ideeli is a members-only shopping site featuring limited-time sales of designer apparel, accessories, home, beauty, travel and kids products. Until March 2, 2011 or supplies run out, Citi is offering a free $25 credit at the site. It’s a chance to get something for free (as they stock some items at or under $25), or to purchase something more expensive at a nice discount.

Link (via SD)

Edit: It looks like this offer got used up fast, as the link has now expired.

Ever have a pang of regret when you notice that shiny new toy you just bought dropped in price right after you purchased it? Back in the days when Amex’s Best Value Guarantee program still lived, that wasn’t such a worry. All you needed to do was call them up, provide evidence of the price drop and get refunded the difference.

The good news is that such programs still do exist. Many credit cards will reimburse you the difference if you find the same item at a lower price, either at the same retailer or elsewhere. For instance, under Citi’s current price protection program, if you find a printed advertisement within 60 days of your purchase for the exact same item, they will refund you the price difference, up to $250 per item (and up to a maximum of $1,000 per cardmember per year) if you placed the entire purchase on your Citi credit card. The major problem is that, unlike the original BVG, internet purchases or advertisements have been excluded from such price matching, significantly diminishing their usefulness.

Enter Citi Price Rewind.
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While Citi warned us last year that it planned to tack on an annual fee to accounts that didn’t meet a specified spending threshold, that news became a reality this week as notices of this policy change poured into cardholder mailboxes. Effective April 1, 2010, an annual fee of $60 is being added to many Citi credit card holders’ accounts. That fee will be credited back to the account holder if spending reaches $2400 in the calendar year. Alternatively, the cardholder can opt out of this change and cancel their account.

The changes come as the enactment of the next phase of the Credit Card ACT on February 22 draws nearer, and banks look to find ways to offset the accompanying loss of revenue.

These days, when a credit card issuer decides that it no longer wants your business and decides to close your account, it’s not that unusual. When the issuer chooses to close your account without any warning, that (fortunately) is unusual and frankly, a poor business practice. Yet according to this AP story, that is precisely what Citi did to a number of card holders of its oil partner co-branded MasterCard accounts, including Shell, Citgo, ExxonMobil and Phillips 66-Conoco cards.

Citi allegedly closed many of these oil company affiliated credit cards last Wednesday, but did not send out notice to its affected cardholders that their accounts had been closed until the following Monday. Citi did not supply a reason for the account closures, though they do appear to still be accepting new applications for these cards.

If nothing else, the story once again underscores the importance of not relying on a single bank for your credit, given how quickly and unexpectedly it can be taken away.