Citi Credit Protector Rebates – Busted!
Earlier this year, I reported that I had cashed the $15 promotional check that I received from CitiBank, thereby signing up for their Credit Protector program. My main intention (beyond the free $15) was to cash in on their retention rebates when I tried to cancel — they send you a set of five $10 coupons that can be redeemed one per month. As it turns out, they sent me two sets of rebates, and I soon discovered that they were willing to honor both sets of rebate coupons. Well, they finally caught up with me and denied my last submission. Oh well, free money is free money, I managed to get an extra $30 out of them (i.e., $80 instead of $50) before they wised up, and I still have one more coupon in play. Yeah, I know, stuff like this is hardly worth the time that it takes. But it really doesn’t take that much time, and it does amuse me, so… I keep right on doing it.
Published on November 14th, 2005 - 10 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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November 14th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
I had to laugh when I read your post – I previously got those $50 rebate coupons and used them. I got another $15 check about 3 months ago, deposited it and made a note on my calendar to cancel (fully expecting them to try and keep me!) Well, no dice — they just let me go. Anyway, it was another $15 to send to my mortgage company.
November 14th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
If I understand correctly, you get the rebate coupons for agreeing not to cancel the Credit Protector program? If so, isn’t there a cost to that program which would at least partly offset the rebate coupons? What am I missing?
November 14th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Yes, there is a cost, but it’s associated with your closing balance at the end of each month. I’m doing this with a card for which I’ve already maxed out the rebates, such that I’m not currently using it. No activity = no balance = no cost.
November 14th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
LOL — I absolutely love it. I haven’t heard about much of those check cashing promos here in Canada, but I hear they use it alot in USA — for stuff like switching people Long Distance and stuff like that — crazyness!
November 14th, 2005 at 9:45 pm
…and it gives you good material to write about
November 21st, 2005 at 11:32 pm
I’ve done this for three of my citi CC. I havn’t been busted yet.
November 21st, 2005 at 11:59 pm
You’ve done what? Cashed in the rebate coupons? Or duped them into giving you duplicate sets of rebate coupons (at once) and then successfully cashed in both the originals and the duplicates? That’s pretty impressive if you’ve being able to do the latter three separate times.
December 7th, 2005 at 7:10 pm
If you cancel the service before using all of your rebates, are the rebates still valid? Do you have to stay a member to use the rebates?
March 11th, 2006 at 11:32 am
“To be eligible for the payment, the recipient must be an enrolled member of Credit Protector on the date the rebate request is recieved.” -back of each of the five $10 rebate certificates
March 5th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Lucky for you, you got your $10/coupon cards back. I haven’t received anything yet from submitting since Jan 2 of this year.