probably their way to have us keep the account open awhile longer. But once the miles post, I think I'm out of there because there is no on-going bonuses.

The CS agent at Citi claimed that Citi can take up to three months following the date of completing the promotion requirements before depositing the bonus miles. The account must remain open during that time period in order to receive the miles. But all of the original amount deposited doesn't need to remain in the account during that waiting period. The account just needs to remain open with a minimal amount. My deal was $50K x 90 days = 40K miles and I fulfilled the requirements on May 24. So . . . waiting.

For those have opened the account, please do tell us if you would receive a 1099-INT, as well as the miles-to-cash ratio.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I am also tempted to leave Citi, maybe even before the miles award, simply because I am not able to verify my identity on their site. Every other bank account I have verifies me through e-mail. I don't have a cell and don't want one. Why would I want people contacting me at any hour? I don't. So, I don't have a cell. I just use e-mail and Skype. But Citi won't let me verify through e-mail or Skype, and I can't get through on the phone, and there is no e-mail contact for customer support. I was able to deposit enough money, finally, by having my other bank do a wire transfer. But this problem delayed my deposit by days, and has been quite annoying. The customer service at this bank is rubbish. I'm not sure the miles are worth the trouble.

I opened my account in January and still haven't received the bonus miles. Being that I was unable to find my original documents with terms and conditions, I called Citi to ask about the details. The two agents that discussed it with me stated that my Citi Miles Ahead Savings account was not associated with any welcome/sign-up bonus miles, only a 25% bonus to miles on purchases when using my associated Citi credit card. ummm... Say what? Could that be? Technically I fulfilled the account deposit and balance requirements on April 19th, so there is still some time pending the 90 days to receive miles. The communication from the phone customer service representative is still very very concerning. Anyone else ran into this same thing?

The agent I spoke with confirmed that I did indeed sign up for the bonus and fulfilled the requirements, but like I said earlier, it can take up to 90 days to get the miles. So basically it's 6 months from opening till you get the miles.

I fulfilled the requirement in may. No miles showed up so I called them. The representative said it will take 90 days from the qualifying deposit. Here it is july and still no miles. I will call them again to see what they have to say.

I called the Miles Ahead representative and he confirmed what ceebee100 is saying. 6 months from your qualifying deposit. I guess I will cross my fingers and hope they don't go bankrupt before then. Because if they do file for bankruptcy the rewards will be gone.

In case anyone wants to call, here is the number to use: 1-800-321-2484 (ask for Miles Ahead acct representative)

I deposited 50k on Feb 9th. I called them last month to say the miles hadnt been credited , they told me they would be credited on July 9th. Nothing credited today . I will call again and update you.

I’m giving them until the end of July to see if they deposit the miles. This is ridiculous though!

same here - deposited $50k on Feb 5th and no miles so far

I called them and registered a complaint. They said they will investigate 😂 . 6 months is up on Aug 9th so after that date if I havent received them I will need to take further action.

I have been wondering about when the miles will post too. Reading the fine print it does say within 90 days of completing the required activities. And to further confuse things, the money has to stay on deposit for 60 days, but not just any 60 days. The 60 day period is the one that starts 30 days after the account is opened and then completes 90 days after the account was opened. The fine print calls the 30 day mark the "First Date" and then 60 days after that as the "Second Date". So 6 months start to finish does appear to be the max. Open it, then 30 days after that have it funded at the level you want, then leave on deposit for 60 more days, then wait up to 90 days after that for the miles. But I would think during those last 90 days you could move most of the money out while waiting for the miles to post.

I opened my account and deposited $50,000 on February 20, 2020. When I called to inquire about the promised 40,000 miles in late May I was told they should post by July 19, 2020 and that I should call back then if I do not receive them by then. Not holding my breath. I must say, this was my first deposit account with Citi and it has really soured my opinion of them. Not likely to do any banking business with them in the future. Making everyone wait 6 months is pretty sleazy. They should have made that crystal clear in the offer, which they did certainly did not.

Its a shame they are stringing us all along- however I do enjoy the extra 25% mile bonus I am getting

Finally received my 40,000 miles overnight after first posting my complaint here yesterday! Coincidence? Almost certainly. (FYI - my qualifying deposit date was made on February 20, 2020) Good luck to everyone else waiting.

I finally received my 40k mile bonus too this morning. Not that I was planning on using my miles any time soon, but it's not cool they way they made us wait an extra 3 months. Maybe it was written in the fine print and we just didn't see it.

1099 generated
 

Not directly related but does anyone know how points are going to be calculated to irs?

I did a little research on it and am not expecting a 1099 for the 40,000 bonus miles. While nothing is certain and Citi has been silent on the subject, it seems that Citi stopped sending such 1099s a few years ago. The current thinking among those with some tax knowledge appears to be that Citi is likely treating this as miscellaneous income (as opposed to interest income) which would only require a 1099 if the value exceeds $600. If they valued the miles at a ridiculous 2.5 cents each as they did many years ago, the $600 threshold would be more than met. More likely they are valuing the miles now at a more realistic 1.0 cent each thus avoiding the $600 threshold. That would also explain why they maxed out the mileage award at 50,000 miles even with a +$200,000 deposit.

As another data point, I completed my qualifying deposit on February 29, 2020. The bonus miles posted on July 13, 2020.