Citi Select (post March 2013) - ? worth $700 annual fee

[Nizar]

Just put my new car on the card.

No surcharge as it was part of the deal.

Approx 1/3 of the SYD LHR return F Saver !

Off to work on the remaining 2/3 !!!!

Good work !!
Now - any answers re: my above query ?

Cheers

 

[legroom]

Guys how strict are they with their income checks ?
Would it possible for me to show contracts/letters of offer/regular money coming into my account, etc instead of an income tax assessment ?

I have my own business so whilst my income is more than 120k, my taxable income is much less.

Cheers

"Experience the luxury of Citibank Select Credit Card, with unparalleled access to market leading rewards, unique experiences, premium servicing and exclusive invitations to events. If you earn above $120,000, the Citibank Select Credit Card is for you."

It certainly does not say 'taxable income'.

I was caught by this trap once many years ago when I had the Infrastructure Bond slashing my taxable income down to a level where I became eligible for some tax assistance / benefits.

One day I need to prove my income and ... I could not convince anyone !

Back on topic, a letter from your accountant would be helpful.

BTW, this thread was initially about the angst for Selectees after March 2013.

Your question suggests you are thinking of applying.

May we know of your reasons why you like to have a Select card with its $700 annual fee ?

 

[Nizar]

Your question suggests you are thinking of applying.

May we know of your reasons why you like to have a Select card with its $700 annual fee ?

For the 60k bonus. And I MIGHT just keep it as my current visa earns a pitiful half a point per dollar.

But the last few months I have been applying for cards simply for their sign on bonus (100k in bonuses so far). In a few months I will slowly cancel the cards except for the ones I want to keep (the woolies EDR I will probably keep).

So yeh main reason is the bonus. Amex has an 80k bonus for $900 (which work to be slightly worse actually) but I'd have no need for it longer term (as already have high earning Amex's) and I've just applied for two Amex's in the past two weeks so a third might be pushing it.

 

[quokka77]

I'm also thinking of applying. I don't do ato payments as a well paid payg person. What attracts me to citi is: excellent local and os earn rate, points warehousing and flexible redemption partners including kf and va. The hotel night and bonus points go some way towards justifying it in the first year. After that I might have to make some hard calls between this card and the amex charge edge combo

 

[Jack_OC]

For the 60k bonus. And I MIGHT just keep it as my current visa earns a pitiful half a point per dollar.

But the last few months I have been applying for cards simply for their sign on bonus (100k in bonuses so far). In a few months I will slowly cancel the cards except for the ones I want to keep (the woolies EDR I will probably keep).

So yeh main reason is the bonus. Amex has an 80k bonus for $900 (which work to be slightly worse actually) but I'd have no need for it longer term (as already have high earning Amex's) and I've just applied for two Amex's in the past two weeks so a third might be pushing it.

As discussed on other threads, be careful about applying for too many cards. You may end up with a negative credit report because of this and find you start getting rejected for credit that you actually need.

 

[Jack_OC]

I'm also thinking of applying. I don't do ato payments as a well paid payg person. What attracts me to citi is: excellent local and os earn rate, points warehousing and flexible redemption partners including kf and va. The hotel night and bonus points go some way towards justifying it in the first year. After that I might have to make some hard calls between this card and the amex charge edge combo

Yes I'd say it pays for itself in year one because of the bonus, but be aware of mixed reports regarding ease of booking the free hotel night. Apparently Legroom hasn't had any problem with that though!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

quokka re pts warehousing with Select - just be aware that Citi recently retrospectively changed conversion rates for some of their cards leading to considerable downgrade of pts value at transfer.

indeed many Select cardholders have been spooked into monthly transfers of their Citi pts balances just in case Citi in their wisdom decide to devalue the Select earnt pts at some point in time in the future. Is this concern by AFFers holding Select warranted? Who knows - but better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Nizar]

As discussed on other threads, be careful about applying for too many cards. You may end up with a negative credit report because of this and find you start getting rejected for credit that you actually need.

Thanks Jack3193, appreciate the advice. It was something I was already well aware of, but in this life you cannot have too many reminders.

Having read some of your other posts on this forum, it seems you know a fair bit about credit cards, so perhaps you can shed some light on my question above.
To save you scrolling up, let me ask again here:

Is citibank (or any credit card issuer for that matter) likely to accept other forms of proof of income that IS NOT in the form of an income tax assessment ?

Thanks

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Is citibank (or any credit card issuer for that matter) likely to accept other forms of proof of income that IS NOT in the form of an income tax assessment ?

Nizar - I might be able to help you here - short answer NO - long answer YES.

Let me explain: I hold Select – but I fall way WAY short of their Income requirements. I held CitiBusiness Gold prior to Select – that was my first Citi card and held it for 9mths – I wanted to upgrade to Select – I had to get creative in other ways to satisfy them – I will not publically detail the dastardly plan – suffice to say I had considerable personal asset base and a spare 100K in cash that I could put on deposit with them – got me CitiGold status.

The rest went smoothly with some prodding on my behalf to my Citi RM and Senior Credit Manager within Citi Group whose name and email address I acquired off previous rejection advice – as I said – you will need to get creative but it is achievable.

 

[DaveB]

Is citibank (or any credit card issuer for that matter) likely to accept other forms of proof of income that IS NOT in the form of an income tax assessment ?

My companies have for over 10 years been my only source of income with no PAYG earnings for at least 8 years. Annual income levels have never been stable or over $120K for a variety of tax minimisation strategies.
Citi were happy to give me the Select and also put me up to the maximum credit limit (took numerous step increases) often providing them a supporting letter showing company statements, personal bank statements, personal balance sheet and access to my accountant.
Always banked with NAB and business banker usually assisted with their credit card increases. Company financial statements always needed to be up to date with them.

 

[Nizar]

Thanks for your responses guys - much appreciated.
Though I like DaveB's answer more than Cruiser Elite's lol. No way I am depositing 100k with them just to get this card lol. Considering how much money my Fund makes that would be very foolish of me.

Cheers again.

 

[Jack_OC]

Is citibank (or any credit card issuer for that matter) likely to accept other forms of proof of income that IS NOT in the form of an income tax assessment

That I don't know I'm afraid, as I'm a full time employee so I've always just submitted payslips.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Recently was in BCN had had my first experience if Select being compromised. Logged on one day and saw a AD1,208 odd transaction for Vueling Airlines Definiteley not my transaction so called up Citi and immediately cancelled card leaving me with further 2.5 weeks in Europe with no main CC.

CSO at Citi informs me a replacement card will arrive in MEL in 5 to 10 working days - not much help huh? I could no longer see any transactiom history on my account so another call to Citi where they informed me no data will be visible until replacement card 'Activated' - what a bummer - i cannot see if any more ficticious trandactions occurred.

Lo and behold 2 days later all data reappears without replacement card arriving and activated - sound like Citi huh?

Luckily Cruiserette had her Select card with her so she automatically became the resident financier for trip. Unfortunately she had her wallet including Select Card stolen and we are plumb out of Citi cards now. She could not contact Citi for a couple of days - but I tracked her card online and noticed thieves spending way less than she was - so decided just cheaper not to cancel her card!

In Paris now - they love Visa - Amex still not accepted many vendors.

 

[Spizz]

Wow. What a run of bad luck. Lucky you had another Visa card as a a backup.

 

[greenfrog86]

Recently was in BCN had had my first experience if Select being compromised. Logged on one day and saw a AD1,208 odd transaction for Vueling Airlines Definiteley not my transaction so called up Citi and immediately cancelled card leaving me with further 2.5 weeks in Europe with no main CC.

CSO at Citi informs me a replacement card will arrive in MEL in 5 to 10 working days - not much help huh? I could no longer see any transactiom history on my account so another call to Citi where they informed me no data will be visible until replacement card 'Activated' - what a bummer - i cannot see if any more ficticious trandactions occurred.

Lo and behold 2 days later all data reappears without replacement card arriving and activated - sound like Citi huh?

Luckily Cruiserette had her Select card with her so she automatically became the resident financier for trip. Unfortunately she had her wallet including Select Card stolen and we are plumb out of Citi cards now. She could not contact Citi for a couple of days - but I tracked her card online and noticed thieves spending way less than she was - so decided just cheaper not to cancel her card!

In Paris now - they love Visa - Amex still not accepted many vendors.

What a string of bad luck! At least citi is open 24 hours unlike 28 Degrees who can be fun to chase when you're in another time zone!

I'd be interested to see what would happen if you contacted Visa directly on their 'emergency assistance line' for lost/stolen cards... I'm pretty sure that Visa/MC have ways and means of providing replacement cards in a much better way than the issuer, however I haven't seen any examples.

I know Amex has a pretty long record of processes for producing replacement cards so people can continue to spend, and I'm pretty sure Visa must for their premium Signature platform...

 

[albyd]

I always travel with a couple of backups now. I recall being in Paris and needing my Westpac altitude mc replaced. They sent me a replacement within a day or so. Only, I couldn't use it anywhere except nine which wasn't very useful as the magnetic strip didn't work. Is this common for emergency replacement cards? You'd think the point of an emergency replacement is to be able to use it with merchants.

 

[diningdecadence]

data point for those interested.

was dissatisfied with a response i received from a supervisor the other night regarding the ability to download account statements into excel (you can only go back 3 months apparently?) so called tonight and got through to retentions - got offered some pretty generic offers - reduced interest rate, 0% balance transfer, and then a downgrade to another card.

requested to speak to supervisor, put on hold for 30 seconds, and the same operator was straight back to offer 50% discount on card fee, credited back to the account. felt like i could have pushed for what someone else got earlier (2nd year free, subsequent years at 50% off iirc), however really like the speed at which you accumulate points for Krisflyer on int'l spend so going to keep it going for a while. hopefully the conversion rate change mentioned in another thread doesn't eventuate.

cheers

 

[quokka77]

Just working out a spreadsheet analysis of this card vs another candidate (virgin high flyer) to see whether it's worth it for me. I have 3 months of CC spend data I will use for this... Taking a bit longer than I thought to get Excel to do the sums, but I am an Excel gumby...

Have just completed a draft of current situation (Platinum charge plus platinum edge plus virgin flyer), then replacing virgin flyer and charge with either virgin high flyer or Citiselect (I originally got both Platinum charge and Virgin flyer for the sign-on bonuses, knowing they probably weren't the best earners for me).

On my spending patterns, it is a relatively close call between the Virgin high flyer and Citiselect. There is a hefty price difference ($350 for High Flyer +1 supplementary vs Citiselect $700, free supplementary). The bonus points are much better for Select than Virgin (currently 40000 VA or KF miles / 30000 Cathay miles vs 10000 virgin miles). However, even on recurring spend the Citiselect is better: it would give at least 30000 more points for me per annum, mainly because of the massive 3.3ppd overseas earn (whereas there is no bonus for overseas spend on the virgin high flyer). So those extra points would be coming at a cost of less than 1.5c each, and would give better flexibility on burning. I can live with that.

Looks like I might need to get the Select, enhancements be damned.

I will look to cancel my current Charge card early next year at 11 months.

I might then have to join my local professional association (they offer a Charge affiliate deal), even though I don't really want anything other than their credit card referral, as long as there are some bonus points to make it worthwhile

Anyone have any experience of applying for a Citi card whilst holding a Virgin Australia card?

Do the sign-on bonus points post ok, even though Citi are the banking partner behind Virgin cards?

 

[legroom]

Recently was in BCN had had my first experience if Select being compromised. Logged on one day and saw a AD1,208 odd transaction for Vueling Airlines Definiteley not my transaction so called up Citi and immediately cancelled card leaving me with further 2.5 weeks in Europe with no main CC.

CSO at Citi informs me a replacement card will arrive in MEL in 5 to 10 working days - not much help huh? I could no longer see any transactiom history on my account so another call to Citi where they informed me no data will be visible until replacement card 'Activated' - what a bummer - i cannot see if any more ficticious trandactions occurred.

Lo and behold 2 days later all data reappears without replacement card arriving and activated - sound like Citi huh?

Luckily Cruiserette had her Select card with her so she automatically became the resident financier for trip. Unfortunately she had her wallet including Select Card stolen and we are plumb out of Citi cards now. She could not contact Citi for a couple of days - but I tracked her card online and noticed thieves spending way less than she was - so decided just cheaper not to cancel her card!

In Paris now - they love Visa - Amex still not accepted many vendors.

One card stolen

One card compromised

Must have something to do with the Suite duvet from SIN to BCN !

Or the Krug

Safer to travel in Y, CruiserElite.

 

[DeKa]

Anyone have any experience of applying for a Citi card whilst holding a Virgin Australia card?

Do the sign-on bonus points post ok, even though Citi are the banking partner behind Virgin cards?

I have both (well, Signature and Virgin Money (note: it's not a Virgin Australia issued card)). They are certainly aware I have both, as when I applied for the Virgin Money one I had a call back to confirm my employers contact details and they noted I had an existing relationship with Citi. I suspect they probably look to limit their maximum exposure to you.