Free $100 for Opening Citi Bank Savings Account

[MadMan007]

does anyone know how badly will this affect a credit score? like numberwise because i plan on getting a loan for a car in a few months, i just opened an account with my dish tv provider and I think it knocked off 10points from my score. my current credit score is 808

808 is a very high score as I'm sure you know. There's no way you'll get rejected for a car loan even with a few hard pulls, it might change the rate you qualify for but that all depends upon what car loan or financing you apply for. Also this is only a check since it's not an actual line of credit and doesn't affect the other aspects of credit rating such as debt load ratio and payment history.

 

[kimochii72]

My credit probably isn't good enough to get this anyway, but could I get into trouble for opening this account and putting a couple of bucks in it and wait for the 100 bucks then transfer to money to my current bank then close the account? I could use the extra $100 bucks but not another checking account. I like my current bank.

Bull****! My credit is way worse than yours. I got approved 4 months ago for the $50 one and my bonus just came in the last 2 weeks. I wish I had waited for this $100 offer instead.
It's not a sinificant mark on your credit. Being that I came from that industry, in worst case scenerio it is just a 2 year inquiry. 3 to 4 per 2 years is fine.

 

[smekta3]

Does it have any confirmation for the $100 after your done?

 

[Spion]

for $100 i'll give it a try. worst that'll happen is i have to close it or i get a little bit off my credit score.

 

[blitzkrieg1110]

I know this is sorta off topic but where can you find out your credit score?

I know a lot of these "free credit report" websites are really scams....

 

[JKrepps]

Blitzkrieg1110: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

That one is, I believe, the correct one set up by the 3 major credit companies. You can get 1 per company (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) every 12 months (and should).

It is free, though that is only for your report(s). Most of them will offer you your score for a small fee (but remember that is your score with 1 company, and I believe it can vary across the 3 companies. As far as I know, only the reports were made free, no one gives your score out for free (with some exceptions: a lot of times you can get it from loan departments when you are applying, or some credit cards offer to give you your score for tracking).


Hope this helped

 

[Fr3@k3r]

http://www.experian.com/

Go to experian, they give you a trial 30 day to a credit monitoring service, just apply for it, your debit/credit card wont be charged and after your done printing off your report just cancel the membership and your done.

 

[crimedog]

a few things i wanted to add

-i did this offer last time it was up and have gotten my money credited. i transfered it out and haven't closed my account yet.

-you guys are blowing a credit check out of proportion. also, i'd like to see proof that they do, because it's a freaking online savings account.

-if you're a student and your parents put your name on a credit card of theirs it does not help your credit. nor do bills. you have to get your own credit card (have them co-sign if necessary.)

-i have done both the annual credit report and a free 30-day trial and they both work, although the annual is much less work.

 

[g0dM@n]

what's the safest way to find out my credit score? i may want to do this, but also wondering about how to get my credit score... ppl have talked about sites on the net, but that makes me scared.

 

[JKrepps]

g0dm@n, pretty sure the answer depends on your individual circumstance/needs.

Fastest and possibly easiest: get your credit report and pay the fee for your score.
If you are going to apply for a car loan (or possibly any bank loan?), the rep will probably give you your score when they run the check, and you can use that to get comparible rates elsewhere. (Have to trust that you are getting the right number from them, of course).

You might try contacting your credit card companies and see if they monitor it or offer any services for it.

No matter how you get your score, you should take the time to get your annual credit report, just to make sure any negatives are corrected/removed in a timely manner.

 

[g0dM@n]

g0dm@n, pretty sure the answer depends on your individual circumstance/needs.

Fastest and possibly easiest: get your credit report and pay the fee for your score.
If you are going to apply for a car loan (or possibly any bank loan?), the rep will probably give you your score when they run the check, and you can use that to get comparible rates elsewhere. (Have to trust that you are getting the right number from them, of course).

You might try contacting your credit card companies and see if they monitor it or offer any services for it.

No matter how you get your score, you should take the time to get your annual credit report, just to make sure any negatives are corrected/removed in a timely manner.

how can i pay the fee for my score? at my bank?

 

[Captain Helghas]

You can go to the websites of the three major credit bureaus (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian), sign up, and pay. They'll send you a score.

Welcome to the backbone of our economy...

 

[Matrix78]

i think i'm in the 600's and they let me open the account so, heres to free money

 

[tresmonos]

One or two "hard pulls" isn't going to hurt your credit that much, unless you already have issues.

You guys are scaring people away.....this isn't really that big of a deal. The credit companies just look to see how many times you've applied for credit. Now if you have a dozen "hard pulls" on your account over the last year.....then it's a problem.

Lets just say if you're a college student (which a significan portion of this demographic frequents these forums), its a bad idea. Unless you're not taking annual or bi-annual loans out from aunt Sallie Mae. New car insurance (hard pull), 1 college loan (hard pull), 1 new apartment (possible hard pull) and a possible application for a house loan coming up, I'll pass the odds of 100's of dollars of excess interest due to points off my credit score. I'm in the process of building my up my score so I can stop giving hundreds of dollars per month to a stranger (landlord). 100 bucks isn't worth it IMHO. If you're older or have all life set, then this is free money.

 

[tresmonos]

Welcome to the backbone of our economy...

Sadly, not funny. QFT.

 

[Captain Helghas]

Sadly, not funny. QFT.

I can't wait until 30 years from now the population increase of the world will not be enough to maintain our pyramid scheme of deft-based economy. Hope I'm wealthy enough to skip that depression.

 

[Ri0]

-you guys are blowing a credit check out of proportion. also, i'd like to see proof that they do, because it's a freaking online savings account.

As a Financial Specialist for a credit union I can add my input. A hard credit check will not hurt your credit score in any way unless it is excessive. Excessive means that it is a bunch of times in a short time frame. If you apply for 8 credit cards in a couple of months or 3 car loans in the same week. You can safely check your credit once every couple of months without any negative impact.

How do I know they check your credit? Other online banks do this as well for verification of identity, instead of using chex systems. I applied and part of the verification is the questions you are asked after your credit is pulled. You are asked multiple choice questions about your open/closed credit lines. I do suppose they could be just random questions that are made to look like a credit check, but if the bank wants to play it safe they will do a credit pull.

Anyway this was a good deal and I moved about $900 over that I had sitting in another online bank account, so I hope to receive the $100.

 

[MadMan007]

Lets just say if you're a college student (which a significan portion of this demographic frequents these forums), its a bad idea. Unless you're not taking annual or bi-annual loans out from aunt Sallie Mae. New car insurance (hard pull), 1 college loan (hard pull), 1 new apartment (possible hard pull) and a possible application for a house loan coming up, I'll pass the odds of 100's of dollars of excess interest due to points off my credit score. I'm in the process of building my up my score so I can stop giving hundreds of dollars per month to a stranger (landlord). 100 bucks isn't worth it IMHO. If you're older or have all life set, then this is free money.

One thing to keep in mind is that many of these things you're talking about are 'set deals' with a yes/no answer where as long as you're above the acceptable score level you'll get the set deal. A house loan is probably the only thing there where credit score would definitely directly impact the deal you get. Rent is usually a set amount, in fact there may be laws preventing preferential rent rates based upon credit score above the required level, car loan deals are often fixed although they may have more variation and depends upon the deal. Anyway up to you just something to consider.

The other best way to drastically improve credit score for those who want to is pay off loans, especially revolving credit cards, and improve overall debt ratio.

 

[kimochii72]

You can improve your credit score by running up a balance of a few hundred on say a $1000 card. Run it as high as you could by only purchasing your needed things, gas, food, pay utilities and internet bills with it. Revolve the account in 3 to 5 months segments, meaning pay above the minimum payment (3 to 5x the required amount) and do a slam pay-off at the 4-6th month in-full and overpaid actually, giving you credit owed to you. Repeat this process, making the balance swing up and down, revolve, make the card company money for those months and continue this process. By the time you do this with one visa/mc + 1 merchant card your credit score will skyrocket within 12 - 20 months. Trust me. This is one secret of the credit card industry. But never accept the intermittent preapproved apps that will come. You only need 2 cards and anything more than that is considered "oustanding credit," which means you have the potential to spend beyond your means (credit risk). The risks of inquires are so insignificant that you have to do a dozen of them or so within a 2 year period for it to impact the overal score. At At&T Universal Card (some of you may have this card), this is the way we looked at it.

 

[MooMasster716]

So if you open more than one you can receive multiple credits of $100?