Free money from Citi credit cards!
August 5, 2006
But you can lose money too ….
First a couple little things: Kira, the ID monitor from Citi that I mentioned before has another benefit I totally forgot about. Their offer is a 30 day free trial of Identity Monitor and only 9.95 a month after that. It gives you a free credit report and credit score from Equifax. AND THEN: it includes a free upgrade (it comes in a nice little booklet, on the first page) to a 3-in-1 credit report with 3 credit scores and 3-Bureau Notify Express so you can get all your info from Experian, TransUnion AND Equifax for free. You just have to log onto their site, activate your account and access the upgrade.
Cost: 5 minutes
Gain: $30 of credit reports and scores? I don’t know how much they cost actually, I’ve never paid for one.
BONUS: I found, while looking at my Special Offers on the Citicards site, that you can sign up online and get a $25 dollar rebate coupon while you’re getting all the free stuff above!! It takes about 6-8 weeks to receive the coupon though, so I think I’ve decided it’s actually not really worth the effort and 9.95 for the second month so that I’ll still be enrolled in the program long enough for the rebate to go through. It’s a net profit of 15 dollars but I’m not sure it’s worth my time right now.
Ok, on to the next thing: I’m using a Citi card’s 0% fee-free BT offer to take care of a chunk of debt for my parents, and I was able to use the remaining amount left on my limit (700 of 2800) to just throw in the bank for some interest. So they’re saving me all the interest that I would be earning on the original 2100 debt by allowing me to keep most of it in the bank for nearly a year, I’m getting extra interest on the borrowed money, and I can take advantage of their Credit Protector and ID Monitor rebate checks.
I am learning, however, that I should be careful not to overextend myself playing with Citi offers because the rebates do take some time to go through and you don’t want to get caught paying a CP fee because you’re waiting for the rebate to go through before you cancel. At least, I thought you had to still be enrolled in the program to have them process your rebate check. So, I confess, I tripped myself up with doing that on a BT card – and thought I was being clever by having them give me another 30-day free trial on the CP program. It turns out that I misunderstood them. The CSR offered me what I thought was another 30 days free to continue in the program at a lower cost, but it was actually a 30 moneyback guarantee period. As soon as I saw the 21.44 fee on my statement, I called and cancelled the whole thing. It’ll be refunded but they said it could take 30 days. Since my next due date is 8/21 and the next statement period is 8/25, there’s a possibility I’ll get dinged with some interest if they don’t credit that amount back before then. I’ve learned my lesson, hands off the BT cards! Tsk tsk.
