Good morning everyone.  Yesterday, I called Citi to ask about a recent credit card transaction.  Toward the end of the call, the rep asked if I had any other questions and I said that I had just paid the annual fee on my Citi Prestige Credit Card, but that I was considering closing the credit card.  I told her that I use my Citi Premier Credit Card more often than my Citi Prestige Credit Card and I don’t take advantage of the 3 free rounds of golf or 4th night free hotel benefit, so I don’t get much value out of paying the *huge* annual fee.  She put me on hold for a minute and transferred me to the credit card retention team (actual department name may differ).

After talking to the rep for a few minutes, he offered me the following retention offers on my Citi Prestige Credit Card:

• Spend $4,000 in 3 consecutive months and get a $200 statement credit
• Spend $3,000 over the next 6 months and get 10,000 bonus Citi Thank You Points (TYPs)

The $200 statement credit sounded tempting, but spending $12,000 over the next 3 months seemed like overkill for a 1.67% bonus ($200 / $12,000 = 1.67%).  I decided to take the second offer which only required me to spend $3,000 over the next 6 months, or about $500/month.  Since I value Citi TYPs at 1.6 cents per point (CPP), I would be getting a $160 bonus after spending $3,000, which results in a 5.33% bonus ($160 / $3,000 = 5.33%).

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