Citibank Back-to-School Promo: $50 Bonus on Student Credit Cards
Citibank is currently running a “back-to-school” promotion where they added a $50 statement credit in addition to their standard card features for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card, the Citi Forward Card, and the Citi mtvU Platinum Select Card for College Students.
Both the mtvU and Forward cards offer 5x rewards on bookstores, movies, music, and restaurants – boy do they know students. 5x ThankYou points amounts to 3.45% cash back or 5% back in the form of gift cards from certain retailers. Great deal if you can handle credit responsibly. I’m pretty sure I applied for my first credit card in college in exchange for a cheap t-shirt with a Cal logo on it and no rewards whatsoever. Good thing I’ve always hated owing other people money…
As noted previously, 5x points on bookstores also includes anything bought at Amazon.com (a bookstore!). Would go perfectly with your free year of Amazon Prime.
The mtvU appears better if you get good grades and are willing to send/fax in a transcript every semester, while the Forward card has a better sign-up bonus and ongoing rewards for simply paying your balances on time. Here are some more details and fine print. Ends 9/30/2010.
- $50 statement credit when you make $50 in purchases within 90 days.
- No annual fee.
- No cosigner required.
- 0% intro APR on purchases for 7 months.
- $0 liability on fraudulent charges (as with other credit cards).
The statement credit can only be earned by new Citi mtvU Platinum Select, Citi Dividend Platinum Select or Citi Forward cardmembers approved through this offer. In order to receive the statement credit, you must make at least $50 in purchases that are not returned within the first 3 months of account opening. The statement credit will appear on the card billing statement after the purchase has posted to the card account, not on the receipt. Please expect to see your statement credit within 8 weeks of end of promotion period.
Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 7/19/10, 2:47am | Trackback
July 19th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Seems like Citi bank is going after the younger crowd. Interesting move for them. I heard that banks are no longer allowed to offer freebies and get students to sign up for credit cards on college / university property anymore. Know anything about this?
July 19th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
@Jenna – I think they can’t lie about things when getting students to sign up. Not 100% sure. I also have a crappy credit card as my first one ever. Some platinum BofA one…no rewards or anything
Is Citi a good bank to deal with? I’ve heard horror stories about them like customer service, and how their rewards suck (the TYpoint system?)
July 19th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
I’ve had the mtvU card for about 3 years – and I’ve kept it after college. For books(or anything at amazon) and restaurants its amazing. Also, many bars are considered restaurants – a big perk for college students.
Thank you network is decent. I usually go for gap gift cards, which if you buy in $100 increment, they have always sent me 2 $50 Gap/Banana Republic/Old Navy cards, which make a great gift or a nice shopping spree. Otherwise, I cash in for Home depot or Target gift cards, although I’ve had trouble finding the target card lately.
They did hike the interest rate before the credit card law took effect as well as lowered my credit limit so that I was basically maxing it out, but with my new job I will be happy to pay it down to a zero balance in the near future.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Do people prefer the points system with citi forward, or the cashback system with citi dividend?
July 20th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Be careful with these rewards credit cards, I had to cut up my Citi Forward credit card the other night, sure rewards are nice but when your focus is only on rewards you can also find yourself back in to debt!