CLAMP Campus Adventures

When I was at the Citizen’s Bank at my local Stop & Shop today, I noticed an interesting poster. It said, “Switch to Circle Checking and Get One of These…” under the letters it showed a Home Depot gift card (up to $150 written below), a Best Buy gift card (up to $150), an iPod Mini, or something else that I just can’t remember at the moment.

Edit (7/22/2005): I was at the Citizens at the Suffolk Downs Stop & Shop yesterday and got the final promo item. It’s a gift card (up to $150) for Sunoco Gas.

I was surprised as I’d seen no advertising on it, so I web searched on Google, and found one article (BugMeNot), which differed greatly from the poster I saw in it said the gift cards would be $200 and the iPod would be a Shuffle (in one part, it said Mini in another part indicating the Boston Globe is confused to the details of the promotion). According to the article, Citizens began to test the promotion as early as this past April. It has been rather under the table as farther test markets are made available.

The article also dates back to April, so this isn’t something new, but it has most definitely been kept quiet.

What’s the catch to this promotion? Well, you have to open what Citizens calls it’s Circle Checking account. This account requires you keep a minimum balance across all your Citizens accounts of $5000 (the article says $2500, but Citizen’s website is clear on the issue) or you start to pay fees. There are benefits to the Circle Checking account. For example, this account doesn’t get charged fees for using an out of network ATM.

The promotion is obviously aimed at people who have $5000 in savings or more and are willing to tie it up at Citizens indefinitely. I’m not there yet, and the interest rates offered by Citizens aren’t either. It’s still more cost effective to open up an ING Direct savings for 3% interest rates and no fees and save there. I use Citizens for their Green Checking plan. This plan has no fees on any balance as long as you direct deposit into the account. I have a savings account with them where I deposit $10/month into it just in case I need emergency cash and don’t have the time to wait the 2 - 3 business days it takes to get money from ING. Carl and I have a joint checking with Citizens as well. This one is Circle Checking but we got a special deal on it where we don’t have to pay any fees for being below the balance. I use that ATM card when I need to get money out of network and just transfer the balance in from my personal account.

If I had $5000 to spare, I’d transfer my Green to a Circle, but I wouldn’t go for the iPod. I could use the Home Depot certificate for my bathroom remodeling project and to put towards new kitchen countertops.