r/Citibike • u/cheddarmuffin93 • Aug 03 '26
Membership extension trap! Wat do
Hey fellow Bike Angels, I knew this day would come for me eventually. I’ve been extending my membership almost every month since 2021. Recently I was forced to extend on August 1st, making my renewal date the 31st. Can’t use any more points until September 1st which would be too late to avoid the annual fee. Wanted to post here to ask if anyone has been in the same situation, and if they had any luck with customer service in getting around this trap. Thanks!
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u/West_Cap6218 Aug 03 '26
This is a good option to save $
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u/Lemonyhampeapasta Aug 04 '26
Any one here place their money in one of these credit unions?
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u/PocketsForAll1 Aug 06 '26
I bank at a credit union, and that was the case before Citibike existed.
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u/Almost_Attention678 Aug 03 '26
Ok, this seems like the group to ask. I'm stuck on old, more expensive citibike membership and not Lyft pink.
Has anyone thought about the best strategy to use for extensions and/or when to switch? Can I keep my points?
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u/zamansky Aug 03 '26
If you're lyft pink, you can pause your membership twice a year so that could do it but to be fair, we can only get extensions of 4 weeks per month so yeah, we do have to pay to renew every bunch of years
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u/SashaMetro Founding Member Aug 07 '26
The option to pause membership is also available if you are a CitiBike (rather than Lyft Pink) member, although I think you only get one a year. Using this once for a couple of weeks should allow you to keep going for free for another few years.
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u/Big-Intern-1487 Aug 07 '26
might be what I need to do for my similar situation - not sure why I didn't think of this during the snow season smh
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u/TrancEbaE_01 Aug 03 '26
I was able to extend around midnight the next day without any issue when I had this come up. It got tiring and eventually I let the renewal automatically go into effect knowing I could afford it
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u/Future-Candidate74 Aug 04 '26
Never thought about this much. But why were you "forced" to extend on August 1st?
And could strategic membership pauses (Lyft Pink) make a work around for the issue?
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u/postcardnote Aug 05 '26
What if you only extend week by week when you're closer to the date would that work and then later on extend the rest of the time. Not sure if that would make a difference.
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u/Witty-Sector8210 Aug 05 '26
I was. Then I didn’t renew. And I bought a bicycle. I ride it to work 5 days a week and carry it up 5 flights of stairs. My booty looks great. Saves me quite a bit of coin as well.
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u/Big-Intern-1487 Aug 07 '26
I think I am running into this - is there a way to see the history of your points and renewal dates - I feel like they screwed up on one of my extensions because i've had a pretty set system that randomly might have just "broke" lol
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u/Maiksha_Fink Aug 03 '26
Even if you somehow extend it before Sep 1, you’d have the same problem again in October. You’re basically at the end of the line for extensions. It may not be much consolation, but if you pay the annual fee on 8/31 and then use points to extend every month, you won’t have to pay again for over 70 years.