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If you were disappointed to see the prompt death of the Citi Thank You-to-Shop-Your-Way-for-gift-cards play, you’re in luck: Citi has sent an email to some cardholders indicating that they will be offering a 20% discount on ThankYou point redemptions for gift cards on November 30th. This will yield a value of 1.25c – even better than the Shop-Your-Way play, albeit only for a day.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with Citi, communication hasn’t been great: not all cardholders have received an email, so we don’t yet know whether this will be open to everyone nor do we know if the bonus rate will apply to all gift cards or only specific merchants. Update: It looks like only select brands will be discounted – details are below.
The Deal
- Citi will offer (at least some cardholders) a 20% bonus when redeeming ThankYou points for the following gift card brands on November 30, 2020 (a value of 1.25c per point)
- Apple
- Happy Dining
- Fandango
- PetSmart
- Topgolf
- As an example, this will make it possible to redeem 10,000 ThankYou points for a $125 gift card (ordinarily 12,500 points)
Key Terms
- Valid 11/30/20 from 12:00am ET to 11:59pm ET only
- Not clear whether this is targeted or available for all cardholders
Quick Thoughts
I didn’t get as excited as others about the ability to cash out Citi ThankYou points for gift cards at a rate of 1.2c each. I’ve just become too enamored with Turkish Miles & Smiles to consider trading my Citi points for 1.2c to spend at eBay or Best Buy or Walmart or whatever.
That said, I can’t argue with the math: if you value the available gift cards near face value, trading ThankYou points for gift cards at a rate of 1.2c each makes the return on the Double Cash worth something like 2.4% or the return on Prestige 5x categories like 6%. Those are certainly respectable rates of return.
We will update on November 30th once we know whether this appears to be open to all cardholders and whether or not all merchant gift cards are available.
H/T: Travel With Grant
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[…] Citi to offer 20% off on gift card redemptions: With a 20% discount, Citi ThankYou points are worth 1.25 cents each. That’s not amazing, but it’s solid enough if you don’t think you’ll use all of your points for potentially much more valuable transfers to airline partners. I have more than enough Citi points for transfers to airline programs and so I’m willing to spend some for opportunities like this. I’ll probably redeem points for Apple gift cards both to use for myself and as gifts. […]
I rec’d the 15% discount for certain gift cards, but then chatted with one of their reps and was told they’ll have a 20% CyberMonday deal (her chat labeled the dates wrong). Here’s the chat:
———————————————————
These are the sales we have:
(11/25) Black Friday Email – Black Friday email will promote,
1) 15% off these gift cards – Chili’s, Happy Moments, Fandango, Sacks 5th Ave, and Apple,
2) SWP at Best Buy, and
3) Pay with Points and the new categories that customers can PWP with, along with a Pay with Points video.
(11/29) Nov Cyber Monday Email – Cyber Monday email will promote,
1) 20% off these gift and e-gift cards – Apple, Happy Dining, Fandango, PetSmart, and TopGolf,
2) SWP at PayPal (including an Urbanears 50% off select items deal), and
3) SWP at Amazon
(12/3 & 12/10) Q4 Gift Card Sale Re-mail – Offering 10% off ThankYou Point redemptions for the participating merchants in this gift card sale – Chili’s, Happy Moments, Wayfair, TopGolf, Fandango, and Domino’s. Sale starts 12/03 and ends 12/16 at 11:59PM EST.
[…] Citi to offer 20% off on gift card redemptions (1.25c per point) on 11/30. See our post for more. […]
I’ll be canceling my Premier card and this will cause 66635 points to expire within 60 days. The Citi chat rep informed me that the correct process to redeem those 66635 points is to call in to redeem. I also confirmed with him that you can call into redeem points for this “20% off gift cards” promo.
Now, I have a Rewards+ card that will rebate 10% of my redeemed points. Will those rebated points be subject to expiration?
If you have a Rewards+ card basically the 10% back will be earned on the “Rewards+ TYP earnings’ so it will not be associated with your Premier Card account and therefore not subject to expiration. But hope you know the two cards must be combined in the same TYP account to even get the 10% back.
Why cancel and worry about this at all? Just downgrade to a TY Preferred or another Rewards+ and keep the points alive indefinitely rather than forcing an expiration date.
[…] Citi to offer 20% off on gift card redemptions (1.25c per point) on 11/30 (Expires 11/30/20) […]
First of all, thank you for the post and for all that you do for the community.
Maybe under normal circumstances this would be MS worthy. However, I have too many spending offers right now and not enough outlets to use them on.
+3% cash back in discover up to $2000 in spend.
+3 MR referral bonus unlimited for 3 months.
$15k spend at groceries and gas for Amex platinum
Multiple CFs with $1500 PayPal each
Multiple citi cards getting 5% cb up to $500 for a week.
10x at drugstores for Best Buy visa uncapped.
Finding a spot for a 2.5x card just doesn’t seem to fit for me right now. I am happy I can “cash out” my existing points if I so desire.
I appreciate the post.
No longer seeing Hotels.com gift cards on Shop Your Way
I got a mailer for a promotion on my Citi Prestige card about 3 weeks after the promo ended. Citi sucks. I closed all my Citi bank accounts . total trainwreck..