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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 |
|---|
60K Points + 10X Select Travel 60K points after $4K spend in the first 3 months. Plus, earn 10x on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.$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+. Sadly, this travel card doesn't provide any travel protections. Earning rate: 3X grocery ⚬ 3X dining ⚬ 3X gas stations ⚬ 3X flights, hotels, travel agencies Card Type: Mastercard World Elite Noteworthy perks: Transfer points to airline partners ⚬ $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit 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.
Just wanted to check on the bonus language. I only have the Prestige card from the TY line and received the bonus about 5+ years ago. It is still open. Would I receive the welcome bonus if I applied for the premiere card, while maintaining the prestige card?
If you get approved, yes
Sorry if you’ve already ever answered this, but in your experience has Citi ever matched new offer promotions? Just opened this card last week for 60k with same spending.
I think there are some reports on Doctor of Credit of people sometimes getting the offer matched, so it’s worth a try.
It was a no for me.
I also tried a match to 80k the same day as the card arrived, but was declined
FYI, there is a new card design for this card. I just had a replacement come in this week.
I tried to get this card when the bonus was last increased. Was denied because of too much unused credit. Anybody know if Citi is still using “too much unused credit” as an excuse to deny people the card.
Update. Both Player 2 and myself tried to get this card and were instantly denied. We both have credit scores in the 820-830 range. I’m sure that we’ll both get the “too much unused credit” reason for denial. Don’t waste a hard pull if you were previously denied for that reason.
Same as Barry… too much unused credit…
Am I eligible for this card if I already have this card? My card is 3 years old. Can I product change from premier to custom and apply for the new premier card? Thanks for the feedback
That should work, provided Citi doesn’t end up changing your card number. They didn’t for me when product changing my Premier to a Custom Cash card last year, so you should be OK.
So a PC gets around the no new bonus if cancelled same card within 24 months?
If PC your Premier you could be freezing your TYPs for partner transfers unless you also have the Prestige. Maybe PC to $500 AF Prestige (for now) instead?
Custom Cash has 20k TYP SUB ($200 if you don’t have Premier or Prestige).
I used all TY points. No loss there. I am OK with loosing Custom 20K for 80K if the workaround works.
Did you apply for a premier card after product changing?
Hey Stephen, nice post! Quick question for you though. Does Walmart spend count as groceries? I do all my grocery shopping there.
It does not, but supposedly, the Walmart Neighborhood version does as well as the grocery app.
Walmart Neighborhood stores code as grocery. I typically go there to buy Walmart gift cards with my Amex Gold to use at Sam’s. Never had a problem.