Tag Archives: Citi ThankYou Points

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My Recent Citi Forward & Premier Credit Card Retention / Targeted Spending Offers

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a festive Drinko Cinco de Mayo yesterday.  A few weeks ago, I called Citi to convert my Citi Prestige Credit Card into a Citi Dividend Credit Card.  During that call, I asked the rep if it were possible to convert my Citi Forward Credit Card to another Citi Dividend Credit Card.  She checked the card’s offers and told me that no product change / conversion offers were available.  Undeterred, I asked if she saw any other offers on the credit card and she read off a few retention / targeted spending offers.  After going through all available offers, I accepted an offer for 3,000 bonus Citi Thank You Points after spending $300 in the next 30-90 days (I don’t remember the exact number of days, since I was planning on completing the spending requirement the following day).

To complete the spending requirement, I loaded / reloaded my Amazon gift card balance with $301 using my Citi Forward Credit Card.  A long time ago, the Citi Forward Credit Card used to offer 5x Citi Thank You Points at restaurants and bookstores (including Amazon).  But unfortunately, on June 4, 2016, Citi changed the earning rate of the Citi Forward Credit Card from 5x to 2x at restaurants and bookstores, thereby reducing my spending on the card from a lot to $0.

Fun fact: The rep mentioned that as long as there is a purchase once every 25 statement cycles (~2 years), Citi will not close the credit card for inactivity.

Reload Amazon Gift Card Balance

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Someone Tried to Hack my Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card

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Buenos dias everyone. I got a voicemail last Sunday afternoon from a Citi fraud prevention representative in Jacksonville, Florida asking me to call in to verify some recent charges. In retrospect, the fact that they were calling on Easter Sunday might have been a red flag, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it, and actually forgot about the call until I tried to place an order with PayPal Digital Gifts using my Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card and got an error message. When I logged into my Citi account, I got a popup message informing me that my charging ability may be limited, and found the following message attached to my Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card:

A screenshot from citi.com showing a message advising that there may have been unauthorized charges on the card and asking the recipient to call a phone number to verify them.

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Why I Converted Citi Prestige to Citi Dividend & Closed Citigold Checking Account

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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.

Citi Prestige $250 Airline Credit Posted Annual Fee Posting Next Month

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Should I Use Citi Thank You Points or Membership Reward Points / AMEX Business Platinum to Book American Airlines Flight?

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I have a miles and points spending decision to make and thought I’d ask TWG readers for advice. After all, when Grant asks for advice, he gets lots of great input. I have a one-way flight I need to purchase and am considering two options:

  • Option #1: Use Citi Thank You Points. I have a nice stash of them and have been looking for a good use. The flight is on American for $242.64 and requires 15,165 Citi Thank You Points. I have the Citi Prestige Credit Card, so I’m getting 1.6 cents per point (CPP).
  • Option #2: Use Membership Reward Points. As of March 30, new rules will go into place for the AMEX Business Platinum card, so that seems like an interesting option as well. The flight would cost $242.64 or 24,264 Membership Rewards Points. American Airlines is my designated airline so I’ll get a 50% refund on those points. Also, as of March 30, because first you purchase the flight and then get reimbursed when you use MR points, I’ll get 5X points for the AMEX spend.

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Flights Booked with Citi Thank You Points + Cash do not Trigger Citi Prestige $250 Airline Travel Credit

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Good afternoon everyone, I have one more quick post to share this weekend.  My Citi Prestige Credit Card annual fee is set to post in early May and I do not anticipate keeping the credit card for another year, since there is a big devaluation to the card benefits that goes into effect on July 27.  Doctor of Credit has more details, but here are the big blows to the card benefits:

  • Eliminating 3 free rounds of golf.
  • Eliminating American Airline redemptions at 1.6 cents per point (if you have any upcoming AA flights, read How to Book American Airlines Flights with Citi Thank You Points (1.6 Cents Per Point Value)).
  • For all other flights booked with Citi Thank You Points, the redemption rate is changing from 1.33 cents per point to 1.25 cents per point.
  • Fourth-night-free hotel benefit will be based on average nightly rate instead of the 4th night’s rate (and the fourth-night-free benefit will no longer include taxes).
  • Eliminating Admirals Club access.

With those devaluations in mind, I wanted to redeem the full $250 airline travel credit before the annual fee posts.  I wanted to experiment and see if flights booked with Citi Thank You Points and cash would trigger the $250 airline travel credit.  For those unfamiliar with booking flights through the Citi Thank You portal, you have the option to pay for flights with all Citi Thank You Points, with all cash (you might as well book directly on the airline’s website) or a combination of Thank You Points and cash.  In the example below, the flight costs $178.20 or 13,398 Citi Thank You Points.

13,398 Citi TYPs + $0

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