Citigold ThankYou Bonus Conclusion
Last year Citi offered very generous 50K bonuses on their Citigold checking product. At one point you could choose between 50K AAdvantage miles and 50K ThankYou points. When I opened my account I chose the miles, but my wife who opened her account a couple of weeks later chose to go for the ThankYou points.
A couple of months ago I wrote about receiving my miles. It wasn’t too much of a hassle, except I had to pay the monthly fee two times before the miles posted. As soon as that happened, I downgraded the account. Unfortunately it hasn’t been so easy to get my wife’s ThankYou points to post.
Getting the Citigold Checking Bonus
After signing up for the account, my wife sent a secure message asking the agent to confirm her enrollment for the bonus. That was confirmed and she went on to meet the requirements of the offer. Then we waited and messaged and waited and messaged. Finally we were told she could get the points, but Citi threw a curveball. They said she needed to fill out a W-9 tax form to be eligible.
While I’m not sure if they will send us a 1099 (others have reported not receiving one) my wife had no choice but to go into a Citi branch and fill out the tax form. Shortly after doing that she sent them a message asking when she would receive the points and just received the following reply:
Thank you for your inquiry on 05/17/2016 regarding your Checking account number ending in —-. We have completed our research and the results are as follows: A credit of 50,000 ThankYou® Points has been processed to your ThankYou® Member account today for Promotion 42ERCZ42PY. Please allow up to thirty days or one statement period for the ThankYou® Points to reflect on your ThankYou® Member account.
Monthly Fees Waived
After hearing back from Citi that they needed this form, we asked them to waive the monthly fees since the delay in giving the bonus was their fault. (They never proactively contacted us to fill out the form.) For the month of April my wife received a $30 credit and she has not been charged for May. Her plan is to downgrade the account but keep it.
Other Problems
I suppose we had it much easier than some when it came to these bonuses. Some people were originally told they qualified and then were denied. Reddit is full of horror stories. Thankfully it does seem like Citi is coming around on honoring the promotion. If you have a message from them confirming your enrollment, then you should push for them to honor this deal in my opinion. Remember you can ask to escalate to higher management or file a CFPB Complaint.
Conclusion
As of now the points from the Citigold checking offer still have not posted, but with their confirmation letter I have no doubt that they will. Now the only question remains as to whether or not they will send a 1099. Sure it will stink if they do, but between these bonuses and the miles we earned from funding with a credit card, I suppose I should just be happy. (And I Am.)
Have you been able to get Citi to honor this deal and were you forced to fill out a tax form first? Let us know in the comments!
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From what I’ve gathered, you’ll receive a 1099 if you redeemed points for $600+ in value.
Applied in November, points posted in March after several messages. No 1099 required. No intention to downgrade as Citigold customer service is fantastic if you also have the Prestige card. Doesn’t hurt that I earn over 100,000 TY points each month. 😉
How do you earn 100K TY on prestige every month, can you please share?
I actually received the TY Points. I opened my account in October and had to send them a message in March asking about the points. They were able to process it into my account after asking. I did not have to fill out any tax forms.