Citi was offering two great promotions back to this March. 1. $200 bonus for opening a checking account. 2. 16,000 thankyou points and triple your thankyou points for 12 months for opening a new Citi checking account. Right now, both of the two offers have expired. However, I believe Citibank will release new promotion code in the near future.

Today I came across a very good chance to get the easiest money. Citi is sending out brochure which indicated that you can have 6,000 bonus thankyou points for making a simple survey. We know that many businesses will do some surveys about their products, services, or websites. And some of them will always give out a certain amount of bonuses. For example, American Express B2B survey once was offering $20 Amazon.com gift card for finishing a 1 min survey. Actually, there are many survey companies that run professional paid surveys. I have a post on how to make some small money by taking surveys. If you want, you can always get some small money by taking some short surveys from SurveySavvy.

This time the Survey from Citi bank is actually not a formal survey. If you have a checking account with them, you can call Citi at 1-866-422-1443 by 08/08/08 and mention code ATTS. After some short questions (less than 2 mins), you can get 6,000 thankyou points in your account at thankyou network in 90 days. The 6,000 thankyou points can be redeemed for a $50 gift card at the thankyou network.

Here is the details:

We’d like to take the opportunity to show our appreciation for your business with a $50 gift card, redeemable with 6,000 thankyou points. If you’re not currently a ThankYou member, we’ll enroll you so you will get the points. Just give us a call!

We can talk about as much or as little as you like. Mostly we’re just looking to know what we can do to make your banking life easier. No matter what, your time will be well spent. (Of course, what you do with the $50 gift card is entirely up to you.)

If you haven’t received the brochure, you can still call them up at 1-866-422-1443 and mention the code to receive the free 6,000 thankyou points! Remember, you have to have a Citi checking account to get the thankyou points!

Citi thankyou network is the rewards program that runs all of the promotions for Citi banking and credit card customers. You can earn thankyou points for having a checking or savings account at Citi. Or you can also earn Citi thankyou points by using Citi credit cards. Thankyou points can be redeemed as gift cards , cash or travel rewards. Some great thankyou rewards cards are: Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network, CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network, Citi PremierPass Card, Citi mtvU Card etc.

I have pointed out in this post that you can get free 100 thankyou points from Citi ThankYou Network by entering the promotion code: CITICCI508IN. Today I realize that many of you might not know this promotion code. 100 thankyou points maybe not too many but will accelerate your accumulation speed. Once you accumulate 10,000 thankyou points in your account, you can redeem a $100 gift card from Citi ThankYou Network.

To get the 100 thankyou points, you should go to the promotion page: https://www.thankyou.com/promotionalCodePage.jspx. Log in your account, and put in the code: CITICCI508IN.Sometimes an error message or “You have previously received bonus points for this promotional code.” might show up, but when you check the point balance, you will see 100 points have already been added in your account. Or you might see the following message: Congratulations! You have received 100 Bonus Points.

The other promotion code is: DPR1CDW408WK. To add this promotion code, you should visit the above mentioned page and log in your account and enter the code. Similar situation might show up but anyway 100 points will be credited to your account. Someone might even get 200 points from this promotion code. It’s highly YMMV.

Citi thankyou network is an excellent rewards program. If you are not a member yet, you can apply for a Citi credit card with thankyou points and register at www.thankyou.com. Suggested Citi credit cards are: Citi mtvU Platinum Select Visa Card for College Students, Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards Card, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards Card and Citi Business Card with ThankYou Network.

These days my post about earning enough thankyou points for a free trip to Europe and Asia have been proved to be a very popular blog post in the internet. It was also highlighted at www.digg.com. If you have a solid credit history and willing to take advantage of the bonus thankyou points, I think it’s a great idea to accumulate your thankyou points and redeem them for a flight ticket. Actually, most frequent flyer forums conclude that the best way to use your thankyou points is to redeem them for a flight ticket. Considering that the Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard is offering 25,000 bonus AAdvantage miles, I think it’s a good idea to get enough AAdvantage miles to get a free flight ticket.

How can you get enough AAdvantage miles for a free ticket?

Sign-up bonus miles from Citi:

Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MaterCard 25,000 bonus miles

Citi Gold AAdvantage World MasterCard 15,000bonus miles

CitiBusiness AAdvantage MasterCard/Visa Card 25,000 bonus miles

Another card you can consider is the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express. They offer 10,000 bonus starpoints which can then be converted to AAdvantage miles later. (If you are lucky, you can get 20,000 bonus points.)
According to AA, 50,000 miles are enough for an economy class ticket to Europe or Asia at off-peak season. (see the detailed requirement)

Fidelity is offering AAdvantage miles for opening a new nonretirement brokerage account. If you deposit $2,500 in the new account, you will get 5,000 miles. If you deposit $10,000, you will get 15,000 miles. If you deposit $50,000, you will get 25,000 miles.

I hope this post will be of some help to those who want to get a free ticket!!!

My post “Earn ThankYou Points for A Free Trip to Europe and Asia” turned out to be a very popular post. It was also mentioned at Fatwallet! It’s amazing. However, recently, Citi is about to change the terms on using fixed flight option. I have to make some changes here.

There will be only a limited credit cards can be eligible for the fixed flight travel option at thankyou network. Please remember that the new terms will be effective on April 15, 2008.

Certain ThankYou Members have the option of redeeming for air travel at fixed ThankYou Point amounts. As of April 15, 2008, ThankYou Members with a Smith Barney Account, Citibank® Account, Expedia® Account or the following Card Accounts are eligible for fixed flight airline tickets at fixed ThankYou Point amounts: Citi PremierPass® Card - Elite Level, Citi PremierPass® Card – Smith Barney Elite Level, Citi PremierPass® / Expedia.com® Card - Elite Level, Citi® ChairmanSM Card and Citi Chairman® American Express® Card. This list is subject to change without notice. Fixed flight option Travel Rewards are only available when you call the ThankYou Service Center. Agents will work to offer you the best deal on available flights – you are not required to select the fixed flight option.

It’s very straightforward, some popular credit cards like: Citi PremierPass Card, CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network, Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network and CitiBusiness PremierPass Card will not be eligible for the fixed flight option. It seems that if you want to take advantage of this program, you’d better have Citi PremierPass Card-Elite Level or Citi PremierPass/Expedia.com Card-Elite Level. Other credit cards are not so easy to get.

So the key to play this program is to get one of above mentioned credit cards and get enough thankyou points. Following is a list of cards offering great thankyou points bonus:

CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network: 15,000 ThankYou Points—-by far, the easiest business card to get!

Citi PermierPass Card-Elite Level:20,000 ThankYou Points or the non-Elite Level card: 10,000 ThankYou Points.

Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network: 10,000 ThankYou Points

CitiBusiness PermierPass Card: 15,000 ThankYou Points (this sign-up bonus will expire on March 31, 2008)

40,000 ThankYou Points from CitiBank (this post)

Other methods to earn ThankYou points:

Use Citi checking/saving account and debit card (Citi Bank will send about 300 ThankYou points every month. If you use all of the banking services provided by Citi Bank, you may get up to 800 points per month.) You can also use other credit cards like Citi mtvU card and Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card to earn ThankYou points.

I think the fixed flight travel option is by far the most valueable way to redeem your thankyou points. Because there are not so many good gift cards in the thankyou network.

Right now, we can find the official promotion page for the previously mentioned (this post) banking promotion from CitiBank.

If you are a new customer to Citi, you have to do the following steps to get the 40,000 ThankYou points.

1. Open a regular checking account with $1,000 deposit and then make one direct deposit or 2 bill payments for 3 consecutive months.

2. Open a Citi Ultimate Savings Account an deposit $25,000 in this account.

3. Enroll in ThankYou Network and wait for the 40,000 ThankYou Points appear in your account.

You can apply for the new account online or by phone at 866-458-9212 and mention the promotion code: CSZL.

If you are already a Citi Bank customer, you can still qualify for this promotion.

If you currently have the Ultimate Savings Account, you should open a checking account and finish the necessary activities as mentioned above. And fund this Ultimate Savings Account $25,000.

If you currently have a checking account, you should open a new Ultimate Savings Account and finish the necessary activities as mentioned above.

Read this post and then you can figure out how easily you can earn a free ticket to Asia or Europe by combining this promotion and getting extra bonus points by applying for new credit cards. Details of the promotion can be found here.

Suggested post: A Proposal—Earn ThankYou Points for A Free Trip to Europe or Asia.

I know most of us have a good credit score and many of us are taking advantage of the credit score to make some free money. However, some of my readers are afraid of lowering the credit score if he/she applies for too many credit cards. It’s true that credit inquiries (hard pulls) will temporarily lower your credit score. But the influence will be not so obvious after 6 months or so. I would say credit score is nothing if you’re not using it. If you are not going to buy a house (or apply for a mortgage) in the next two years (Credit inquiries will disappear from your credit report after 24 months.), you are free to use your credit. Credit inquiries will slightly influence your mortgage rate but not influence the auto loan (as long as your credit score is 700+).

This post is to tell you how to get a free trip to Europe or Asia by redeeming Citi ThankYou Points for an airline ticket. You can redeem your ThankYou points for an airline ticket because ThankYou Network provides Fixed Flight Travel option:

Eligible Citi cardmembers can also take advantage of our fixed flights option for air travel by calling one of our ThankYou Network Travel Specialists. You can count on getting a ticket for the date you want to fly. Note: please book 14 days in advance and plan for a Saturday overnight stay. Tickets are subjected to availability.

Account or the following Card Accounts are eligible for fixed flight airline tickets at fixed ThankYou Point amounts: Citi PremierPass Card, Citi PremierPass Card - Elite Level, Citi PremierPass Card – Smith Barney Elite Level, Citi PremierPass / Expedia.com Card, Citi PremierPass / Expedia.com Card - Elite Level, Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network, CitiBusiness PremierPass Card, CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network, Citi Chairman Card and Citi Chairman American Express Card. This list is subject to change without notice. Fixed flight option Travel Rewards are only available when you call the ThankYou Service Center (800-842-6596). Agents will work to offer you the best deal on available flights – you are not required to select the fixed flight option.

According to the ThankYou Network, if you have 60,000 ThankYou points, you can redeem them for a free airline ticket to Asia and Europe. (Only 25,000 ThankYou points are needed for flights anywhere in the continental US and Alaska at any time of year.)

So the goal is to get enough ThankYou points (You should have one of the above mentioned cards which are eligible to use the fixed flight travel option.) Here are some recommendations for you:

• CitiBusiness Card with ThankYou Network (10,000 ThankYou Points—see this post)
  
• Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network (15,000 ThankYou Points—see this post)
• Citi PremierPass Card-Elite Level (20,000 ThankYou Points)
• Citi PremierPass Card (10,000 ThankYou Points)
• CitiBusiness PremierPass Card (15,000 ThankYou Points)

Other methods to earn ThankYou points:

Use Citi checking/saving account and debit card (Citi Bank will send about 300 ThankYou points every month. If you use all of the banking services provided by Citi Bank, you may get up to 800 points per month.) You can also use other credit cards like Citi mtvU card and Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card to earn ThankYou points.

So remember, if you have a decent credit score with solid credit history, you can do a ThankYou Points AOR to get enough points for a free trip to Europe or Asia.

Maybe this is a very old credit card deal, and you guys might all know this deal. But I want to say it again because it’s a nice credit card. Citi professional mastercard with thankyou network is offering 10,000 thankyou points after first purchase. The 10,000 points can be redeem as a $100 gift card good for a lot of retail stores. You can get 3 points for every dollar spent at gas stations, drugstores, restaurants, car rentals and office suppliers. This card also provide 0 APR for balance transfer up to 9 months with $0 fee. It’s really a good card for those in need of money.

I applied for this card and got denied! I called in and talked to a credit analyst who told me that I need at lest one year credit history to get this card. Citi professional card is a hybrid personal/business card. It will show up on your credit report.