1) False. She interpret wrongly.
To earn
base interest :
minimum S$70,000 daily end of day balance
To get
counter increase : if the lowest balance in that month is
equal to or greater than the lowest balance in the preceding month.
So you don't need 70k for the counter to increase. But you will not get the base interest if your account does not have daily end of day balance of 70k.
Base Interest
"Interest at the Base Interest Rate will accrue daily, if you maintain at least S$70,000 in your MaxiGain account, based on the daily end of day balance and will be paid on the last day of the month."
So if betweeen 1st Jan - 10 Jan you don't have 70k in your maxigain account, you will not earn the base interest (only peanuts @ 0.05% for 10 days).
If between 11 Jan - 31 Jan you top-up your account balance to 70k, you will earn that base interest (70% of SIBOR for 21 days).
Bonus Interest
"The Bonus Interest Rate on the other hand has no requirement of a minimum balance . Bonus interest will accrue in a month at the relevant Bonus Interest Rate for so long as the Counter for that month is higher than zero."
If you do not qualify for the base interest, you may still qualify for the bonus interest (cap at 1.2%) as long as your lowest account balance in the month does not fall below the lowest balance in preceding month.
However, make sure your total AUM with Citibank is >= 15k, else will incur service charge (being AUM balance fall-below fee).
2) According to Localborn's RM, top-up to maxigain will be qualified and revised TNC will be notified to all customers via email.
3) Quoted from TNC
[“Top Up” refers to a net inflow of funds from outside Citi into all of a Customer’s primary accounts, including Citi checking and savings accounts, foreign currency time deposits, investments and life insurances distributed by Citi on an advised basis.
Funds credited into cash management account and SGD time deposit account where such time deposit has an interest rate of one (1) per cent or higher will not count
towards a “Top Up”.]
Maxigain account is a current/savings account.
The TNC did not explicitly states that it exclude Maxigain account from the top-up promotion.
But you can wait for your PB/RM confirmation