Good afternoon everyone. A few days ago, my Citi Prestige Credit Card statement closed and I confirmed that I did redeem all $250 of my airline travel credit for 2017 (I previously confirmed that Flights Booked with Citi Thank You Points + Cash do not Trigger Citi Prestige $250 Airline Travel Credit). My statement also said that I would be billed the $350 Citi Prestige annual fee on my next statement. I only pay $350 for the annual fee because I have a linked Citigold Checking account. Without that checking account, I would have to pay the $450 annual fee. Considering that I never took advantage of the 3 free rounds of golf, 4th night free on hotel stays, or needed an extra Priority Pass membership, I saw no reason to keep the credit card another year. The only feature that I really liked about having my Citi Prestige Credit Card was the ability to redeem Citi Thank You Points for 1.6 CPP on American Airlines and AA codeshare flights, but that feature is going away in a few months too.
I called Citi and asked if there were any retention offers available on my Citi Prestige Credit Card. Not surprisingly, there were no offers available for me, since I spent about $300 on that credit card in the last 12 months and $250 of that was reimbursed thanks to the $250 airline travel credit. I went into the call knowing that retention offers were probably unlikely, so I asked the rep to product change / convert my Citi Prestige Credit Card into a Citi Dividend Credit Card. After reading a script for almost 10 minutes and explaining every single change in my benefits, we completed the product change. The Citi Dividend Credit Card offers 5% cash back at drugstores this quarter and you can earn up to $300 per calendar year, with no quarterly cap.
After completing the product change, I made a bill payment from my Citigold Checking account to bring the account balance down to $0. I called back a few days later to close the Citigold Checking account and when the rep asked me why I wanted to close the account, I told her that I only kept the account open to get a reduced annual fee on my Citi Prestige Credit Card and I have since product changed that card to the Citi Dividend Credit Card and no longer needed the Citigold Checking account open. I’m not sure if she gets that answer often, but she didn’t try to convince me to keep the account open.
I made another call to product change my Citi Forward Credit Card into another Citi Dividend Credit Card, but I was told that there were no product change options available for my Citi Forward Credit Card. I then asked if there were any retention / targeted spending offers available on my Citi Forward Credit Card and was told that if I spend $300 in the next 60 days, I will earn 3,000 bonus Citi Thank You Points. I ended up going through all my other Citi credit cards with the rep over the phone but the only other offer I could get was on my Citi Premier Credit Card. If I made 5 or more purchases of $10 or more, I will get a $50 statement credit. That sounds simple enough.
If you have any questions about any of the Citi credit cards or Citigold checking account, please leave a comment below. Have a great weekend everyone!
Do you have a CSR or Amex Plat?
No Chase Sapphire Reserve (tried for it twice but still not possible) but I do have an American Express Business Platinum Charge Card.
Wouldn’t this product change result in forfeiting any remaining ThankYou Points you earned on your prestige card? (I think you have 60 days to use it)
Prestige to another ThankYou point earning card would’ve avoided this. I think.
I believe you are right, but I barely ever use my Citi Prestige, so I do not have many Citi Thank You Points tied to my Citi Prestige. All my 3x travel purchases go on my Citi Premier. I also earned a few thousand points from my Citi AT&T Access More.
How come you never used the fourth night free?
I never stay in the same city / hotel for 4 nights or longer. I tend to only stay in the same city / hotel for 2-3 nights at a time. I do see the value in the fourth night free benefit but I just never fit my travel style.
I called Citi, they transferred the balance to a Citi credit card, and closed the account on the spot. They asked why and I told them that $200k was too much for no service via phone. The one time I visited a branch to apply for the Prestige I was there over an hour.
I haven’t used a lot of the benefits of the Prestige yet. I’ll be watching to see if the $350 stays. If it goes back up, then I’ll just convert to something else.
Good to hear. Let me know if the $450 annual fee posts.
How many Dividend Cards can u have? I’m at 3.
Hmm I don’t think there is a limit. Nice to hear 3 Citi Dividend CCs is possibke :)
I think I have 11 Dividends.
One drawback to this approach is that you just restarted your 24 month wait to be able to apply for a new Thankyou card.
Dang, 11 Citi Dividend Credit Cards! I think you are the winner. Do you max out the $300 in cash back every year for every card?
Ya, that is true. I still have my Citi Premier Credit Card and I will continue to use that card as long as Citi Thank You Points are still decent. I am going to be sad when my Citi Thank You Points are only going to be worth 1.25 CPP on travel, but I’m sure I will be more likely to redeem them now.
If I down grade the prestige card to the dividend card I will loose access to the thank you points?
Yes, you will lose any Citi TYPs linked to your Citi Prestige. You have 60 days to redeem those Citi TYPs before they are gone.
The biggest benefit of the Citi Prestige for me is definitely the reimbursement of up to $500 in expenses for delays of 3 hours or more – that will easily pay my annual fee this year.
Oh that’s a really useful credit card benefit :)
Two questions:
1. Does opening the citi prestige at a bank location still gets u 350 af even without a city gold or priority account.
2. I’m trying to find out this for a while but does closing ur city gold account still keeps the af to 350 dollars or does it revert back to 450 dollars.
I’m not sure the answer to either question, but I don’t think it’s still possible to get the $350 annual fee if you don’t already have the Citi Prestige. I think that is a grandfathered in benefit.
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I have yet to use the Citi travel protection, but it’s one of the reasons i keep using this card for travel purchases. From what I understand, if you charge those prepaid hotels on here, you can still get the 4th night free and also refunded if you have a valid reason why you can’t go on the trip. Plus the 3 hour delay(which I haven’t used yet) makes it a good card to use if things go wrong.
I am sad about the AA 1.6 cents going away but with Amex screwing around with their MR rewards rebate for the business plat, i’ll probably keep using the Prestige going forward. CTY redemptions at 1.25c with travel protection vs amex MR redemptions at 1.5c without travel insurance is an interesting debate.
My annoyances with AA’s lack of sAAver space makes me not want to accumulate any more miles and just focus on accumulating these CTY and amex MR points.
As for data points about AF reverting back to $450, I opened a Citigold account a few years back and downgraded to a regular checking 6 months after. The AF is still charged to me at $350 per year. I’ve already gone through one AF. They do some funky accounting but it’s the same. I was refunded a prorated $450 annual fee for the remaining time then charged $350. My data is 2+ years old so not sure if it’s still the same process. When I downgraded, I did it through the online message. I never called in. If I recall correctly, this was the best way to downgrade.
If it makes you feel better, keep booking travel with the Citi Prestige CC for the added protection. Thank you for the data points on upgrading / downgrading your cards.
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