Is Citibank Gold Debit Card only for CitiGold customers?

firsttimestudent

Hi,

I have a close friend and we do chat about many things, including about our finances.

Recently she just opened a Citibank Current Account. She showed me her debit card which she just received, which I was rather impressed at first as it was a really nice Citibank Gold Debit Card with £250 cheque guarantee.

As we're both students, I'm quite impressed by the card (not many of us get fee-free gold debit cards!) so I had a look at the Citibank website, wanting to learn more about their products. It seemed to me that there is a Citibank Access account which is fee-free, then there's a Citibank Plus account and CitiGold account, which are both fee-paying accounts. (She doesn't have the amount of balance required to waive the £25 monthly fee for Citigold)

I'm just concerned for her - by the virtue of her receiving the Gold Debit Card, I wonder has she been conned into opening a fee-paying account?

Thanks.

skyrider007

Maybe her parents bank with CitiGold. I have an account with Citibank and it comes with the standard blue Debit Card (no fees).

PROLIANT

skyrider007 wrote: »

Maybe her parents bank with CitiGold. I have an account with Citibank and it comes with the standard blue Debit Card (no fees).

When you apply with Citi, do they credit check then or when you return the application form? And is the debit card a proper Visa Debit and not and Electron thingy?

skyrider007

As far as I can remember when I applied I received an e-mail from them saying I've been accepted (I guess they do credit check right after you've submitted the online application form). A few days later I got a letter in the post asking for an initial deposit of at least £1 drawn from my own chequebook and an original bank statement (to verify identity and address). A week after that they returned the statement to me and cashed the cheque. I received the PIN number and the full VISA debit card.

Last month Citibank re-issued me a VISA debit card as they have told me that some card users have had problem using it at non chip and pin terminals and petrol stations.

I still have an account with Citibank but rarely use it, HSBC is now my main bank after they've given me a Switch card and a MasterCard.

Tori_Bellatrix

PROLIANT wrote: »

When you apply with Citi, do they credit check then or when you return the application form? And is the debit card a proper Visa Debit and not and Electron thingy?

My credit check was done after I sent all the forms back in with the application form. Funnily enough I was able to open my account with a zero balance and they issue proper Visa Debit cards... After about 6 months, I upgraded to a cheque guarantee card and after a year they let met have an OD ... Obviously, didn't trust me in the begining ...

skyrider007

Tori_Bellatrix wrote: »

My credit check was done after I sent all the forms back in with the application form. Funnily enough I was able to open my account with a zero balance and they issue proper Visa Debit cards... After about 6 months, I upgraded to a cheque guarantee card and after a year they let met have an OD ... Obviously, didn't trust me in the begining ...

Is your wage paid into Citibank account?

Tori_Bellatrix

skyrider007 wrote: »

Is your wage paid into Citibank account?

Yeah, always has been since I opened it ..