Banks offer perks to get high net worth individuals to do business with them. Because these individuals add more to a bank's assets under management compared to ordinary, non-net-worth account holders, banks have a strong incentive to create bonus programs.
Citigroup inc. (NYSE: C ccitigroup inc72. 38-1. 92% created with highstock 4. 2. 6 ) and bank of america corp. (NYSE: BAC ) bacbank of america corp 27. 05-2.52% created with highstock 4. 2. 6 ) have niche programs that offer a variety of rewards to account holders with balances above a minimum threshold. Citigroup offers citigold program for customers with more than $200, 000 between their deposits, retirement and investment accounts. Bank of america's preferred rewards gold program is available to customers with a total balance of more than 20.000 u.S. Dollars available between your bank of america and merrill lynch investment accounts. Customers with balances in excess of $50, 000 or $100, 000 may receive preferred rewards platinum or platinum, respectively. Platinum honors programs join.
Citigroup
Citigold offers the following perks and rewards.
Monthly service fee waiver: citigold customers will not receive monthly service fees on their checking accounts as long as they maintain minimum balances in their deposit, retirement and investment accounts. As of november 2016, customers must maintain an average monthly balance of 200.Comply with 000 U.S. Dollars to remain eligible for the citigold program.
Reward points: citigold customers earn reward points, called thankyou points, for making direct deposits or enrolling in online bill payments from a citigold account. Customers can redeem these points for travel discounts, gift cards and even cash.
Additional fee waivers: overdraft protection transfer fees, checkbook order fees, stop payment fees, incoming transfer fees, out-of-network ATM fees, and money order fees are not charged to citigold customers.
Credit discounts: mortgage customers enrolled with citigold can choose between reduced closing costs or a 25% interest rate reduction. Citigold customers can apply for home equity lines of credit (helocs) and personal loans at discounted rates based on the prime rate. Numerous restrictions apply, perhaps the most important being good credit. In addition, customers who close their citigold accounts before repaying their discounted credits may be charged fees and repay the discounts they received.
Bank of america
Bank of america's preferred rewards program offers three tiers based on account balance: gold, platinum and platinum awards.Rewards increase as customers move to higher tiers.
Interest rate increases: rewards customers receive a 5, 10 or 20% increase in the money market contract yield for gold, platinum and platinum awards. However, this does not mean that a platinum honours account holder will receive 20% interest on their money market account. Rather, it means that if the account pays 1%, he pays 1. 2% earned. As of 2016, base rates for money market accounts are well below 1%, which negates this reward for now.
Credit card rewards: members receive a 25, 50 or 75% bonus on credit card rewards, based on their tiers.
Fee-free ATM transactions: platinum members can make up to 12-year withdrawals from out-of-network atms for free, while platinum members receive unlimited withdrawals without fees.
Mortgage, HELOC and auto loan discounts: mortgage origination fees are reduced by $200, $400 or $600 depending on membership level. The interest rate discount on helocs is 0. 125, 0. 25 or 0. 375%, also based on the member's level. In the case of car loans, the discount per tier is even higher: 0.25, 0.35 or 0.5%. Credit approval is still required for all loans.
Free trades: platinum and platinum honor members receive 30 or 100 free stock or exchange traded ETF trades each month from their online investment accounts. This benefit is also available to gold members who make at least 15 self-managed trades per month.
Key takeaways
While both programs offer a long list of benefits, bank of america's rewards are more robust and explicitly defined. For customers who use their credit cards regularly, the bonus profit of up to 75% is lucrative. The bank of america's discounts on mortgages and helocs are more straightforward and have fewer restrictions. Unlike citigroup, bank of america offers generous auto loans.
In addition, only $ 20.000 required to benefit from the advantages of bank of america while citigroup $ 200.000 needed.
One area where citigroup is ahead is in waiving ATM fees. It offers unlimited exemptions for all citigold customers. Bank of america offers this benefit only for platinum awards, which require a minimum balance of $100,000.