Doctor of Credit reports that some Citi Rewards+ cardholders (and at least one commenter there who has the ThankYou Preferred) are receiving an email offer from Citi to upgrade to the Citi Premier with a waived annual fee for the first year. That certainly may be worth considering for those who receive the offer.
The Deal
- Some Citi Rewards+ and Thank You Preferred cardholders are receiving targeted email offers to upgrade to the Citi Premier card with the $95 annual fee waived for the first year
Quick Thoughts
Again, this is targeted – so it won’t apply to most cardholders. That said, if you have a Rewards+ or ThankYou Preferred card that isn’t being used, it could certainly be worth taking Citi up on this offer.
The Citi Premier card carries several interesting 3x categories:
- 3x grocery
- 3x dining / restaurants
- 3x gas
- 3x flights, hotels, and travel agencies
Those represent excellent return on a card with a $95 annual fee. Getting those bonus categories for a year without an annual fee certainly could be attractive.
The other key benefit of the Premier is the ability to transfer to airline partners, which you need either the Premier or Prestige to do. Some readers surely downgraded their Premier cards given the lack of travel plans this year, so this may be a good excuse to upgrade again for a year.
Note that because you’re staying within the ThankYou family, your card number should not change with this product change and it therefore should not reset the 24-month clock for getting a bonus on the Premier or Prestige, though there is always some YMMV element at play there.
If you upgraded a Rewards+ card, you would of course lose the 10% annual points rebate (which gives up to 10K points per year back when you redeem) and the feature that rounds small purchases up, but gaining the ability to transfer to partners and the 3x bonus categories seems like it would potentially be a very good trade in my opinion).
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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You reference that staying within the TYP family will not change the card number, and that should not affect your 24 month bonus eligibility. The idea that a change in card number determines SUB eligibility is repeated often, but without proof that this is true. Citi is definitely opaque on what affects and does not affect the 24 month TYP SUB eligibility. However, a new card number does not necessarily mean the account is closed. This is not a published guideline, and there are reported data points to the contrary.
I think Citi sent me this offer on my Rewards+ because they knew I’m eligible for a SUB again in a couple weeks… actually, nah, that would require competence.
I won’t upgrade as I hope there will be a bonus for future upgrade offers even if the annual fee isn’t waived.
I know that’s what DoC said, and that would be great, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen an upgrade bonus offer from Citi that I can recall. Seems unlikely to me, but who knows?
I swore I saw one at one point, but a quick google search fails me, so maybe it was just wishful thinking. I think I will still keep my Preferred as it seems to get a lot of targeted limited time promos. I think I’m past due for a new TY card anyway, as long as Citi’s IT doesn’t mess me up on a past card conversion.
Can we upgrade one and then cancel our current Premier card and still keep the points?
No. You can not cancel your current card. You never ever want to cancel a ThankYou card unless you’ve used up all of your Citi points. The reason is that any points earned with that Premier card will expire 60 days from the day you cancel that card — doesn’t matter if your points are pooled or you have another Premier card or whatever. Points are tied to the card used to earn them.
Instead, upgrade one to the Premier and then downgrade your Premier to a Rewards+ or ThankYou Preferred to keep the points on that card alive and combinable with your other points.
See: https://frequentmiler.com/cancelling-your-prestige-or-premier-card-heres-how-to-keep-your-thankyou-points-alive/.
Again: Do. Not. Cancel. A. ThankYou. Card. Downgrade. And don’t downgrade to a Double Cash or else it’ll reset your 24 month clock to wait for another Premier/Prestige bonus. Downgrade to the Rewards+ or TY Preferred. You can have multiple of any of Citi’s cards.