akr1970akr

I wouldn't expect any positive innovations out Prestige. They cannot convince Prestige members to carry interest bearing balances, and without that, they can't fund perks.

There is a big difference at Citi between who has revolving debt between their free cards, and their AF cards.

One reason why they are pursuing a strategy of 0 percent balance transfers as a sign up bonus rather than cash / point bonuses, since that gets them the customers they actually want.

RedSun

Wiki updated. Citi won't allow any trading of leveraged and inverse ETFs. Just traditional investments.

coolfish1103

Just received an offer of $1,500 for opening a citigold and maintain balance for 90 days. Does anyone know if you can link this account with the accelerated savings and leave the money in there instead?

spartacusmcfly

I'm not familiar with that particular product, but citigold includes all accounts you hold with citibank, so you should be fine.

garykung

Yes, you can. As soon as you have properly linked the account with the Citigold Checking.

Actually, it does not. The accounts must be linked to the Citigold Checking account in order to qualified. And linking issue is one of the most common issue you can experience with Citibank.

RedSun

I had tremendous difficulties with Citi account linking. Bank people could not link brokerage accounts and brokerage people could not link bank accounts. Account opening had to be done online. No branch other than going to NYC. Often phone calls are answered by call center in Philippines. So I had to contact the banker who originally opened my accounts and wait for her to do her magic for a few days. It was a nightmare. Different divisions within Citi can't communicate.

And I'm out of Citi relationship now. Just some CCs. Much easier.

coolfish1103

Thanks, but it looks like if you live in a state where there is physical citi branch you don't qualify for it...

Do people think 200+125 TYP is worth it to bother with a regular savings that give little to no interests?

akr1970akr

some of it is (I think) related to that there are different branches of Citi retail banks. However the customer can't actually see that, and its not a choice they have, and some of those just don't have the data feeds to link up correctly with everything else. My very old Citigold account (circa 90's) is out of NYC and doesn't connect properly to some things, but the wife's account (which gets its CG status from me!) does link up properly. So inexplicably all the Citigold subscription stuff goes to her, and not me.

All that being said, for the person who knows how to maximize their system with free cards, safe deposit boxes, subscription benefits, no fee investment accounts I think they have something to offer for the savvy mass affluent consumer. The fact that balances count (for status) when Citi earns nothing on them (like a broad based ETF) is amazing to me. There have been some rumblings about another level above CG with higher balances needed that would come with a free AA Exec card...if that happens I'd move more over to them.

RedSun

I just responded to another thread on Chase CPC relationship. Both CitiGold and Chase CPC have their pros and cons. But the huge common con is that, both have very limited investment products that they limit. Specifically both do not offer the complex ETFs like leveraged and inverse ETFs. When I moved assets into both of them, I did not know. This is a clear no-go with me. Even my old WellsTrade accounts allow those ETFs. For self-directed clients, the banks should limit what clients can do and can't do. That defeated the whole purpose of self-directing.

I've clearly benefited from those ETFs for more than 10 years. The gains from the extra 5% or 10% investment returns I could make far outpace the limited benefits offered by the CitiGold and Chase CPC. Now Schwab offers $100 on its AmEx Platinum card. This may be something I keep my eye on the card.

akr1970akr

I"m a professional inst. investor and while I grant some clients can do well with those products...the vast majority of people don't have good outcomes with them. If its maybe a small sliver of the account no big deal, but there are a lot of wipeouts (and arbitration suits) when those are involved. It's getting to the point where more firms than not are blocking those products. My belief is that they should just require options/margin paperwork for those interested.

Alternatively, its not a big deal to have mulitple accounts, one can use the Citi (or Chase CPC) world for basic stuff, and get an interactive for complex stuff. Citi's brokerage world is not good for anyone who needs / wants to trade, or needs securities servicing (voluntary corp actions etc.)

RedSun

I guess we all know what "self-directed" or "self-guided" mean. So if both Chase and Citi state they offer stock and ETF trading, but in reality then only allow a subset of stocks and ETFs, then this is misleading to me. I was mislead for sure. They should have disclosed this at beginning. It is none of their business if some novice traders got wiped out. They can be wiped out the same way at Chase and Citi if they borrowed on margin and do risky trades like with options etc.

I guess both Chase and Citi were pressured by the evolving brokerage industry. I remember before most brokerage houses had the zero commissions, Citi charged good money for stock trading. And its brokerage offering is really subpar, with very limited functionalities.

The worst thing with Citi is its customer service. Most are serviced with overseas service centers.

garykung

It depends on the offer. It is not absolute.

While you can say that, the actual problem of Citi is consistency.

For a single question of customer inquiry, with Chase, at least 8 out of 10 bank personnel will tell you the exact response. However, with Citi, the best is 4 out of 10. In other word, Chase is a brand you can trust, but not Citi (as your experience varies by your interaction).

hi-guy

Did you mean https://citigoldprivateclient.citi.com/ ?

More specifically, https://citigoldprivateclient.citi.c...editcards.html (only first year free, though)

RedSun

It is always dreadful when I reach Citi's overseas service center. They answer like robots. They can't get things done, but good at apologizing. The rep at chat is better. But they have little power.

akr1970akr

Thanks for sharing that , but I was referring to something different.

THey have been taking surveys where they propose a level above CG , and likely below true Private Client. Think 1mm or so in assets. And the perk would be the free card.

Private Client is a lot of fees, so hard to really make sense / value out of it, but maybe some people like it.