Citi premier card
$95
None
Signup Bonus Chart3x Restaurants (≈4.5%)
3x Airfare, Online Travel Agencies, and Hotels (≈4.5%)
3x Groceries (≈4.5%)
3x Gas (≈4.5%)
1x Everywhere Else (≈1.5%)
No Foreign Transaction Fee
For anyone who is comfortable redeeming their points for frequent flyer tickets, the Citi Prestige card offers the highest reward rate on Restaurants and Online Travel Agencies, as well as a great reward rate on Airfare. You'll receive 5x ThankYou points per dollar, worth at least 7.5% on these purchases. It also offers free cell phone protection and aiport lounge access (with unlimited guests).
The Prestige or the less-expensive Premier card can be used in conjunction with the no-annual-fee Double Cash card to earn 2x transferable reward points on your everyday purchases, which is potentially more valuable than the 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points you earn with the Chase Unlimited combo.
The Prestige card has another potentially valuable benefit—it gives you your 4th night free on hotel reservations made through Citibank's travel site, up to two times per year.
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Introduction to ThankYou Points
ThankYou Rewards is the name of Citibank's own rewards program. ThankYou Rewards Guide.
- ThankYou points can be transferred to many different frequent flyer programs. his gives you the flexibility to take advantage of award space on over a hundred different airlines. In many cases, you can choose to book a flight through one of several different partner programs, allowing you to take advantage of whichever program requires the fewest miles and fees for your trip.
- ThankYou Rewards occasionally offers promotional transfer bonuses. When the promotion is active, you'll get extra airline miles when you transfer your ThankYou Reward points to a specific airline. For example, if Citibank is offering a 40% bonus for British Airways, you'll receive 14,000 British Airways points for every 10,000 ThankYou points you transfer. See Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points for more information or visit Frequent Miler’s Current Transfer Bonuses page for a list of current (and past) promotions.
- You can also "cash out" your points at 1 cent each. Citi Premier and Prestige customers can very easily convert their points to cash.
- If you have the no-annual-fee Citi Rewards+ card, you get a 10% rebate on your points redemptions. This is capped at to your first 100,000 points of redemptions each year. For example, if you transfer 50,000 points to British Airways, you'll get 5,000 points back. This gives you an easy boost of 11% to point values, regardless if you convert your points to frequent flyer tickets or cash them out.
- We value ThankYou points at 1.5 cents each. Because you can take advantage of award space and "sweet spots" from many different frequent flyer programs and the occasional transfer bonus, ThankYou points are generally worth more than any single type of airline miles. If you highly valuable premium-cabin award tickets, ThankYou points are worth even more. But because Citibank has a weaker set of airline partners, ThankYou points are typically somewhat less valuable than Membership Rewards points. On the other hand, if you expect to be able to take advantage of Turkish Airlines awards for domestic and Hawaii travel on United Airlines, they may actually be more valuable the other types of bank points. How Much are Points Worth?
- If you aren't comfortable using your points for frequent flyer tickets, they are only worth 1 cent each. Unlike Chase's Ultimate Rewards, transfer rates for hotel programs aren't very attractive, there are no fixed-value airline partners (like Southwest), and there is no cash out option for greater than 1 cent per point.
Collecting the Signup Bonus
- It is worth getting this card just for the signup bonus. The typical signup offer is 60,000 points valued at $900.
- You can only collect one signup bonus every 24 months from the Citi ThankYou card family. More accurately, you can't collect a signup bonus within 24 months of signing up for, or cancelling, the Citi Prestige, Citi Premier, Citi Preferred, or Citi Rewards+ card. While cancelling a card resets the clock, converting a card from one to another usually does not. This special signup bonus restriction doesn't apply to the Double Cash or AT&T card, even though they can earn ThankYou points.
- To maximize the bonuses you collect from Citi's ThankYou cards, carefully time when you cancel your cards. If you don't want a card after your initial year, convert it to the no-annual-fee Rewards+ card, instead of cancelling it. A year later, you'll be eligible for a new signup offer. If you have more than one Rewards+ card, you should cancel it just after been approved for the new card, so it doesn't reset the card.
4th Night Free Benefit (Prestige Card)
The Citi Prestige card has a unique and potentially lucrative benefits—you get your 4th night free on every hotel reservation booked through Citibank.
The “4th night free” benefit works whether you are booking a $80 per night hotel on the outskirts of town, or a $800 per night resort hotel in some exotic locale, and you can use it two times every year. Get Your 4th Night Free with the Citi Prestige Card.
Unfortunately, you need to book your hotel through Citibank's website. That means you only have access to whatever rate they are offering, can only book hotels and room inventory that is available via their system, and generally won't receive any hotel loyalty program benefits or points with your stay. In practice, Citibank's website tends to have higher room rates than other booking options, frequently doesn't provide a non-refundable option even when they one is available elsewhere, and often shows "no availability" when hotels still have plenty of room.
Always check to see if the rate for all 4 nights on another site is actually higher than Citibank's rate for 3 nights. Sometimes, the 4th night free benefit will still save you a bunch of money and it remain uncapped. Other times, it may only be a little less expensive (or even more expensive) than booking elsewhere. In addition, for chain hotels, make sure whatever you are saving makes up for any potential loss of benefits and hotel rewards.
Other Notable Benefits
The Prestige version of the card comes with the following beneifts.
- Airport lounge access. Like the other premium cards, a get a Priority Pass membership that provides free access to over a thousand airport lounges and restaurants. With this card, you can bring in your family or up to two travelling companions. Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card
- Cell phone protection. Starting on May 1st, if you pay your cell phone bill with your card, you'll receive coverage on up to five lines. The maximum claim is $1,000, with a $1,500 annual cap, and a $50 deductible.
- $100 TSA fee credit. Every five years, you can receive an automatic reimbursement of your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee (up to $100).
- Elite car rental status. As with all World Elite MasterCards, you get free National Emerald Club Executive and Sixt Platinum status. Instant Car Rental Elite Status.
- Access to Mastercard's luxury hotel program. Another benefit of high-end MasterCards is access to MasterCard's luxury hotel program. When you use the program to book one of the participating hotels, you'll get a number of valuable benefits, like free breakfast, a $100 hotel credit, a room upgrade, and late checkout.Take Advantage of Luxury Hotel Programs for Valuable Extra Perks.
- Free ShopRunner membership. Like all World Elite MasterCards, your card entitles you to a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which provides free two-day and return shipping from around 150 of the largest online retailers. ShopRunner.
- DoorDash and Hello Fresh discounts. Cardmembers who have a DoorDash membership get $5 off their first two orders each month when paid for by their Mastercard. If you don't have a free membership from Chase, you can get your first three months membership for free through Mastercard. You also get a 5% credit back on each HelloFresh purchase.
- Some additional discounts. If you pay for at least 3 Lyft rides each calendar month with your Mastercard, you'll receive a $5 Lyft credit good for the following month (once you enroll in the Lyft app). You also receive double Fandango points, a 5% reward rebate at Boxed, and $5 off every Postmates order of $25 or more.
The Premier version of the card gives you the elite car rental and luxury hotel program benefits.
Bonus Categories
- The Prestige card earns fantastic rewards on restaurant, online travel agency, and airfare purchases. You'll earn 5x ThankYou points per dollar, valued at at least 7.5 cents per dollar. Even if you simply redeemed your points to offset travel purchases, this works out to 5 cents per dollar. Best Credit Cards for Restaurant Spending
- The Prestige and Premier cards can be good choices on other types of travel purchases. You'll earn 3x ThankYou points, worth around 4.5cents per dollar. The only card that we would generally prefer is the 3x Ultimate Rewards points from the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The Prestige card only earns 3x points on hotels and cruises, while the less-expensive Premier version earns 3x points on a very wide range of travel purchases, including transit tickets and even gas.
- The Premier card is (almost) the only card that earn bonus rewards on entertainment spending—but no more than you can get from the Double Cash card. You can earn slightly more rewards from the Sony Credit Card, and without paying an annual fee, but you'll need to redeem your rewards for gift cards (at a variety of merchants), or Sony purchases, rather than on frequent flyer tickets.
- The Premier version of the card offers good rewards on gas purchases. Gas is considered a type of travel expense, and will earn 3x ThankYou points, worth around 4.5 cents per dollar. This is more valuable than most other cards. Unfortunately, this benefit doesn't extend to the Prestige version. Best Credit Cards for Gas Spending.
- The Reward+ card is good for small purchases. The Rewards+ card rounds up each purchase's rewards to units of 10 points. For example, if you make a $2 purchase, instead of receiving 2 points, you'll receive 10. If you make a $15 purchase, instead of receiving 15 points, you'll receive 20. This dramatically increases the reward rate on small purchases. The rate on 50 cent transaction is a whopping 20X points. but since the purchases are small it won't add up to very many extra points in absolute terms. Artificially creating lots of small purchases is likely to get you banned by Citibank and potentially the merchant as well.
- The Double Cash card works as a great option for your everyday spending. It earns 2x ThankYou points on every purchase and has no annual fee. If you have the Prestige or Premier card, you can use these like all your other ThankYou points.
However, if you already have one of the Amex Platinum cards, you probably prefer to use it to earn 5x Membership Rewards points instead; and if you already have the Sapphire Reserve you may prefer to settle for 3x easier-to-redeem Ultimate Rewards points and it's built in travel insurance benefits. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
Getting Rid of the Card
Before cancelling or converting your Citi Prestige card, try to use up any remaining amount of your annual travel credit.
You'll lose any ThankYou reward points you've earned with your card, shortly after you close the card or transfer the points to another account, even if you have another card that earns ThankYou points. If you have a significant amount of points, transfer to the no-annual-fee Rewards+ card, rather than cancelling outright. You'll receive a prorated refund of your annual fee, so you don't necessarily need to do it immediately after your anniversary date.
Having at least one Reward+ card on your account gives you a 10% rebate on the first 100,000 ThankYou points you redeem each year (regardless of their original source). You also won't reset the clock for earning your next Prestige / Premier signup bonus.
If you don't have a points balance to protect, you could convert to a Citi Dividend card, which earns 5% back on the first $6,000 of annual spending in a rotating set of categories. However, your card number may change as part of the switch and if it does, your signup bonus clock will reset. If it is more than 30 days since your annual fee, you also may NOT receive a prorated refund of your annual fee.