Citibank Allows Customers to Pool Rewards Points With Facebook

Reward points have just gone social.

Starting today, Citibank is allowing their rewards program members to pool their points with a new Facebook application. The application will allow Citi credit card holders and checking account customers to add together reward points for charity, a group gift or a personal goal.

The program essentially builds on a service Citibank rolled out last year, which allowed cardholders to give their points over to someone else using the company’s website.

The reward pooling is all done through the Citi ThankYou Point Sharing application, accessed through the company’s Facebook page. After logging in to your ThankYou Rewards with the application, you can start a new rewards pool by first naming a recipient for the points and then explaining why the points are being collected. Even if the pool is for a charity organization, the recipient must be an individual Facebook user, not a company.

After setting up a pool, you can promote your goals by sharing links on Facebook or inviting other Citi cardholders to contribute — anyone who adds points to the pool can see how many points have accumulated.

While certainly useful, the program does hold one potential danger: the pool recipient has complete control of over the points and can use them as they wish. So, of course, it’s best if the recipient you designate is someone you know and trust.

If you are thinking about jumping on this new service, sooner is definitely better than later. Citibank says that it is giving 2,500 rewards points to the first 4,000 customers to sign up with the Facebook application.