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Citibank Credit Cards: Free Citi Payall for All Payments Set up from 1st April 2021 to 31st October 2023 (Normally 2%)

1720

Received in email. Maybe targeted.

Free points on your rents, and any other fees that normally don’t accept credit cards without a fee.

Email excerpt below:

We are writing to advise you of an update we are making to the Citi PayAll product feature available on your Citi Rewards Card.

For all Citi PayAll payments set up between 1 April 2021 to 31 October 2023 (the Period), the Citi PayAll fee will be reduced to 0%:

• Any recurring Citi PayAll payments set up during the Period will not incur the Citi PayAll fee for the duration in which those payments are scheduled to occur.

• Any Citi PayAll payments set up after the Period ends will be charged the standard Citi PayAll fee of 2% of the amount of the Citi PayAll payment.

• Any recurring Citi PayAll payments set up prior and after the Period will be charged the standard Citi PayAll fee of 2% of the amount of the Citi PayAll payment. This fee will apply to all recurring payments made for the duration in which those payments are scheduled to occur.

• From 1 November 2022, points will be capped at $20k per month or the lower of your credit card limit.

For more information on Citi PayAll, please refer to the Credit Card Terms and Conditions and Other Important Information and if you are enrolled in a Citi Rewards program, please refer to the Terms and Conditions of the Rewards program you are enrolled in.

https://www1.citibank.com.au/offers-benefits/PayAll1

This is a good guide:
https://www.pointhacks.com.au/citibank/payall/

Related Stores

Citibank Australia
Citibank Australia

closed Comments

      • i set up recurring monthly from 2023 + 24 months, 2025 + 24 months etc to 2034 all in the same day

        • That's what I did but I still got the error as in my original post.

          • @hiaaron: Make sure there's no overlap in months on your scheduled payall.

            • @CodeXD: Thanks for the reply but there was no overlap. I did Mar 2023-Feb2025 and Mar 2025-Feb2027 but it did not allow me to go further from Mar 2027.

              • @hiaaron: Did you end up previously cancelling a PayAll set up? If you did, you will be locked out for 24 hours.

                • @wangasm: No, today was the first day ever I've set up PayAll after I received the card last week.

    • citi payall cancelled payments count towards maximum limit too. So it's not a thing you can "try out"

  • Weird… My Payall date is the 8th (normally comes out 3 days before). However, just received notification it will be coming out on the 10th.
    Guessing a Feb thing?

    • My Feb one was moved from 26th to 24th. But I still got the timely reminder, so no big deal

      • Yeah, normally 'adjustments' come early.

        This is the first time ever it has come late (and technally would miss the date it was needed for).

        • Ask for compensation for missed payment 😂

    • my payall is 8th but got a msg saying its coming out on 6th

      • That’s normal. They’re making sure the money arrived in time or earlier by withdraw 2 days before scheduled date.

  • For those who are sending the money to a savings account, I'm curious what dates you have set up in order to maximise interest? If my statement date is the 21st, I'd assume best case would be to set up payments to start a day or two after that then pay it off at the next month's 21st?

    • As I stated above, set it at mid of the month on a Wednesday, then you need to pay back on Monday since that is when money will be deducted.

      • Can you explain why it needs to be at the mid of the month? Won't it be the same regardless?
        i.e: Statement on the 21st. PayAll on the 26th (to give time for the money to be taken out up to 5 days before if its a weekend). Most I'll miss out on is the few days after.

    • 21 is not a great statement date because it adds accounting complication. Citibank does not work on weekends. You cannot PayAll more than 95% of the max allowable amount in one payment. Citibank process PayAll payments 3 days before the scheduled date.
      At a statement date of 21, you need to add 2 days to allow for possible weekend, then add another 3 days to allow for Citibank advance processing. Thus your first scheduled PayAll for the month should be on 21+2+3 = 26th of the month to be absolutely certain in all possible years/months the payment will come out AFTER your statement has been produced which will give you the maximum ~55 days time to pay it back while it accrues you interest held elsewhere. But you still need to make another PayAll payment because of the 95% rule meaning you can't PayAll more than 19K in one payment. Your second PayAll for the month will need to be 3 days after the first minimum in order not to overlap and possibly fail if the credit limit remaining is momentarily under the PayAll amount due to carrying the debt of the first PayAll payment. This means 26+3 = 29th, but the month we're talking about happens to be February and it's not a leap year, so now the 29th is actually the 1st March and you're stuffed because now Citibank regard your second February PayAll as actually being your first March payment instead and now one of your two March payments will fail because three PayAll payments in one month will exceed your limit and the third one that breaks that threshold will be rejected and bounce.
      This is why timing matters. This is why you don't want to overlap month changes, statement production dates, payback dates or even other PayAll scheduled payment dates. Keep EVERYTHING 3 days apart from EVERY other thing that happens in the month, and for good measure, add another 2 days to that if you can to allow for weekends which Citibank doesn't count.

      • You are assuming they have the minimum $20k credit limit. Which can be easily solved by increasing limit to $22-23k.

        • Yes I am, because when you're planning this out, you have to assume the WORST POSSIBLE CASE scenario for every single thing. So yes, I am assuming a 20K credit limit, I am also assuming it's February and that it's not a leap year. I'm also assuming that Easter is falling in February (even though that may actually not be technically possible). I'm also assuming the date chosen for the first PayAll of the month happens to fall on Good Friday. I am assuming every single possible difficult thing that could make timing the PayAll payment setups complicated or ambiguous.
          I do this because Citibank change the rules as and when they see fit with no warning, so you need to pre-plan and setup future dated payments sometimes decades into the future safe in the knowledge that you will never again be able to edit them in any way without losing them entirely.

          • @Legoman: Totally agree! Always good to deal in the worst case to deal with everything. I am on the minimum 20k credit limit so your examples were perfect for my situation.

        • Now you're assuming that increasing the credit limit by 2-3K is a trivial matter not worth worrying about. I would argue that expecting to be able to raise your credit limit easily is by no means assured, guaranteed or even easy and could well result in a significant credit rating downgrade if rejected, with no comeback or appeal process to repair it again.

      • Wow, really appreciate the detailed explanation. It all makes perfect sense now. I had already called up to change my statement date to the 15th before this.

        You mention that I should keep everything 3 days apart from each other, does that mean you would have a single 19k transaction for my first payall payment? Would it be fine to have multiple transactions totalling 19k on the first payment day and then the last 1k 3 days after that?

        • The split you choose is really up to you and your spending usage of the card. If you're using the card for its traditional purpose of retail spending in addition to PayAll, then you may well find that a more even 10/10 split works better for you and leads to the least chance of a credit limit exceedance bounce, rather than stretching the card to the max on the first PayAll with a 19/1 split.
          I have a card with a 20K limit, but I have set it up with 35K of PayAlls (before the rules changed) in a split arrangement of 19/1/15 on respectively 21/24/27 of each month with a statement date of 16.
          16+5 = 21+3 = 24+3 = 27 which means all PayAlls are after the statement date and none ever breach a change of month either or overlap the payment date which is typically the 12th of each month either.
          It is not ideal for me having a 19/1/15 split and if I had my time again I would not set it up this way, but it's too late now and I can't change it without forfeiting the 35K on a 20K credit card arrangement I have going

          • @Legoman: Makes sense, I don't plan on using the card for anything but payall.
            I had a few payments setup when I first got the card, but cancelled them once I learnt about the importance of the dates. So right now I've just got a 4k setup on the 21st (statement date 15th).
            Looks like I'll have to only get 4k on this first month because when I try adding even 1k now, its telling me I've already reached my limit for the month. So 1st of April I'll setup payments for 21st (4k + 15k) and 24th (1k) and I'll have to sit 20 days without using the entire 20k - which I don't mind as long as future months are all setup for max efficiency.

          • @Legoman: Hi Legoman, I have a 32k credit limit and I would like to maximise offsetting my home loan with PayAll. I don't know my statement date yet.
            What is the best PayAll set up if the statement is the 1st for example? Apparently I can’t do $20k per month as 40k in two months will reach the limit before the 20k in the statement is due as the due date will be later than another 20k payall following month.

            • @hiaaron: If you log onto citibank via desktop then click on the credit card.

              You can see 'Last statement issued date'

              • @CodeXD: Hi CodeXD, I only received my card this month and my first payall payment went through. My first statement has not been generated.

                • @hiaaron: It will still say it. Mine is the date I got approved.

                  • @CodeXD: You are right. It was 29th of Jan even though I received mine in March.

            • +1

              @hiaaron: Start by calling Citibank or better yet, message them on online chat and get your statement date changed to something between the 7th and the 16th of a month. Why? Because for ease of keeping track and not falling foul of Citibank's own rules about what is or is not in a specific 'month', you want everything happening within the same calendar month, whether that is defined by you, or by Citibank. Citibank credit cards are 55 day interest free ones, not 44 (Amex) or 62 (some other weird cards), so the 7th as the lower limit allows for the 6 days less than 2 months (61 days) for the payment due date to fall. 7-6 = 1. Thus if you have a statement date of 7th of each month, then you should get a payment due date typically on the 3rd each month. but some months will be as early as the 1st. Personally, that's not ideal for me, but it's at least not in the previous month. This is a very rubbery calculation though and can vary a LOT because of weekends and public holidays and numbers of days in the month etc. My statement date is 16, but from that my payment due date can be anywhere from 10th to 13th. The worst case is 10th, which means 6 days less than the statement date. I have never had a payment due date of the 9th for a statement date of 16, so 10 is the worst case. At the other end of the scale don't go further out than 16th either, because you'll run out of days in the shortest month to get your PayAlls in with 3 day gaps and a 5 day gap from the statement date to avoid overlaps and making sure your payments are processed after the previous month's statement.

              If you wanna maximise the number of days you can process PayAlls on, then request a statement date of 7 (but do not go lower), but if you only want to use a maximum of 3 PayAlls per month and prefer a bit more breathing room, then request a number around the middle of the month say 15/16/17, but do not exceed 17. At statement on 17 you can safely process PayAlls on 22/25/28 without straddling a change of month. If you go for a statement 7, then you can request PayAlls on 12/15/18/21/24/27. These are the extremes. I'm sure you can work out the results for middling numbers of statement dates between 7 + 17 for yourself.

              If you only want to do one PayAll per month and that will never change, then you can have a statement date as far out as the 23rd if you want, because 23 + 5 = 28, but that's the extreme upper limit. Anyone using PayAll with a statement date outside of the 7-23 range will for certain, eventually have a month with rejected/bounced PayAll payments for exceeding the monthly limit, if you're using PayAll to maximise the free money you can get (and if you're not maxmising the free money you can get, then you're in the wrong forum on the wrong website and you're reading the wrong thread)

              • @Legoman: Terrific, thanks. I also did a couple of simulations, one with a 20k withdrawal immediately after the statement and put back before the next PayAll which is still before the due date. The 20k only stays in the bank for 22 days (roughly). However, if I PayAll twice a month each 10k, I will have 30k sitting in my account between the due date and the next PayAll. I think this maximises the 30k cc limit and maximum offsetting the home loan.

                • @hiaaron: Thanks very much for the illuminating posts @Legoman, @hiaaron and others. I've just received my card and have read lots of these threads. My limit is $20k and my statement date is 9th. I'm planning to do 3 x payments of 7.5k, 7.5k and 5k on 14 / 17 / 20 of each month. When should I be scheduling the transfer of funds from my bank account back to the Citi account? I was thinking on 10 / 13 / 16, to give an additional day before each new Payall may be deducted from my account (ie so that each of the upcoming Payall payments does not exceed the $20k limit)? But with future dated bank transfers, I'm not sure Osko is used, so is there a risk that funds won't hit my Citi account before the new Payall payments for that month?

                  • @Bucks5: Is there a reason you are splitting up the $20k into 3 transactions instead of 2 x $10k?

                    • @CodeXD: TBH without knowing too much about it - but Austrac and $10k being an auto-ping. Is that a baseless concern?

                        • @CodeXD: Yeh ok, that's good to know, thanks very much.
                          So then revising my thinking above, I'd do 2 x transactions of $10k on 14 / 17 of each month - when do I need to be transferring funds back to Citi to ensure the credit limit is not exceeded (whilst of course maximising time in the offset account), assuming I'm going to set up scheduled transfers?

                          • @Bucks5: If you must set up an auto transfer to your Citi credit card, set it up at least 7 calendar days before your Payall date.
                            - 2 days to allow for a weekend
                            - 2 days to allow for a double public holiday such as Easter and Christmas
                            - 2 days because Citi debits your credit card two business days before the Payall date
                            - 1 day to allow for bank transfer delays

                            By the way your statement date is irrelevant. Payall limits are based on calendar month.

                            • @capslock: Thank you - super helpful! Just wanted to double check your last comment - if i have made $20k Payall payments already in March (on 14 and 17), and my credit limit is $20k….my statement date is 9th April so the $20k outstanding is only payable around 3 May. I have assumed that I'll need to transfer money back to my Citi account in order for my April 14 and April 17 Payall payments to go through - otherwise there are no funds available based on my limit. Am I wrong?

                              • @Bucks5: You are correct. You will be depositing $20k to your Citi card every month which means you will always be paying your outstanding balance in full. The statement date and due date becomes irrelevant.

                          • @Bucks5: I have not automated payback dates. This is too hard and requires too much work in conjunction with the automation of the PayAll dates. Besides, there is no point because no one is stopping me from editing the payback dates each month as I need them optimised to be, unlike the PayAll payments which have to be set in stone because of rules imposed by Citibank.
                            What I do is at the start of each month I look at the pre-programmed PayAll dates (14 + 17 in your case), and where they fall in relation to weekends and public holidays in that specific month. I then disregard the weekend and holidays days and count back 3 days from each to work out the payback date in order to have enough available credit for the new PayAll not to bounce.
                            Example: 14 is a Monday, therefore 3 days prior is Fri-Thu-Wed. I need to have funds IN the credit card by Wed the previous week in order for Citibank to process the 14 PayAll without bouncing. I therefore schedule a BPay into the credit card on Tuesday 8th which will be actioned at 4pm and credited on the morning of Wed 9th ready for Citibank to potentially charge the 14 PayAll on Wed 9th.

                            • @Legoman: Hi Legoman, so from all the previous threads I have read I have noted a few points.

                              1- The card should have enough funds 3 days before the PayAll date. So if my PA date is the 18th, I should have funds on the 15th max. Am I correct? Usually, when direct debits are taken place, banks make sure that card has funds on the day of the direct debit. At least this is what I have seen. Is this something different for Citibank PA?

                              2- Usually BPAY takes 24-48 hours. So considering your example, what if the funds do not fall on Wed the 9th but on Thu10th?

                              3- Any PA 20k limit is per month not per statement dates, right?

                              4- With 20k card limit, i can only use 90% for PA?

                              • @nnaa8287:

                                1. Correct
                                2. BPay is processed overnight if requested before 4pm AEST on any given banking day. This is written into the agreement when an ADI signs up to the BPay payment system. There is no 24-48hr BS about it like there is with EFT. It is overnight. Always. That's why you use it because there is no ifs, buts or maybes about it.
                                3. Calendar month
                                4. Yes
                                • @Legoman: Thanks for the confirmation.

                                  My statement due date is 21st. And PA dates are setup on 29th and 30th and a backup PA on 2nd of next month in case any previous PA fails. To optimize it can I make my PA dates 25 and 26 with backup PA on 28th?

                                  • @nnaa8287: If your statement due date is 21, then your statement issue date is nominally 25, which is very sub-optimal for accounting and management purposes because you're going to have lots of overlapping of payments going in/out and crossing over calendar month changes as well. See all my other TL:DR posts for the in-depth reasoning as to why this is bad.

                                    If you're not willing to request a change of billing date with Citibank to get the statement date earlier in the calendar month and you prefer to stick with the 25th for a statement date, then as I see it you only have one sensible option left. One PayAll only for 95% of your card credit limit on 28, and then no more. 28th is the latest you ever want to pre-set PayAlls to happen without overlapping a month change because of February.

                                    Even this is not ideal because you should leave 4 days between the statement date and your first PayAll to be absolutely certain in all circumstances that your PayAll happens in the new billing period rather than the dying minutes of the old billing period, but with a statement date of 25 you are painted into a very tight corner and your options are extremely limited.

                                    • @Legoman: My statement issue date is not 25th. My statement period is always from 8th -7th. Last one was from 8th Feb to 7 mar with due date on 21st mar so I didn’t get when you say statement issue date will be 25th.

                                      • @nnaa8287: You have a Prestige card then? I was assuming you had the card most have which is either the Premier/Signature or the Platinum version which are both 55 day cards. You obviously have the Prestige in this case which is only 44 day. This changes the maths significantly and I haveb't worked it out for the Prestige because I don't have one due to the fact Prestige was never available with a waived annual fee and obviously has the lesser 44 day interest free period making it both more expensive for less value.

                                        • @Legoman: Yes it's prestige. But then with the dates I have given what could be the maths?

                                          • @nnaa8287: Sorry but I don't have a Prestige card. Maybe someone else who does will work it out for you.

                        • @CodeXD: TTR is only cash and not applicable for bank transfers

                  • @Bucks5: I don't believe you can Osko direct into a credit card account. You can BPay, but not Osko I don't think. You can Osko into another Citibank account held in the same portfolio as the credit card and then transfer instantly across from there, but that's double handling and more work each month. I just BPay the day before its needed. The BPay is credited the following morning which is OK because the PayAlls don't get charged until the late afternoon/evening, so there is at least 12 hours gap between the credit and the new debit.

                • @hiaaron: Hi there, thanks for your questions, they have been helpful for me. I'm hoping to get some clarity on your comments here. For your first scenario of withdrawal 20k immediately after the statement to put back before the next PayAll which is still before the due date, once you put the 20k back into the card after withdrawal, and then proceed to do the PayAll, wouldn't the due date happening after that count as having nothing owing as technically you've already put the 20k for that due date back once? And for the second scenario of Payall twice a month each 10k, how is that different from 20k in one go? The 30k sitting in account between due date and the next PayAll only happens when whatever has been transferred out has been paid back and as such not earning interest? Thanks in advance if you could shed some light!

                  • @donamique: Yes. I never have any issue of paying full balance late anymore ever since payall exist. I was still on the older plan when I need to set multiple payall a month due to my smalle limit though, but technically it’s the same

              • @Legoman: Quick question, do you pay your statement on the same day you receive it?
                If so - does that mean from the 16th until that first payall on the 21st, you are holding none of Citi's money? The most I was thinking you could leave it is a day or two, but might not be worth the risk of it bouncing.

                • @Neyo01: No. My statement is paid by automated direct debit on the day it is due on the statement

                  • @Legoman: So your payall transactions on the 21st, etc, won't bounce even though you have $0 credit on them? $0 credit because you won't have paid it until the due date (30th-ish)

                    16th: Statement with 35k owed
                    21st: 35k incoming <— Won't this fail as you haven't paid it yet?
                    30th: Pay the 35k owed

                    • @Neyo01: On the contrary, my previous month's statement was paid back in full by direct debit on the ~12th, so my account already has ~24K available credit in it ready for the first PayAll on 21. You're looking at one month in isolation. You can't do that. The current month is influenced by what happened in the previous month and so on and so on.
                      My statement due date is not 30th or even close to it. Citibank cards are 55 day cards. The due date for a 16 statement date card is ~12th

                      • @Legoman: Oh I thought you'd be paying in 14 days after your statement date - meaning the 30th.
                        So same sorta process applies, from the 12th until the 21st, you won't have 24k accumulating interest - just the other 11k?

                        I'm just seeing if I can collect interest for those few days between.
                        Looks like I'll be paying my statement on the 15th when I receive it, so that I have 20k ready by the 21st - ignoring the actual due date and missing interest from the 15-21st.

                        • +1

                          @Neyo01: Correct more or less, but Citibank process PayAlls 3 days before the scheduled date, so the lost interest days are more like 12th to 18th. Yes, there are about 6 days each month that not all of the money is earning the most interest possible. This is a sacrifice I am willing to accept in order to automate the process as much as possible and reduce my workload managing it month to month manually. The alternative would certainly result in a miscalculation or out-of-control inability (due to bank or computer hardware failure) to transfer funds exactly when needed in order to avoid a bounced/rejected payment one month. Just one bounced or rejected payment would more than outweigh the consistent and planned loss of interest for 6 days of each month in order to automate, so I'm happy with that.

                          • @Legoman: Would be 12th to the 21st right? Because it takes out the money on the 18th but you don't receive until the 21st.
                            However, these are all tiny details that don't matter.
                            I'm also willing to make that sacrifice, I think the most you'd be able to squeeze is a day or two.

                            • @Neyo01: No. In my case with the destination payee account I use, the funds are received and cleared the morning after the PayAll has been processed by Citibank. I am never waiting until the 21st to actually get the money scheduled to be paid on the 21st. Just another of the fun foibles of trying to predict what Citibank will do.

                              • @Legoman: Ah, one of the few cases where their fun inconsistencies work out better for us.

                  • @Legoman: Many thanks again @Legoman. To clarify, if I'm only using this for my 2 x PayAll payments which is exactly equal to my credit limit, is there a need for the manual Bpay payments or can I just set up automated direct debit to pay off the Citi card? (I understand you may use BPay since your limit of $20k is less than the $35k per month you are putting through.) And this then would corroborate what @capslock said above about being able to pay on statement due date (ie using the full 25 days from statement date) without blocking the next month's payalls.

                    • @Bucks5: As I have stated earlier in the thread, unless you have a credit limit of DOUBLE the max PayAlls you can schedule in one month, then you are going to be making manual payments at some point back to your credit card to manage the available credit in order to not have bounced/rejected payments. To really, properly, hands-off automate the scheduling of PayAlls and payments, you need a credit limit of not less than 40K (new rules) or 70K (old rules). I don't have that but I wish I did. The reason is that PayAlls are on a monthly schedule whilst automated direct debit payments are on a 55 day schedule. These obviously do not match, so your credit card needs the capacity to carry BOTH the previous month's and the present month's PayAlls at the same time for some days of the month before an automated payment occurs. To do that you would need a minimum 40K/70K credit limit.
                      There MAY be a way around this by using the EasiPay options to pay specific amounts to the credit card at specific times multiple times a month, but I haven't looked into this myself and don't know if those options exist on the current version of the Citibank EasiPay application form. Perhaps someone else would like to find this out and report back?

                      • @Legoman: Thought so. Easipay only allows you to make payments on the due date nominated by the statement date, so this won't work. Personally I'd rather set and forget (I'm not as committed as you!) so I'll likely set up auto transfers 7 calendar days before each of my 2 x PayAll payments, per @capslock recommendation. Do you foresee any payment timing issue with that?

                      • @Legoman: I only have a 37k limit (old rules) and have got calendar events setup a few days before my 1st PayAll (have 2x payments). On those days I need to login and Osko to the transaction linked account and then inside Citi onto the CC account.
                        Reading this recent discussion I am thinking I can setup recurring Bpays from my money holding account into the Citi CC a few days before the 1st PayAll. However I am not sure how to factor in my statement date while having EasiPay still setup. Some months EasiPay auto debits for the CC before/after my calendar date and then the card is in credit. Should I setup my BPays a few days before the payment date of my statement and that way EasiPay won't take the money if I have already fully paid the account. Or should I setup the Bpays into the Citi CC a few days before statement date.

                        PS. Checked EasiPay and the only options for me are full closing balance or minimum payment, nothing else.

                        • @knobbs: This is why contrary to what others have said, statement and due dates are not irrelevent. In your specific situation which is very similar to my own, you should never have a credit balance in your credit card, and you don't need to with the right timing. You can work it out for yourself using the following facts about Citibank credit cards:
                          1. Your statement payment date occurs nominally 4 days before your statement date, but can be as early as 6 days before in some months.
                          2. PayAlls are charged 3 days before the date you schedule them (excluding abnormals like weekends/holidays etc.)
                          3. BPay is not instant, it takes a day (overnight processing)
                          4. EasiPay direct debit payment is not instantly added to available credit (it takes nominally 3 days to become cleared funds)

                          All of the above has to be taken into account when scheduling your PayAll dates. If you're making your credit card go into credit at any point in the month, then you have not optimised your timings, but if you're on the old rules then you can't change now, so your stuck with what you've done. Basically, what you've done is schedule your first PayAll to occur too close to your statement date such that sometimes you are having to manually pay back enough credit to not bounce either before or on the same day as the automated EasiPay occurs, resulting in a double-up of credit payments and pushing your card momentarily into credit until the new PayAll is processed.

                          This is exactly why I have consistently advised not to schedule your first PayAll within 5 days of your statement date and do everything you can to avoid overlapping of significant events to prevent confusion by spreading everything out over 3 days gaps.

                          The reason you really don't want your credit card going into credit is because Citibank sometimes runs other promotional offers which may or may not be offered to you for things like free gift cards and free BNPL schemes and other such frippery. If you want to take advantage of these in parallel with the PayAlls on the same card (assuming you have the credit limit capacity to do so), then it is often very important your card never goes into credit. As soon as it does for even a moment, then whatever offer scheme you're trying to piggyback at the same time as PayAll on the same card gets instantly cancelled and you don't get your free $100 gift card.

                          • @Legoman: Ok, so statement dates can be relevant for someone who wants to use Easipay. How many people actually use Easipay? Seems difficult to set up and you lose control over the whole process. Looks like you have to write and send them a traditional letter if you ever want to cancel the Easipay.

                            I have a low card limit so Easipay does not suit me at all. I am on a weekly Payall cycle so statement dates and due dates are irrelevant to me. I do not have the luxury of being able to wait until the statement due date to pay my credit card, otherwise my Payalls will get rejected due to lack of funds.

                            • @capslock: The vast majority of credit card holders who don't want to pay interest use direct debit forms of payment such as Citibank's Easipay because it places the onus and responsibility to ensure payment takes place before interest is charged onto the bank rather than the cardholder. Under such an arrangement there is only one condition whereby payment fails that can be blamed on the cardholder and is then subject to interest being charged and that is insufficient funds. In every other cause of payment failure such as banking institution system maintenance; banking hack forced system shutdown (eg. Latitude Finance right now); BPay processing delay; weekend non-banking work day; public holiday (state based or national) non-bank working day; communications/NBN failure; computer hardware failure; beligerant bank locking your account for no reason whatsoever (UBank & BOQ/Virgin Money do this all the time); account access locking to force the account holder to call so the bank can update their KYC legislative requirements etc. if you don't have a direct debit arrangement, then the fault for non-payment sits with the account holder (you) and interest is payable. Direct Debit neatly gets around all that hassle, so if the payment is late for whatever reason that is out of the card holder's control, the bank wears it and no interest is charged.

                              What is annoying about Citibank's Easipay is that the amount payable doesn't adjust dynamically to allow for payments prior to the due date. Some card direct debit schemes do adjust automatically, so that if your amount due is $100, the arrangement is for the full monthly card balance to be paid on the due date, and you then manually pay $20 before the due date, then the direct debit will be reduced by that $20 payment to only take the remaining $80 on the due date. Unfortunately Easipay isn't one of the direct debit schemes that does this. Easipay will still take the full $100 on the due date regardless of any other payments manually made in advance, which is how you can annoyingly end up with a credit balance on the card if you're timings are not right.

                          • @Legoman: My statement date is 13th and 1st PayAll is the 17th. I thought that was going to be enough, guess not. EasiPay comes through on the 9th.

                            Actually thinking about it you can't use EasiPay at all to automate it, unless you have at least double your PayAll total for the month in credit.

                            • @knobbs: That's right, to properly fully automate everything, you need a card credit limit of at least 40K (new rules) or 70K (old rules) or… be willing to not max the offer out and instead just use half of whatever credit limit you have on PayAlls per month. If you have a credit limit of say 20K, then you could conceivably fully automate the PayAlls and the payback each month if you only took 10K by PayAll each month instead of the full 20K and didn't use the card for anything else at all. But human nature being what it is, people want to max things out as much as they can.

                              Statement at 13 for payment due on 9 is expected. That's normal. The credit available should nominally be cleared and available 3 days after the 9th on 12th. The charge for your first PayAll on 17 should be taken nominally 3 days before that on 14th. The issue you've got here is that 2 day gap between the 12th when your credit available should be cleared and useable vs the 14th when you really need it for the PayAll to not be rejected.

                              2 days is not quite enough in all circumstances in all months. All you need is for the funds from your Easipay to not be cleared in 3 days and to take 4 days instead because of weekends/holidays/Citibank laziness and for your first PayAll scheduled for 17 to be taken 1 day earlier due to weekends/holidays/Citibank overzealousness and voila!… you're now stressing out wondering which will be processed and cleared first on the 13th, the Easipay payment or the PayAll charge. If Citibank decides to process the charge/debit side first (which you have no control over), then it will be rejected and fail due to insufficent funds, even if 2 seconds later the payment/credit side is processed and clears funds that would have allowed the PayAll to proceed without rejection. This is why I say spread everything 3 days apart. 3 days allows for a +/- 1 day on each major event happening by Citibank, which is very, very common when dealing with Citibank. The extra day is the safety day if you fall foul of Citibank being out by 1 day on both sides of the ledger in the same month.

                              The other thing to know is that there is absolutely no negotiable wriggle room to plead with Citibank after a rejected PayAll. You cannot plead with them that if they'd only processed the credit first instead of the charge then it would have worked, they don't care and will not reverse or manually re-process a PayAll for you. If the computer says 'no' then that's it with Citibank. There is absolutely no discussion or negotiation afterwards that will help. You've got one shot to get it right and one shot only. Not even AFCA will help you change Citibank's mind. Citibank doesn't care about AFCA and will just ignore them.

                              • @Legoman: Hehe yeah I have had my fun dealing with Citi when they decided to cancel all my PayAlls because my card was compromised.
                                I guess the best automation would be cancel my EasiPay and setup BPay to go in 2/3 days before each PayAll. I didn't think Bpay would be in there the next day like you have said, but if it is than I think there is easier than doing all this manually as I stated above for 2 accounts

                                • +1

                                  @knobbs: BPay is overnight (as long as you get it in before 4pm AEST I think is the cutoff) and is instantly cleared and available the next day because that's the guarantee of the BPay system the banks signed up to when they agreed to accommodate it. Easipay is not cleared instantly because it goes via the EFT system, not BPay or NPP. It too SHOULD be overnight just like BPay, but isn't because Citibank like to take the longest time they're technically allowed to process EFT payments when they can. Even if all normal banks will process EFT as reconciled overnight transfers, if you ask them specifically, their staff are always trained to adhere to the script that it can take up to 3 days for the funds to show up… so of course Citibank being Citibank, they make damn sure it takes every single one of those 3 days.

                                  BPay you could schedule/automate in advance and make work, but it will be overnight reconciliation, so you'll have to work out a day when the funds must be there and available and then process the BPay for the (non-weekend) day before that BPay doesn't work on weekends.

                                  The other way of Osko to Citibank Plus and then instant transfer to CC from Plus would be intraday, but you can't automate/pre-schedule it because you can't control that the Osko happens before the Plus to CC transfer and if it happens in the opposite order, then fail/rejected. Toi automate it you would have to Osko the day before, then internal transfer the day required, which in effect is the same thing as BPay direct to CC the day before. The only difference is BPay is single step, whilst Osko/Transfer is double handling. If NPP had ever been properly implemented and the banks forced with legislation to adopt and comply with all aspects of it as was the original promise, then all this overnight processing crap would not still be happening, but there are obviously lots of vested interests in keeping the Australian banking sector in the 19th century for as long as possible and any attempts to circumvent that such as NPP need to be crushed and put down with as many convoluted excuses and manoeuvering as possible.

  • what do people tell to citi if they ever questioned the pay all transaction?
    do i need to make sure the payment comes from a different account that the pay all transfer destination?

    • I could be wrong but, since last 2 years, I don’t think Citibank ever questioned anyone about this.

  • For anyone that's asked to change their statement date, do you know if it comes into affect in the upcoming cycle or the one after that.
    I talked on live chat to get it changed to the 15th, but I still see "Last statement issued date: 22/01" even though card arrived 27/02.
    I'm hoping the next one will come in a few days on the 15/03.

    • +4

      Okay, I had the exact experience. I also had my last statement shown as one month before my card was approved so it is normal. I also got my statement changed to the 16th before my first one comes out. You cannot bring the statement forward, they just skip the next one (which is a month after your card was approved). They also confirmed I get interest-free days longer than 55 days due to this but not penalised.

      • Skipping the next one is wild, didn't think they'd do that. No complaints here though.

        • Haha, it turned out the agent was incorrect. I just received my first statement that ended Mar 16, so skipping the first one (which was scheduled one month after the card approval) was totally incorrect. Also, I noticed the interest-free is 44 days, not 55 days.

          • @hiaaron: I was told the same thing by live chat - "First statement 15 April", but also got a statement yesterday.
            I don't mind - guess its better than getting charged interest for it all.

            • @Neyo01: Absolutely! I don't mind it either, happy to pay it back but just got surprised to see how their customer agents are useless.

              • @hiaaron: Totally agree! Makes me hesitant to believe anything else I've been told if they can't get this right.

                • +3

                  @Neyo01: Don't believe anything the Manila Citibank online agents tell you. They are utterly clueless and will just make stuff up rather than say they don't know. For them to admit they don't know the answer to a question is shameful, they would much rather give completely wrong advice rather than no advice at all.

          • +2

            @hiaaron: Only the Citi Prestige card is 44 day interest free, so you obviously have that one which costs $350/yr annual fee in the first year, then goes up to $700/yr after that and has never been included for any lifetime free offer. Even if you max out the PayAlls on the new rules at 20K/mo and manage to get 4.5% interest on that money for the maximum possible ~25 days/mo, you will earn just enough interest to break even on the cost of the card before tax. This is an awful lot of work to get free money from Citibank just to give it right back to them again!

  • Has anyone been able to set up PayAll before they got and activated credit card?

    I was approved and now waiting for the card and get error when I try to setup PayAll. I suspect it would be because of the deactivated card, but at the same time I thought it is not really related to credit card but rather to my limit.

    • +3

      the money comes from the card mate

      • Cheers, in that case I will just wait until my card is activated.

  • Has anyone got a text message to call Citi in relation to PayAll? I had an online chat when I received the message and asked him if it is legit and he said it is related to PayAll asking the details of the recipient.

  • Hi guys, recently rejoined this game since having cancelled an older card. Have activated a new card and my current limit is ~12k.

    Noticed a lot of discussion above about maximising this deal by ensuring you have at least a 20k limit. However, on my reading this doesn't seem to be necessary anymore?

    The revised terms effective November 2022 (as paraphrased in the description) - don't actually say that the limit is the lower of $20k or your credit limit. What the terms actually say is "A cardholder can make up to $20,000 (subject to available credit) in Citi PayAll transactions each calendar month across all Citi branded Credit Cards."

    "Subject to available credit" suggests it is not your credit limit that matters but whether you have sufficient funds for the individual transaction. I tested this with my <20k limit and successfully set up a couple of transactions this month totalling $20k. I can update later to confirm whether these are processed OK but from previous experience, once the transactions are set up successfully, they should go through fine. The error message for exceeding the limit should come at the time of trying to set it up, on the final page.

    Perhaps someone else can confirm as well and maybe the description needs to be updated so people aren't unnecessarily applying for such high credit limits?

    TL;DR it appears you don't actually need a 20k limit to maximise this deal.

    • i have 15k limit and i can't payall more than 15k per month

      • Interesting, thanks for checking. Not sure if it's a new card thing..

    • You conveniently left off this bit in the T&C's
      Citi PayAll transactions that exceed your Credit Limit may not be authorised.

      • Not deliberate but I didn't think it was key in any event. My point (apologies if not clear before) is it looks like you can set up multiple transactions, each individually within your credit limit, but totalling $20k in a month.

        My limit is just under $13k and the app permitted me to set up 2 transactions: $12k and $8k for this month. Both were authorised probably because individually they are less than my credit limit, and combined equal $20k.

        I will update later to confirm if they're processed OK, and if so, it might be worth amending the deal's description so people don't unnecessarily apply for a 20k limit.

        • Let us know if you get the full 20k points or just your card limit points.

        • Whats the point of credit limit if they don't enforce it? lol

        • +1

          edit: both Citi Payall transactions in a single calendar month totalling $20k went through fine. Points were all received.

          My limit is just over $12k - I set up a $12k and $8k transaction days apart, and ensured to BPAY back the amount of the first transaction into the account, before the second transaction.

          So effectively this confirmed you are able to maximise this deal without necessarily getting a 20k limit.

          • @lrz07: The 2 transactions is not a question. It’d always go through as u don’t exceed ur limit on either. The question is more whether they’d credit u 13k (ur limit) or 20k points (payall cap)

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