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Citi has returned with its best ever welcome offer on the Premier card, giving 80,000 bonus ThankYou points when spending $4,000 in the first three months. That’s an excellent offer on a great all-round card.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
75K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 75,000 points after $4,000 spend in 3 months$95 Annual Fee FM Mini Review: Very strong earnings for spend. Excellent bonus categories. Points transferable to select airlines. Recommend pairing this card with Citi Double Cash and Citi Rewards+. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 3X grocery ✦ 3X dining ✦ 3X gas stations & EV charging ✦ 3X flights, hotels, travel agencies ✦ 10X hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel℠ Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Citi. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Transfer points to airline partners ✦ $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit ($100 off a $500+ hotel stay, excluding taxes and fees, when booked through Citi Travel) ✦ Travel protections See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
Quick Thoughts
80,000 ThankYou points is as high as the welcome offer has ever been on the Citi Premier card. It’s a fantastic bonus for a transferable currency that’s become more well-rounded in the past year seeing as they finally added a couple of hotel transfer partners – Wyndham at 1:1 and Choice at 1:2.
One of the best features of the Citi Premier card is that it offers 3x ThankYou points for several categories where you’ll organically spend a significant chunk of your monthly expenditure:
- Groceries
- Dining
- Gas stations
- Flights, hotels, travel agencies
If you were to meet the $4,000 minimum spend requirement by spending that all at 3x, you’d end up with 92,000 ThankYou points. That could get you 6 round trip economy flights to Hawaii booked on United after transferring points to Turkish Miles & Smiles, 184,000 Choice Privileges points, 6 nights in a one bedroom Vacasa property booked using Wyndham Rewards points among many other great redemption options.
One of the other great features of the Citi Premier card is that the 3x grocery store category is uncapped. While many people will prefer to earn 4x Membership Rewards points on the Amex Gold card, that’s capped at $25,000 spend per year per Gold card. While that’s plenty for the average household, for people who can maximize their spend at grocery stores, earning a potentially unlimited number of ThankYou points makes it a wonderful additional option for when you need to spend a lot on “groceries”.
Bear in mind that Citi has the following 24 month rule when applying for this card:
To get bonus on any ThankYou card, you must wait 24 months after receiving a new cardmember bonus or closing any ThankYou card account. Applies to Preferred, Premier, Prestige, and Rewards+.
My wife’s eligible for this card and so it’s very tempting to apply for it. The dilemma is that she’s due to fall below 5/24 in a few months; if she applies for the Citi Premier card then she won’t drop back below 5/24 for another year. What to do, what to do…
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What are the chances of a transfer to aadvantage being offered again? I’ve been sitting on TY points for that purpose for longer than I thought I’d have to.
Applied again and denied. I’m sure the reason is going to be “Too much unused credit”
Same for me. Instant decline. Have tried 3 times in last 1.5 years, once every 6 months. Same outcomes each time.
And the letter says the same thing – lot of unused credit (mind you I have only 3 personal cards open right now, one of which is AMEX plat, so has no credit limit/utilization) and low avg. account age (my oldest open card is now 3 years old, with average account age of 2.5 years)
I got the Premier last year, but with a limit too low for a travel card. They raised me from $4K to $6K, but it’s still to low. Could I PC my Double Cash to a Premier, and drop my Premier to a DC, keeping limits with each card? Any experience with that?
Just got off phone verification and approved.
fico ~780, 3% utilization, 2/24, 6/36. Have 6 cards showing balances, including 2 citi cards.
Last citi app was past april for an AA card.
Hi I know I need to do my reading, but before this goes away I wanted to ask. Are you saying that if you have 92K points you can do all of what is listed or one of them.
“That could get you 6 round trip economy flights to Hawaii booked on United after transferring points to Turkish Miles & Smiles, 184,000 Choice Privileges points, 6 nights in a one bedroom Vacasa property booked using Wyndham Rewards points among many other great redemption options.”
Thanks
You could do any one of them rather than all of them. For example, a one bedroom Vacasa property costs 15,000 Wyndham points per night which you can transfer from Citi ThankYou points. 6 nights would therefore cost 90,000 points.
Thanks so much. I have a lot of Wyndham points already too!
I am surprised to report that I was just approved for my second Citibank Premier card w/80K bonus after $4K spend. I was shocked given all the other data points about refusals of applications for second Premier cards. I used the FM link.
My current Premier card (still open and active) was a product change from a Citibank Dividend card in 6/21.
I previously received a sign-up bonus on a different Premier card, opened in 9/19 and converted to Rewards+ in 10/20.
Similar to others who were denied, I have lots of unused credit. I have four currently-open and active Citi cards (3 personal and 1 Costco/Business); this new approval is my 5th.
P2 got denied for “Too much unused credit”
Denied last time at 80k, denied again. Sorry Greg, tried to give you the referral.
Yay! I was approved, the only other Citi card I have is the Mile Up that I’ve had for many years. Not a very big credit limit $4700.
I was waiting for this offer to come back to apply, there are some Choice and Wyndham stays I want to book. My husband now spends around $1,000/month in gas (he has a mobile business and we’re in California), so that expense will cover the majority of spend required.
I just applied and was denied due to too many open accounts. I only have 2 open Citi accounts, but definitely have many others outside of Citi. I’m at 2/24, so didn’t mind taking a slot for the 80K.
I was approved earlier this year, however P2 was denied yesterday. The only difference is I was 3/24, but for the rest below we are very similar…
P2 – No Citi cards in last 48 mos, Credit score 344, 2/24 (most recent card one year ago), income over $100k, don’t carry balances over month to month.
Denial reasons from Citi:
The main factors that contributed to this score are:
• Your credit report shows a high amount of unused credit compared to your available credit lines.
• Your credit report shows too many bank or national revolving accounts.
Perhaps P2’s credit score of 344 is the issue. 🙂 Perhaps you meant 744?
How many CC do you use? How many for P2? If you’re using two or three and use a good portion of your credit limit (10-20%) every month (even if not carrying balances), that’s a better indicator of credit trustworthiness compared to someone who doesn’t use any of their credit line.
Welp, that’s what I get for posting when I’m half asleep. Thanks for pointing that out – P2 credit score is currently 844. I was approved and have more cards – I regularly use only a handful, about 5, but have about 10 in the sock drawer. P2 has 1 main card and a couple more she uses regularly, mostly at my direction and about 5 in the sock drawer. I do spend more than P2 does and on different cards, so maybe that’s the issue. Hers is mostly on just one card.
Is it allowed/possible to get a SECOND Citi Premier card? I’ve had mine a few years, also have the Citi Rewards card and would love to add an easy 80k+ points to my stash.
Good luck getting approved first
Thanks. That is incredibly helpful.
Yes, you are allowed to get a second Premier. Getting approved might be tough. I was denied (trying to get a 2nd Premier) last time the bonus was 80k. When I called in, they offered to upgrade one of my other no fee cards to a Premier. Debating whether or not to try again this time, since I know approval odds are low to nonexistent.
Ok, thanks for this info!! Might give it a whack and see anyhow. I have a couple Citi cards I would upgrade if the deal is good enough.
For the msr if I do grocery shopping or department store shopping would this card “mind” if I throw in a couple gift cards.
What is Citi’s sensitivity to MS? If one was to MS for the bonus/continuous 3x at grocery stores, would that bring eyes for a potential shutdown?
Good question!
Both me and P2 got declined for this one. FIrst card to be declined in a long time.