moo-moo

I guess whether this Citigold deal is worthwhile really depends on how much one values the miles. $50K at 3% interest spread across a few reward checking accounts is $1500 per year less taxes. The easier method of opening a 5 year CD would still yield over $1000 per year.

Citibank has issued 1099's for miles in previous years so I'm not sure there's much benefit from that angle. The tax thing does make the aforementioned BankDirect thing much more appealing since I have never had a 1099 on their miles.

Dudey

Yes, Bank Direct seems like the way to go for me. It gives a direct monthly miles earn plus easy liquidity.

kbs972

I know it makes it worth less, but how long do you think it would take for the miles to post and would they stay if you cancel the account but keep a ty account open? It is $30/month you don't meet the balance requirements, and i feel like banks usually waive the first month fee. So, if you do a direct deposit and bill pay day one and then day 30, you could possibly have it closed before the second month, or at worst have it closed after making 1 $30 payment, so you would get 40k miles for $30/$60 dollars. I know it isn't as good as free, but $470/$500 flight dollars is better than $0. Thoughts?

Kevin

yoyo

In the old days I think we had 6 month to reach the requirement (100K) without being charged the fee. Not sure about what they do now. I know the requirement dropped to 50K. Also keep in mind if you close the underlying account the bonus will expire very soon (probably within 30 days).

jstn

Agreed, one has to factor in the value of these TYP vs. AA miles. I have nearly 100k TYP sitting around from previous sign up bonuses with the best redemption being $100 gift certificates to Hyatt, Marriot, Ritz. Or a fixed value redemption for airline tix.

So $1,000 in hotels from the TYP or premium class redemption to Asia on Cathay from AA for same amount of miles.

TheManofaThousandPlaces

I actually wrote a piece about this a few weeks ago. There are some definite disavantages to the Citi offer, particularly that pesky 1099.

BankDirect is a great offer. You can earn 19,000 miles over the course of a year and you only need to tie up about $2,500.

See here for details.

Happy

You do not earn miles in $100 increment. Instead it is on $1000 increment on avg daily balance.

So for $2500 a month, assuming it is full month from the start, it would only earn you 200 miles x 12.

You are better off to keep the full $3000 bal at all time, excluding your bill payment activities if you want to earn the 300 miles a month.

On top of that, BD requires to see your W2 form to determine if you have deposited the FULL pay check to BD based on the income you declared when you open your BD account. There is not short of DENIAL of such bonus when BD claimed the account holders do not deposit the full earning into their accounts!

The other bonuses such as the 5000 for 12 debit card transactions in 3 consecutive months have been shot down in many people's case when BD decided their transactions are not the "normal and ordinary" such as split up a utility bill to pay multiple times, and in one outrageous case the account holder's transactions in buying Transit tickets were denied to be included in the count!

If you have not done BD offer yourself, better put in some disclaimers - there is a dedicated thread in AA forum - else you are doing a dis-service to your blog readers by providing information only good in theory but not working as they are supposed to, in practice.

Happy

Not to mention the fact that booking hotels on TYN is an opaque booking that the operator does NOT transmit your personal info to the hotel until the week of your arrival!

Also the Marriott Travel Card by the T&Cs, cannot be used to pay for any discount rates including the AAA, Senior and the like. Though in reality, most hotels' Front Desk do not really care. However, the check-out process using this type of payment form can be a long process particularly now Marriott has changed the processing company behind the scene, based on what has been reported in the Marriott forum on this subject.

I would take 100K AA miles any day over 100K TYPs which I have over 200K in my account and find them just sitting there.