Account with Citigold worth £500 ?

DarkShadow

Hello,

I came across this offer: https://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/aviosBA-uk.do
You can get £500 just for opening an account with them and maintaining £150,000 for 2 months. Am I missing any obvious here? Is there any catch?

T&C: https://www.citibank.co.uk/static/documents/Welcome_promo_Terms_280917.pdf

masonic

That it's equivalent to a 'bonus rate' of just 2% over those 2 months. Which I suppose is nice, but one would hope someone with £150k would find something better to do with it.

Flobberchops

Only £150,000? Let me dig down the back of the sofa, I know I have that sitting around somewhere.

Plus

Actually, it's not a bad option in certain circumstances - for example you've just sold a house and have lots of cash kicking around until your next purchase. Also they have a savings account that pays 0.1% plus 0.4% for the first six months, so overall you can get 2.5% AER.
For some it could be worth pulling cash out of S&S ISAs using the flexible ISA facility: it's better yield than gilts.

Possible issues:

It's way over your FSCS protection, so were Citi to get into difficulties then you'd be in trouble (hello Lehman Sterns)

Tax - do we know whether it counts as savings interest, non-savings income or tax-free 'cashback'?

I have no idea what the application process is like - are they expecting you to have a 6 figure salary to apply?

Just goes to highlight how worthless Avios are: you could have 50,000 Avios which would get you a flight to Lapland, or £500 which might get you 5 trips to Lapland when bought with cash.

DarkShadow

Exactly! Sold a house recently and while I monitor house prices for a rental property, thought why not try Citi for 2 months?

Mr.Saver

fyi, it says 2 full calendar months, so if you put the money in on the 2nd of June, you would have to wait till 1st September to get the bonus, that is 29+31+31+1 = 92 days! Time it correctly if you are gonna use it.

Plus

Also, I'd want to understand the Brexit implications. They say:

Citi wrote:

Citibank Europe plc is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland and by the Prudential Regulation Authority. It is subject to supervision by the Central Bank of Ireland, and subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our authorisation and regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority, and regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority are available from us on request. Citibank Europe plc, UK Branch is registered as a branch (registration number FC032763) in the register of companies for England and Wales. The registered address in the UK is Citigroup Centre, Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5LB. Citibank Europe plc is registered in Ireland with number 132781, with its registered office at 1 North Wall Quay, Dublin 1. Citibank Europe plc is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Ultimately owned by Citigroup Inc., New York, USA. © Citibank N.A. 2018. CITI, CITI and Arc Design are registered service marks of Citigroup Inc. Calls may be monitored or recorded for training and service quality purposes.

Obviously there's no FSCS above 85K apart from the 'temporarily high balances' rule, but I don't understand whether you'd be in the FSCS or its Irish equivalent. Citi was previously based in the UK but moved to Ireland, so I assume it's under the Irish rules.