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Reader Feedback: How Should I Spend 84K Citi ThankYou Points Before December 31?

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Updated at 6pm PT on 1/2/21: Thanks to everyone who answered the poll question at the bottom of this post.  Even though “Do Nothing Until 2021” was the second most popular answer, that is what I decided to do.  Hopefully I will be able to make some Citi TYP redemptions in 2021.

Good evening everyone, I need some help.  First of all, this post could be classified as a “First World Problem” or a “Good Problem to Have”, but I would still like to get some help on making my decision.  Long story short, I have a Citi Rewards+ Credit Card and one of the benefits of the credit card is the ability to get 10% of your redeemed Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) back, on the first 100,000 TYPs redeemed per calendar year (10K TYPs rebate max).  Since there are only a few weeks left in the year and I have only redeemed a few thousand TYPs this year, I need to spend 84K TYPs by December 31 in order to max out the 10K TYP rebate.  In this post, I will discuss how I calculated how many TYPs I need to spend and go through all the various redemption options and my thoughts on each option.

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My December Credit Card Retention Calls: 2 out of 4 Successes ($300 Statement Credits Total)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I called about retention offers on a few different credit cards today and wanted to share my results.  Please make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post and read my tips on making retention calls.  I took a page out of Frequent Miler’s playbook (My $575 phone call (complete in 20 minutes)) and called about these 4 credit cards:

  • Chase Hyatt Credit Card ($75 annual fee posted December 1)
  • JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card ($450 annual fee posted July 1)
  • Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card ($99 annual fee posted May 1)
  • American Express Business Platinum Charge Card ($595 annual fee posted December 2)

Since the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card is product changing to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card on January 11, 2021, I decided to call Chase and ask about a retention offer.  This is a huge ask that I knew was never going to fly, but I tried anyways.  I told the Chase rep that I was planning on closing my old Hyatt credit card and was going to apply for the new World of Hyatt credit card in a few weeks since I could earn up to 50,000 World of Hyatt Points with the new sign up bonus.  Instead of going through the process of closing one card and applying for the other card, I asked if Chase could provide some bonus World of Hyatt Points to forgo the sign up bonus.  Nope, that was not possible.  At that point, I asked the rep to close that credit card and transfer the credit limit over to another Chase personal call.  I am 0 for 1 at this point, onto the next call.

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How to Redeem Marriott Bonvoy 50K Point Free Night Certificates (Some Issues, Then Success)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  At the end of October, my wife applied for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card.  At the time, the sign up bonus was for 5 Free Night Certificates good for up to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per night after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  Many bloggers (including my friends Nick and Greg at Frequent Miler) said that this sign up bonus was a great deal, but only for those who knew how to get great value out of the certificates and could use them all within 12 months.  Since Laura has never had any Marriott (or SPG) credit cards, she decided to apply for the credit card.  She was not instantly approved, but after calling the Chase reconsideration department, she was approved for the credit card.  In this post, I will show you how to redeem the Marriott 50K Free Night Certificates and show you some of the trouble Laura experienced in the booking process.

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Citi 5% Cash Back on Online Purchases from 11/24 – 11/30 Statement Credits Posted

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  Last week, Citi ran a promo where you could earn 5% cash back for making online purchases between November 24 and November 30 (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday).  My Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card statement just closed and the 5% cash back statement credit posted to my account.  I made an online purchase on November 24 for $503.95 and the $25 Online Purchase Bonus posted on December 3.  You may need to wait until your credit card statement closes to see the bonus.

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Old Chase Hyatt Credit Card ($75 Annual Fee)

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Good evening everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I was just checking my Chase credit card accounts and saw that the $75 annual fee posted on my old Chase Hyatt Credit Card.  Effective January 11, 2021, Chase will convert all cardmembers who have the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card to the new $95 annual fee Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card.  Since I have never had the new card, I am planning on closing the old card and then applying for the new card to get the sign up bonus.  I decided to call Chase to see if they could waive the $75 annual fee anyway, but the rep said no.  I told the rep that I would think about it and call back later if I decide to close the card.  I plan on calling back in a few days to close the card and transfer my credit limit over to one of my other Chase cards.

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