(EXPIRED) Citi offer: 10x (up to 2500 points) on groceries, shopping, gas (and more?) to 8/31/20

Citi has sent out targeted spending bonuses for some cardholders. Greg received the offer below to earn 10x ThankYou points (up to 2500 points) through 8/31/20 on “eligible purchases”. Unfortunately, it’s not totally clear which purchases are eligible. That said, I imagine he’ll figure it out and earn 2500 easy points after clicking the button in the email to activate the offer (don’t forget to activate yours if you receive this type of email).

The Deal

• Citi has sent a targeted spending offer to some ThankYou Preferred cardholders (possible that other cardholders will receive similar offers) good for:
  • 10x ThankYou points (up to 2500 points) through 8/31/20 on eligible purchases like “shopping, gas, and more”.
• Subject line is, “[Name], we are offering a special bonus for you.”

Key Terms

• Must activate via link in targeted email

Quick Thoughts

As noted at the top, it isn’t quite clear which purchases are eligible for this offer. Here’s what the email says:

So based on that graphic, we know that eligible purchases include shopping, groceries, gas, and more — but not if you’re shopping for restaurant delivery, entertainment, or cable and streaming purchases. I don’t think I’d have assumed any of those to be in the “shopping, groceries, and gas” realm, but wouldn’t it make sense to provide some examples of what would count, Citi?

The fine print of the email indicates that transactions will be identified by MCC (no surprise there):

Merchants are assigned a merchant category code (“MCC”), which is determined in accordance with Visa/Mastercard/American Express procedures based on the kinds of products and services the merchants primarily sell. We don’t control the assignment of these codes and are not responsible for the codes used by merchants. When you use your card to make a purchase, we’re provided an MCC for that purchase. We group similar merchant codes into categories for purposes of making rewards offers. Sometimes you may expect a purchase to fit within a rewards category, but if the code assigned to the merchant wasn’t grouped into that category, your purchase will not qualify for additional rewards.

This type of offer is part of the reason why I included Doctor of Credit’s post with links to MCC lists in our week in review around the web — that can sometimes be a quick reference to know how a merchant may code.

Still, I expect that most grocery stores, gas stations and retail stores will earn 10x here. I have no idea what “and more” includes, but neither would I spend much time trying to figure it out since this bonus is only on $250 in spend – it should be easy enough to spend that much on either groceries or gas by 8/31/20.

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