Citi Premier Card

After dipping into the Citi credit card eco-system with the Citi Double Cash, the natural follow-up card is the Citi Premier card, which not only is a great card in itself but also can help unlike the ‘full power’ of the Citi Double Cash.  The Citi Premier card directly competes with the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Amex Green Card.

Welcome Offer

The Citi Premier Card currently has a welcome offer of 80 000 bonus points after spending $4 000 in 3 months.  This bonus is one of the best that this card has ever offered.  These points are worth a minimum of $800 when redeemed for cash or they can be transferred to travel partners to increase their value.

Earnings

The Citi Premier Card has some very broad and lucrative bonus categories that all earn 3x points/$: restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and air travel/hotels.  All other purchases earn 1x point/$.

These earnings are relatively straightforward, and when combined with the Citi Double Cash, means that all purchases earn at least 2x points/$. 

Benefits

This card offers a single statement credit that can cover the annual fee: the card offers a $100 annual hotel savings if you spend >$500 on a single hotel stay through the Citi Thankyou portal.  One of the major drawbacks of Citi cards is that they do not offer any travel protection.

How to use the points

The simplest way to use Citi Thankyou Points is to redeem them for a statement credit, but this method offers a poor value and is inconsistent across card products.  The points can also be redeemed towards travel on Citi’s travel portal at a rate of 1¢/pt.

A more advanced technique is to transfer Citi Thankyou points to one of the transfer partners, like with Chase UR or Amex MR points.  The difference, in my opinion, with Citi Thankyou points is that their transfer partners are a bit more eclectic.  Specifically, one would expect that since Citi issues a few American Airlines credit cards that Citi Thankyou points would transfer to AA (like Chase/United or Amex/Delta), but that’s not the case.  The list of transfer partners that Citi offers has not been very enticing to me, but that has changed slightly recently.  One of Citi’s transfer partners is Qatar Airlines, which recently changed to using Avios as its rewards currency.  That means that Citi points can be transferred to my preferred airline, British Airways, by way of Qatar.  Though a bit roundabout, that’s a great development and has piqued my interest in Citi cards.  Since I find Citi’s transfer partners a bit more limiting than Chase or Amex, I peg the value of Citi points at 1.3 ¢/pt on average, which is just my value for Avios.

Examples of using the card

These examples exclude the $100 hotel credit.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (3x)	$300	900	$200	600	$600	1 800	$400	1 200
Gas (3x)	$0	0	$100	300	$200	600	$100	300
Airfare (3x)	$700	2 100	$200	600	$0	0	$400	1 200
Hotels (3x)	$1 000	3 000	$200	600	$0	0	$300	900
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	100
Dining (3x)	$600	1 800	$300	900	$300	900	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	9 200	$1 500	3 500	$1 900	4 100	$1 700	4 100
Average points/$		2.30		2.33		2.16		2.41

The Citi Premier Card’s broad bonus categories mean that the average points earned is quite high at 2.16 – 2.41 points/$, which is worth 2.81 – 3.51 ¢/$, with the valuation of 1.3¢/point for Citi Thankyou points.

Specific examples

Card	World Traveller ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 Avios (4.9%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$37.10 / $17.60
General 1% cashback card	2 728 Avios + $7.50 (5.9%)	2 200 MP + $2.30 (8.3%)	$44.60 / $19.90
Citi Premier Card	2 728 Avios + 2 250 TY (8.8%)	2 200 MP + 690 TY (11.2%)	$66.35 / $26.57
Chase Sapphire Preferred	2 728 Avios + 1 500 UR (7.9%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.3%)	$59.60 / $24.50
Amex Green Card	2 728 Avios + 2 250 MR (9.4%)	2 200 MP + 690 MR (11.8%)	$70.85 / $27.95

Is this credit card right for you?

This card is great for anyone who spends substantial amounts on groceries, gas, travel, and dining, which should cover just about everyone, but who specifically wants travel rewards.  Citi Thankyou points are most valuable when redeemed for travel online or when transferred to partners.  The points are slightly weaker than Chase UR or Amex MR points, but the larger multipliers largely make up for the difference.  Airline tickets purchased by redeeming points in the travel portal earn elite status and redeemable miles, which is great for earning status and earning additional points (but in a non-flexible currency).