1.8% interest payable on a Citibank 1 year Fixed Bond with full FSCS protection?

csduk100

No mention of this bond (min £10k) in recent MSE posts.  Is it too good to be true?   How can I tell if its a scam or not?  

eskbanker

csduk100 said:

No mention of this bond (min £10k) in recent MSE posts.  Is it too good to be true?   How can I tell if its a scam or not?  

You could post a link, so others can see exactly what you're looking at and offer a properly informed opinion.

But yes, it'll be a scam (or at least something somewhat riskier than a capital-protected deposit product)....

masonic

The fact that such a savings account doesn't exist according to Citibank should be a clue.

https://citibank.co.uk/personal/saving-accounts.do?lid=UKWMM3MCBSAVACCL07

dunstonh

csduk100 said:

No mention of this bond (min £10k) in recent MSE posts.  Is it too good to be true?   How can I tell if its a scam or not?  

1 - common sense
2 - not the usual domain name. Domain name recently registered by a different registrar to the main site
3 - the site you found them not being a usual source.  Lots of dodgy sites out there sending people to scam links and clone sites.

Post the link you found it and we will take it apart with the tell tale signs

GeordieGeorge

1.8% yield, or coupon?

There may well be bonds with a 1.8% coupon issued by Citi, but they’ll not be yielding that much, they’ll be trading at over par.

masonic

GeordieGeorge said:

1.8% yield, or coupon?

There may well be bonds with a 1.8% coupon issued by Citi, but they’ll not be yielding that much, they’ll be trading at over par.

Citigroup have a couple of corporate bond issues with coupon of 5.9% and 6.5%, and YTM 1.2% and 2.0% respectively. If those are being advertised as a savings account then it is probably a scam and no money will end up invested in the bonds.

Citibank offer their own investment bonds, which are capital at risk products, and might be what's being promoted, but they don't give details of these on their consumer website, so any promotion of them is also likely a scam.

Eyeful

1. Yes it is a scam.
 Using common sense and nothing more than what you posted.
The best 5 year low risk account = 1.4%

So 1 year account = 1.8% = Scam

2. Post a link. Tell us how you became aware of this deal. We can always dig deeper!

inspectorperez

"Earn up to 1.8% p.a. interest on savings by completing simple missions

It’s easy to earn more with Citi Interest Booster. Begin with 0.3% p.a.2 base interest and complete simple missions, such as “maintain balance”, “fund-in”, “spend” and “investment & currency exchange” with your Citi Plus Cards to boost your interest rate up to 1.8% p.a.2. Track your progress anytime on the Citi Mobile App!"

Above cut and pasted from Citibank HK website. Wonder if this is what the OP is referring to? Clearly for HK residents only whatever the product is.

eskbanker

inspectorperez said:

"Earn up to 1.8% p.a. interest on savings by completing simple missions

It’s easy to earn more with Citi Interest Booster. Begin with 0.3% p.a.2 base interest and complete simple missions, such as “maintain balance”, “fund-in”, “spend” and “investment & currency exchange” with your Citi Plus Cards to boost your interest rate up to 1.8% p.a.2. Track your progress anytime on the Citi Mobile App!"

Above cut and pasted from Citibank HK website. Wonder if this is what the OP is referring to? Clearly for HK residents only whatever the product is.

Hence "Enjoy up to 1.8% p.a. on the first HK$300,000 of your Citi Interest Booster account balance", whereas the scam account OP was talking about involves "min £10k"....

Eyeful

inspectorperez said:

"Earn up to 1.8% p.a. interest on savings by completing simple missions

It’s easy to earn more with Citi Interest Booster. Begin with 0.3% p.a.2 base interest and complete simple missions, such as “maintain balance”, “fund-in”, “spend” and “investment & currency exchange” with your Citi Plus Cards to boost your interest rate up to 1.8% p.a.2. Track your progress anytime on the Citi Mobile App!"

Above cut and pasted from Citibank HK website. Wonder if this is what the OP is referring to? Clearly for HK residents only whatever the product is.

This OP mentioned a 1 year fixed bond with full FSCS protection. This account would not have FSCS protection or their description.

GeordieGeorge

Eyeful said:

inspectorperez said:

"Earn up to 1.8% p.a. interest on savings by completing simple missions

It’s easy to earn more with Citi Interest Booster. Begin with 0.3% p.a.2 base interest and complete simple missions, such as “maintain balance”, “fund-in”, “spend” and “investment & currency exchange” with your Citi Plus Cards to boost your interest rate up to 1.8% p.a.2. Track your progress anytime on the Citi Mobile App!"

Above cut and pasted from Citibank HK website. Wonder if this is what the OP is referring to? Clearly for HK residents only whatever the product is.

This OP mentioned a 1 year fixed bond with full FSCS protection. This account would not have FSCS protection or their description.

I wonder if they are looking at a product in another currency, but if so it’s a whole different bucket of cod.