Citi checking bonus: copy the terms before you rely on $325
Citi's public checking offer URL, read on 22 September 2026, titles itself as a $325 new checking bonus. The requirement lines did not render in the page HTML, so this guide does not state a deposit amount, a window, or an exclusion list for Citi. Older Citi bonus PDFs from 2022 and 2023 are expired and are not current rules. Open the live terms, save them with the date, and track only the sentences on that copy.
The useful fact on Citi's public offer URL is narrow. The HTML title we read says you can earn $325 with a new Citibank checking account. 1 The body that should define the work did not render when the page was fetched on 22 September 2026. 1 A title is not a checklist. This page is the checklist of blanks to fill from the terms once they load.
What the index page adds
Citi's special-offers index says products and pricing depend on your home address, and that offers change often. 2 A bonus that appears for one ZIP can be absent for another. If your address selector changes the offer, save the version that matches the address on the application. Do not screenshot someone else's ZIP.
The eight blanks to fill
Use the same eight lines as how to read a bank bonus offer, and leave them blank until the Citi page prints them.
- The product name, not just "checking."
- The direct-deposit definition, including any named exclusions.
- The amount and the count of deposits.
- The window, and the day it starts: opening, enrollment, or funding.
- The payout timing, and whether the account must be open.
- The monthly fee and the waiver.
- Who is excluded, including recent Citi customers.
- The date the offer expires.
What counts as a direct deposit shows why blank 2 is the one people skip. Two banks can use the same words and exclude different credits.
What not to paste in
Do not paste a deposit threshold from a 2022 or 2023 Citi PDF into a 2026 application. Those files describe offer periods that have ended. Do not paste another bank's deposit threshold into a Citi row in the bank bonus tracker. A tracker filled with another bank's number will mark you qualified on a test Citi never wrote. If the bonus later fails, the checklist in why the bonus has not posted starts from the offer you saved, not from a guessed window.
After you can read the terms
Save a PDF with the date before you apply. Then send one deposit the definition allows, and read the label Citi assigns it. If you cannot meet the definition with payroll or a benefit the page names, the $325 in the title is not your offer. 1 Price whatever the terms do require with the ROI calculator after you type in Citi's own days and fees. CardLab does not open the account, and it will not invent the lines this page could not read.
Common questions
Is the $325 a confirmed requirement?
It is the amount in the public page title we read. It is not, by itself, proof of the deposit size, the number of days, or who is excluded. Those lines have to come from the terms on the same offer.
Can I use a Citi bonus PDF from a prior year?
Only if that PDF is the offer you enrolled in, and only for that enrollment. A 2022 or 2023 welcome-bonus PDF is not the offer a new application sees in 2026. Terms change, and the copy you agreed to is the one that counts.
What if the terms never load?
Do not apply against a title alone. Try the page again, or ask Citi for the offer terms in writing. An application without a saved term sheet is a bonus you cannot dispute.
Sources
CardLab tracks the cards you hold and the bonuses you are chasing, with every rate read from the issuer's own page.
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