Citibank Select - Bonus 80k points

[burmans]

Just looked at the site as it's time for me to cancel the Plat card and noticed the 80K Select offer is back, will need to consider this carefully.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

fyi; you need to have 'not been a customer' for 3 months before you can cash in on a signup bonus

 

[burmans]

fyi; you need to have 'not been a customer' for 3 months before you can cash in on a signup bonus

Yet another reason for me to cancel. Actually what I am looking for is an upgrade offer but seems to be hard to get one of these out of Citibank. Not convinced I actually need Select, Signature may be good enough but Platinum just isn't getting used, earn rate is not good enough and I also have the Citibusiness Gold.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Yet another reason for me to cancel. Actually what I am looking for is an upgrade offer but seems to be hard to get one of these out of Citibank. Not convinced I actually need Select, Signature may be good enough but Platinum just isn't getting used, earn rate is not good enough and I also have the Citibusiness Gold.

I had a talk with citibank about this when the select card first came out. Argued that they are saving xx,xx_ points by keeping me with citi so i dont churn back just to qualify. I really had to fight hard and after a bunch of calls to managers they agreed I was right and offered 5,000 points. It cost them a lot more than that in lost revenue...

It seems citi marketing is doing a great job at getting new customers in on big signup bonuses, at the expense of irritating(losing) existing cardholders who want to upgrade and feel the love through some points appreciation too.

 

[wafliron]

Just looked at the site as it's time for me to cancel the Plat card and noticed the 80K Select offer is back, will need to consider this carefully.

Dammit, two weeks after I signed up :-( Oh well, at least I got 50k.

fyi; you need to have 'not been a customer' for 3 months before you can cash in on a signup bonus

Not true, unless the terms of the offer have changed between March (50k points) and April (80k points).

I've had a CitiBusiness Gold card for years and wanted to upgrade to Select. Rang up last month to discuss the bonus points and was firmly told by several CS people that I would not get the 50k sign-on bonus for upgrading my existing card (despite threats to cancel, etc).

However, it did emerge over the course of those conversations that the Select sign-up bonus was for "new card applications [for the Select card]", not "new to bank customers". They also had no problem with me having two card accounts open concurrently (CBG + Select), so I could apply for Select and keep the CBG open (just in case Select was declined). Additionally, if you have an existing card you have the option of simply transferring limit from the existing card to the new card rather than applying for any increase in credit limit, which means the application for the second card is pretty much rubber-stamped as long as your financial situation hasn't worsened since your last application for a card / limit increase.

Despite the above I was still a little sceptical that I'd get the bonus by applying for Select as a second card, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try - I was no worse off if I applied and I didn't get the bonus than I would have been if I'd just upgraded the CBG (and I had records of conversations where I was told I would get the bonus, so I could at least argue with them about it).

Went ahead with the application, transferred most of the limit across from my CBG and it was pretty much all rubber-stamped as I mentioned above - they did perform a credit check, but didn't ring to confirm employment, ask for any proof of income, etc. Activated the card once it arrived, logged in to the new card's rewards account, and was presented with "Current balance: 50,000 points"

Now all I have to do is cancel the CBG and move the last of it's limit over to the Select card (just takes a phone call), and I've ended up getting the card I wanted plus the sign-up bonus. I'm actually going to keep the CBG open as well for now though, as CitiBank have made it worth my while: gave me a nice bonus to it's reward point earn rate when I was threatening to cancel it during my early attempts to get the Select signup bonus for a card upgrade - see thread http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-deal-existing-citibank-cardholder-37653.html.

 

[Stephen65]

The T&Cs of the current Select offer do say:

Current Citibank Credit Cardholders are not eligible to apply for this introductory offer. Offer ends 30 June 2012.

So I am not sure whether this plan could work.

 

[wafliron]

The T&Cs of the current Select offer do say:

Current Citibank Credit Cardholders are not eligible to apply for this introductory offer. Offer ends 30 June 2012.

So I am not sure whether this plan could work.

It does make it sound that way, but the T&Cs of the offer when I signed up were the same (I saved a copy):

1. You have the choice of earning 50,000 Citibank Reward points or 50,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points (if you enrol in the Citibank Qantas Rewards Program for an annual fee of $49 at the time of application) on the first spend of your Citibank Select credit card. All Rewards are subject to the terms and conditions of the Citibank Rewards Program. Citibank Reward points never expire as long as your account remains open. Current Citibank Credit Cardholders are not eligible to apply for this introductory offer. Offer ends 31 March 2012.

 

[Jacques Vert]

It does make it sound that way, but the T&Cs of the offer when I signed up were the same (I saved a copy):

1. You have the choice of earning 50,000 Citibank Reward points or 50,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points (if you enrol in the Citibank Qantas Rewards Program for an annual fee of $49 at the time of application) on the first spend of your Citibank Select credit card. All Rewards are subject to the terms and conditions of the Citibank Rewards Program. Citibank Reward points never expire as long as your account remains open. Current Citibank Credit Cardholders are not eligible to apply for this introductory offer. Offer ends 31 March 2012.

Maybe CitiBusiness is not considered Citibank?

 

[wafliron]

Maybe CitiBusiness is not considered Citibank?

Yeah, I guess that's possible - I mean it's still a CitiBank card, of course, but they do seem to treat CitiBusiness Gold very differently to most of their other card products.

Anyway, what worked for me may not work for everyone, but I figured it was worth posting as it couldn't hurt for anyone else to ask / try!

 

[Jacques Vert]

And thanks for posting it; may give it go and see what happens.

JV

 

[wafliron]

And thanks for posting it; may give it go and see what happens.

No worries - and good luck. Suggest you ask about it first and record the conversation carefully if you're given the same answer as me - that way you at least have an argument if they try to not give you the points.

 

[Ozvirginuk]

So I thought I'd try and be a little crafty as an existing Citi customer, and process a "new" application for Select rather than asking for an upgrade. A couple of days after I completed my application, I got a call from Citi advising me I was approved, but as I already had a very high limit on my other card, I'd need to divided it between the two. I said, no worries, I'm going to cancel the other card as I only want the Select and am looking forward to the 80K bonus points. I was quickly advised that I didn't qualify for them as I wasn't a new client. My response was - Fine, cancel the application, I"m no longer interested in paying 2 x the annual fee for no extra benefit (points wise).

I then called up Friday to cancel my Signature card (citing too high annual fee no requirement for 2 x Amex alternatives), and I was swiftly transferred to a "relationship manager" who understood my situation and said we don't want to lose you as a client we'd like to offer you Citibusiness Gold which earns 1.25 to $ (including for QF) with no annual fee... Thought that was pretty good, so I accepted and will see what happens next year when I go to cancel....

Cheers
Oz

 

[hummel]

Can anyone remember the time between card canceling and new applications that Citibank run with?

 

[JOC469]

3 months...

 

[wafliron]

So I thought I'd try and be a little crafty as an existing Citi customer, and process a "new" application for Select rather than asking for an upgrade. A couple of days after I completed my application, I got a call from Citi advising me I was approved, but as I already had a very high limit on my other card, I'd need to divided it between the two. I said, no worries, I'm going to cancel the other card as I only want the Select and am looking forward to the 80K bonus points. I was quickly advised that I didn't qualify for them as I wasn't a new client. My response was - Fine, cancel the application, I"m no longer interested in paying 2 x the annual fee for no extra benefit (points wise).

Interesting - as I noted above (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....lect-bonus-80k-points-33352-2.html#post588868) I was successful in getting the Select sign-on bonus despite already having an existing CBG.

I wonder whether they've changed their policy? Other alternatives are that I was just lucky, they may treat CBG differently to their other cards, or that I was able to get the Select bonus because I kept the CBG open (rather than "upgrading" it to a Select). It's been a while since I had the conversation with them, but I do wonder if it's the latter: I think they might've told me I couldn't get the sign-on bonus if I upgraded the existing card, but I could get it if I kept the CBG account open (and transferred most of the limit from it across to the Select card) - the difference being that the Select would be a new card as opposed to an upgrading card.

 

[kogayka]

The T&Cs of the current Select offer do say:

Current Citibank Credit Cardholders are not eligible to apply for this introductory offer. Offer ends 30 June 2012.

So I am not sure whether this plan could work.

Is this offer still avaliable? Can I get the link pleasE????

 

[scheps]

Citibank Select Credit Card | Citibank Australia

 

[ajca]

Bugger... I was looking at replacing my Amex Plat Charge card with this, but I missed the offer by a few days (ended June 30th). Hopefully they bring out another similar offer in the next few weeks!

 

[Happy Trails]

Bugger... I was looking at replacing my Amex Plat Charge card with this, but I missed the offer by a few days (ended June 30th). Hopefully they bring out another similar offer in the next few weeks!

Ask and ye shall receive; already been updated to Dec 31.:
Apply by 31 December 2012 and new cardholders will receive a bonus 80,000 reward points[SUP]1[/SUP] in the rewards program of your choice when you first spend on your card.

 

[mghinoz]

It seems as though this has changed today to:

"Apply by 31 December 2012 and new cardholders will receive a bonus 50,000 reward points[SUP]1[/SUP] in the rewards program of your choice when you first spend on your card."