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CD 5-month Account from Citibank, National Association with 4.51% APY and $500 minimum deposit

I joined Citi with a Costco-VISA card. An Accelerate followed, and then a checking account.

Costco-VISA is necessary for using a credit card at Costco, otherwise cash is necessary.
Accelerate Savings was opened to park some cash with a decent rate (though not the highest).
Checking was added to have access to large amounts from Accelerated Savings.

It is difficult dealing with a bank that is not local. Calling customer service sometimes has a wait-time and many agents are unable to provide information when it is more complicated than the current balance. Some agents are much better.

There are limits to moving money from the Accelerate account.
• Online transfer limit $10,000/day; $15,000/30 days
• ATM (Target, and many others) $1,500/day, unlimited days
Easy way around it: transfer funds to checking and write a check for as much as you want.

Banks insured by the FDIC are a commodity. Money goes in; earns some interest; money goes out. They are differentiated by interest rate, easy of money movement, and accessibility of information. Citi is medium – 3-stars. My local bank is also 3-stars – lower interest rate, but better services.

I prefer dealing person-to-person, but 435 miles to the closest Citi branch is a bit too far.

I opened a CITI online account in order to take advantage of bonus reward money. While I was trying to link my external account, CITI debited that account and the money was denied. It was a matter of the account not being linked yet. I had an alert on my CITI account that they were charging me an insufficient fund fee. When I called customer service to tell them I just opened the account, they said there was no charge. i had the printed page but they could not find a charge. Then, my savings was showing a .1% interest rate instead of a 1.05%. When I called about that they said that was a different account. i am afraid to move the money for fear of not getting the $700 bonus reward money. Let's see if I even get that. My money will be coing out of there in 90 days after the bonus money is deposited.