Citi customer service was wrong!

I recently checked the SCRA (servicemember’s civil relief act) status of the Citi cards I had opened when I was a reservist, since I opened them before I became active duty. As I said before, Citi will waive all fees, including annual fees, if you become active duty while a card holder. I had written before that this was true for all cards except for the Citi Executive; customer service had told me that fees are not waived on this, since this was a special category of card. Turns out, customer service was wrong – Citi does waive those fees including annual fees!

This card is not right for most people. It offers no compelling category bonuses, only an extra AA mile per dollar on AA purchases, comes with a steep $450 annual fee, and other than it’s signing bonus (50k – 75k depending on type of application), the only compelling reason to get it is AA Admirals Club access. I applied for it purely for the signup bonus, which on my most recent version was 75k (I previously held three of the 100k version). The latest one I held while I transitioned from reserves to active duty, and I wanted to see if I could get SCRA benefits. I was discouraged at customer service’s news that I would not get those benefits with this card.

However, I received an email that I had a new message in my account. When I opened it up, I had separate SCRA benefit letters, INCLUDING the Exec card. This is not a game-changer, but it’s definitely welcome news. So this is confirmation that all Citi cards are eligible for SCRA benefits, should you go onto active duty. Hopefully some of you reservists who’ve gotten this card can benefit too!

(I apologize, but my screenshot app is malfunctioning right now, so I can’t show you the actual letter; I’ll try to put it up later)