Citi Premier® Card advantages
The Citi Premier® Card affords a aggressive rewards fee with a singular incomes construction, a number of journey advantages to assist frequent vacationers lower your expenses, and a welcome bonus that’s onerous to beat. Let’s dig into the primary advantages of this card together with the rewards, journey advantages, and welcome bonus.
Rewards
The Citi Premier® Card is a rewards card that straddles the road between a journey rewards card and a basic card. It earns wherever from one to 3 Citi ThankYou factors per greenback spent on choose classes. Right here’s the breakdown:
- 3 factors per $1 spent on air journey and motels
- 3 factors per $1 spent at eating places, supermarkets, and fuel stations
- 1 level per $1 spent on all the pieces else
All rewards are uncapped throughout bonus classes, so that you’ll earn the identical rewards fee regardless of how a lot you’ve spent. Journey doesn’t must be booked by the Citi ThankYou Journey Heart so as to earn 3x factors.
The rewards construction units the Citi Premier® Card other than different journey playing cards. Many playing cards, together with the Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card, earn a better bonus fee on journey purchases and a decrease bonus fee on all different purchases. For the Citi Premier® Card, there’s a clear profit to utilizing your factors towards journey or to redeem journey (which we’ll go over) however no cause to solely use the cardboard when shopping for journey.
All Citi playing cards permit you to redeem ThankYou factors in any of the next methods:
- Get a press release credit score, direct deposit, or examine
- Store With Factors (on-line or in-store with taking part retailers together with Amazon, Walmart, and PayPal)
- Buy journey by the Citi ThankYou journey portal
- Purchase reward playing cards by Citi
- Switch factors to a journey companion
The worth of a degree depends upon the way you redeem it. For instance, every ThankYou level is price lower than a cent if you happen to redeem it as a press release credit score however will be price as a lot as two cents if you happen to switch it to an airline companion and redeem them by that program. And while you use factors to buy reward playing cards, they’re normally price round one cent a bit.
Journey advantages
No international transaction price is a profit that speaks for itself. Should you take this card with you when touring, you received’t have to fret about any further expenses popping out of your journey price range. Whereas there are lots of playing cards that don’t cost a international transaction price, that is at all times a perk to be glad about.
Then there’s the $100 annual resort financial savings profit. To redeem this, it’s essential e book a resort keep by Citi’s rewards and journey portal, the Citi ThankYou Journey Heart, and spend at the least $500. This credit score resets yearly so you need to use it to offset your annual price.
Notice that the Citi Premier® Card doesn’t include free basic journey insurance coverage, journey cancellation insurance coverage, misplaced baggage insurance coverage, or related protections which are comparatively widespread on this area.
Factors Switch
Citi has 17 airline and resort companions in whole that permit you to switch factors to completely different loyalty applications at a 1:1 ratio (with just one notable exception). Should you determine to go this route and switch your ThankYou factors, you’ll must switch a minimal of 1,000 at a time.
Citi ThankYou factors will be transferred to many standard airline loyalty applications together with, however not restricted to:
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership
- Emirates Skywards
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airways KrisFlyer
For all airline companions, ThankYou factors will be redeemed at a 1:1 ratio.
There are additionally two resort switch companions within the Citi switch program. These are:
- Selection Privileges® (1:2 fee)
- Wyndham Rewards®
Whenever you redeem ThankYou factors for Selection Privileges® factors, they’re price twice as a lot. So if you happen to switch 1,000 ThankYou factors, you’ll find yourself with 2,000 Selection Privileges® factors. There’s no price to switch factors.
See a complete checklist of all Citi switch companions right here.
Welcome bonus
Proper now, new cardholders can earn 80,000 bonus ThankYou factors after they spend $4,000 on purchases inside three months of account opening. These factors are price $800 while you redeem them for reward playing cards or use them to buy journey by Citi.
You don’t have to place these bonus factors towards reward playing cards or journey, however you’ll need to do the maths your self to determine what they’re price if you happen to use one other redemption possibility.
Charges and Curiosity
Now onto the elements of this card which are much less enjoyable however we now have to speak about anyway: charges and curiosity.
Annual price
The Citi Premier® Card comes with an annual price of $95, which is common for a mid-tier journey rewards bank card. However not like different playing cards prefer it, this price is not waived for the primary yr. Most likely not a dealbreaker, however lame nonetheless.
Different charges
You’ll wish to keep away from lacking funds with this card or utilizing it for steadiness transfers and money advances, when potential.
Late price: as much as $41
Steadiness switch price: whichever is bigger between 5% and $5
Money advance price: whichever is bigger between 5% and $10
And once more, there’s no international transaction price.
APR
This card carries an APR of between 19.74% – 27.74% (Variable) for purchases and steadiness transfers. There isn’t a introductory APR (comparable to 0% for the primary 18 months).
Who’s it for?
The Citi Premier® Card requires at the least good credit score to qualify. That is outlined as a FICO credit score rating of 670 or increased, however you’ll in all probability want at the least a 700 rating to be eligible.
Individuals who continuously make journey purchases, together with air journey and motels, are more likely to get essentially the most out of this card. Should you use the yearly resort credit score, you’ll robotically make again the $95 annual price, then all of the ThankYou factors you earn are further. And the extra you journey, the extra you’ll save by not paying international transaction charges.
A variety of Citi Premier cardholders discover this card to be most rewarding once they switch their ThankYou factors. So if you happen to see a program you’re already a member of on the checklist of switch companions, this may very well be a great cause to enroll.
However whereas it’s largely a journey card, that is additionally a good possibility for on a regular basis spending as a result of there are 5 completely different bonus classes that earn three factors per greenback.
Individuals with good credit score who know they’ll be capable to use the journey advantages — however may additionally be in search of an on a regular basis card for his or her largest spending classes — may very well be good candidates for this card.
Who’s it not preferrred for?
Should you don’t journey typically, you need to in all probability look into different choices. You’ll have a tough time justifying the cardboard’s annual price if you happen to don’t pay international transaction charges anyway or plan to spend $500 on a resort. Additionally, you is probably not blissful paying $95 a yr with out getting free providers and journey insurance coverage in return, which you could find with different playing cards.
One other dealbreaker may very well be redemption. Citi ThankYou factors don’t have very a lot worth while you keep inside the Citi portal however are typically price extra while you switch them. If you wish to redeem your factors for assertion credit or simply don’t need the effort of transferring, maintain it transferring.
You additionally wish to watch out about how you employ this card. As a result of it has a excessive rate of interest and doesn’t supply an introductory APR, it’s not a sensible choice for individuals who plan to hold or switch a steadiness.
This card additionally has a credit score rating requirement of at the least 700, so it isn’t for people who find themselves nonetheless constructing their credit score or are model new to bank cards. In case your credit score rating is within the honest or good vary, take a look at another choices. There are many playing cards on the market that include nice advantages however are inside attain for extra than simply great-credit debtors.
Learn extra: Finest bank cards in case your FICO rating is between 600 and 649
Citi Premier® Card vs. rivals
Should you like the concept of a well-rounded journey bank card however the Citi Premier® Card simply doesn’t appear fairly proper, listed below are a few options that may higher suit your wants.
Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card
The Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card is usually in comparison with the Citi Premier® Card, and it’s simple to see why. These playing cards have so much in widespread however have very completely different reward buildings.
Whereas the Citi Premier® Card earns 3x factors on air journey, motels, grocery shops, and extra, the Chase Sapphire Most popular® earns 5x factors on all journey booked by Chase Final Rewards. After that, it’s 3x factors on eating and on-line grocery purchases, 2x factors on different journey, and 1x factors on all the pieces else.
Each playing cards have the identical annual price of $95 and don’t cost international transaction charges. However whereas they every supply an annual resort credit score too, the Citi one is price $100 per yr whereas the Chase one is price solely $50. As for different variations in advantages, the Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card contains quite a lot of journey perks together with journey insurance coverage and emergency providers and free memberships with companions like DoorDash and Instacart (phrases apply).
For factors transfers, Chase works with completely different journey companions together with United MileagePlus, Southwest Airways Speedy Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt, and IHG Rewards Membership.
Should you wouldn’t thoughts reserving journey by Chase Final Rewards and undoubtedly wouldn’t thoughts extra journey protection, you might desire the Most popular.
Learn our full assessment.
Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card
This one is so much completely different from the opposite two. As a substitute of factors, The Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card earns miles. Particularly, 5x miles per greenback on motels and rental automobiles booked by Capital One Journey and 2x miles on all different purchases. There aren’t any different bonus classes. Relying on the way you spend, these charges may show to be higher or worse.
The Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card has an edge over the Citi Premier® Card with regards to built-in advantages. On high of a $100 World Entry or TSA PreCheck® Credit score (akin to Citi’s resort credit score), cardholders obtain 24/7 journey help providers, many sorts of journey insurance coverage, and two complimentary lounge visits per yr.
This card additionally expenses no international transaction charges and has a $95 annual price. Capital One and Citi companion with lots of the identical airways, so alternatives to switch factors are related between the 2.
For air journey particularly, the Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card might be the higher card for many as a result of its advantages skew towards flying.
Learn our full assessment.
Abstract
The Citi Premier® Card is a stable card for each on a regular basis and journey purchases. With some ways to earn rewards and redeem Citi ThankYou factors, the affordable annual price is fairly simple to justify for these with the credit score to qualify. However this card does lack among the free journey protections discovered with rivals and makes you’re employed a bit of more durable to seek out the most effective methods to redeem factors.
Should you can see your self utilizing the annual resort credit score and would contemplate transferring your factors to journey companions to maximise their worth, this card is perhaps a great match.
If in case you have poor credit score, count on to hold or switch a steadiness, or are simply in search of a juicier checklist of advantages, the Citi Premier® Card may not be the cardboard for you.
