Improved: Citi ThankYou Premier Card 50,000 Point Bonus = $500 in Gift Cards = $665 in Airfare
UPDATE: The Citi ThankYou Premier Card $500 bonus is now expired.
The Citi ThankYou Premier Card is now offering 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $2,500 in purchases within 3 months of account opening. That is enough to redeem for $500 in gift cards or $665 in airfare when you redeem through their ThankYou Travel Center. There is no annual fee for the first year, $125 after that. Let’s take a closer look at how this breaks down.
$500 in Gift Cards
You can view your redemption options at ThankYou.com. In general, it takes 10,000 ThankYou (TY) points to redeem for a $100 gift card to retailers like Gap, Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, Cabelas, CVS Pharmacy, Kohl’s, Land’s End, LL Bean, Sears, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Staples, and Walmart. So with 50,000 TY points, you could get five $100 gift cards from different stores.
Want something closer to cash? For a check mailed to you, it costs 8,000 points for $50. For a statement credit, it’s 7,500 points for $75. A check mailed towards your mortgage payment or student loan (made out to your lender) costs 7,500 points for $75. You could also redeem your points for a Walmart gift card and then sell it for cash at a site like PlasticJungle.com that offers you 91 cents on the dollar. 50k points would net you $455 in cash.
$655 in Airfare (ThankYou Travel Center)
Now let’s look at the advertised airplane ticket option. A good question is whether a flight booked through the ThankYou Travel Center costs the same as through any other travel site like Expedia, Orbitz, etc. I have some old ThankYou points laying around, so I went to the redemption site and found that the prices are very closely aligned to what is offered at sites like Expedia.com. I did a few quick searches for random flights, and the cost of the flight matched up with the cost in points in a 100:1 ratio. For example, the exact same flight below that cost $360 including taxes and fees on Expedia would cost 36,000 TY points.
ThankYou Travel Center screenshot:
Expedia.com screenshot:
So the pricing seems fair, no inflated prices or hidden fees. However, with this specific Premier card with the annual fee, you also get 33% more value when redeemed for airfare. Thus, 50,000 points can be redeemed for $665 in airfare, which would typically require 66,500 points. Since you can book any flight that can be found on Expedia, there are “no blackout dates”.
Update October 2011: Let’s say you found a ticket for $200 = 15,000 points, but only have 10,000 points in your account. Citi now lets you pay the difference, so in this case you can get your $200 ticket for 10,000 points and $67. This makes it much easier to use up all of your points at a 33% premium.
Some other highlights of the card:
- No foreign transaction fee on purchases.
- Earn 1.2 ThankYou Points per $1 spent at gas stations, supermarkets, drugstores, commuter transportation and parking merchants. Earn 1 ThankYou Point for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- No limits on earning points or expiration dates.
- Earn points for the miles you fly as well when you purchase a ticket with your Citi ThankYou Premier Card.
- Other smaller perks, like 200 bonus points for signing up for online account access, 200 points for paperless statements, and a 1-5% bonus on your existing point balance on your annual card anniversary.
- Annual complimentary domestic companion ticket. (Fees and taxes not included. Full details not available on application.)
By Jonathan Ping | Credit Cards | 12/21/11, 4:35pm
June 11th, 2011 at 5:35 am
Another doozie!
Thanks … *again* !!
June 11th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
I just bought airfare using some old TYP and I found the pricing to be dead-on with the big travel sites. Slightly smaller selection of available flights though.
I’m really tempted by this, but the gift-card only redemption and annual fee are deal breakers for me (plus I have already applied for 3 CCs this year and am totally stocked up on grocery gift cards!)
Shoot. Changed my mind. In for one! Thanks Jonathan!
June 11th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Fellow blogger 2million says he used Amazon Payments (kind of like PayPal) to send $1000 a month between his wife and himself and charging it onto a credit card with no fees to satisfy purchase requirements.
http://www.2millionblog.com/20.....million%29
Other ideas for meeting the purchase requirements here:
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/cha.....l-fee.html
June 12th, 2011 at 10:24 am
do they waive the fee the first year?
June 12th, 2011 at 11:06 am
I wouldn’t advise attempting that Amazon “scheme” as it wouldn’t surprise me if Citi classified that type of transaction as a cash advance.
June 12th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Is there any way to get around the annual fee? Does it get charged when you receive your card or at the 1 year mark? TIA
June 12th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
No, the annual fee is not waived for the first year for this particular offer. The old offer was 20,000 bonus points with annual fee waived the first year. This improved one adds 30,000 points (worth an additional $400 in airfare) but with the $125 annual fee. I would have been nice for the fee to have been waived, but it’s still a good offer.
June 12th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Prorated annual fee should be refunded when cancelling….
June 12th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
This article is very misleading (not intentionally I assume). CVS, Wallmart, best buy, home depot, etc. do not offer $100 giftcards. Citi actually has a real **** rewards program if it wasn’t for the bonus points.
June 12th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Yes, Walmart, Home Depot, etc do offer $100 gift cards. I just confirmed again. Screenshot below. $100 = 10,000 points.
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/wor.....5/hdty.gif
June 13th, 2011 at 2:55 am
yea I think we’ll see more of these types of offers soon…
businesses are doing bad and they want to lure you in, just watch the terms and conditions..
June 13th, 2011 at 8:13 am
FYI – The thankyou gift cards availability change once you log in to your account. Its kind of a bait and switch. For example when I log in I do not get the $100 walmart gift card option, the only denomination I am offered is $25 for 3500 points.
June 13th, 2011 at 11:06 am
If you currently have this card, can you contact CITI and receive the 50,000 bonus points?
I’ve used this card for 3 years. I purchase all our company airline travel with it and rack up some serious points.
June 13th, 2011 at 11:06 am
Use the pulldown menu if you only see the $25 for 3,500 point option, and you’ll find the $100 for 10,000 points. I only have 300 ThankYou points in my account and I can still see it.
June 14th, 2011 at 5:08 am
@Eric: I can vouch for the Amazon Payments process. I used this process to rack up spending for the British Airways Chase card and Chase did not treat this as a cash advance. It shows up as a regular credit card transaction.
June 15th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Is the airfare option also applicable for international flight?
June 15th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
I’m planning to travel to Korea via Korean Air or Asiana Airline. Are they applicable to airfare option?
Also, is paying my bill (mortgage, utility, etc.) considered credit card purchase or cash advance?
June 21st, 2011 at 12:03 pm
I applied for this card and I got a query. I have not been rejected a card in years by any bank. I used to couple of few Citi cards recently and cancelled them last year as I was not using them. The funny thing is Citi sent email without any way to contact them back except posting the following details back to them:
1) Original Telephone bill – no copies accepted. I wonder what they mean by original in the age of electronic bills and people carrying only mobile phones
2) Copy of bank statement/credit card statement or non telephone utility bill
3) Pay stub or brokerage statement
Though the email address seems to be legit, I am not going to send all these documents to some address mentioned in an email. if Citi cannot verify one of their old customers without getting above mentioned documents, no wonder they are in big mess.
June 29th, 2011 at 9:51 am
I processsed this app on line and was aghast to see they charge an additional $50.00 for an additional authorized user. I immediately cancelled as the $125.00 fee is somewhat prohibitive but an additional $50.00 is in no way worth the hassle for me. However I do really appreciate all the notifications of deals — as senior it has helped considerably.
July 18th, 2011 at 10:10 am
Just wanted to come back and thank you for the info. I just purchased my ticket to Korea and saved close to $700 on my airfare. Annual fee of $125 is a bit steep and may get annoying down the line but it could easily get offset by some of the fixed monthly expenses that I’ve began charging on the card.
So, thanks again!
July 20th, 2011 at 8:27 am
Is this deal still active?
July 20th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
@Daniel – You’re welcome, hope you enjoy your trip to Korea! If the annual fee is too high, you can always cancel down the road after enjoying the card features for a year and seeing how they work for you.
@aa- As of July 2011, yes this deal is still active.
July 21st, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Why knock the annual fee when the value of the annual companion ticket should be $100-$200 more?
July 27th, 2011 at 6:02 am
anyone know when the points are applied to your account? immediately when $2000 is hit, at end of statement, or 6-8 weeks after? i’m getting close to the $2000 mark. thanks
July 27th, 2011 at 6:59 am
@TJ – It’s applied at the end of statement period. My card was issued around middle of June and I’ve got the 50K bonus points in mid July.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:17 am
I’ve updated the post to
(1) reflect the fact that the $50k offer is back with a $2,500 spending requirement within 3 months + the annual fee is waived for the first year, and also
(2) for people who have gotten their points – you can now pay for travel with a combination of points and cash. This way, you can maximize the 33% premium that the Premier card gives you for redeeming your ThankYou points for travel on their Expedia-like travel portal.
October 21st, 2011 at 6:19 am
Do you have more info about the companion ticket? Can this be used right away, or do you have to meet any requirements for it?
October 21st, 2011 at 6:36 am
@Jonathan
You wrote: “Update October 2011: Let’s say you found a ticket for $250 = 25,000 points, but only have 20,000 points in your account. Citi now lets you pay the difference, so in this case you can get your $250 ticket for 20,000 points and $50. This makes it much easier to use up all of your points at a 33% premium.”
If there’s a 33% premium why would the $250 ticket require 20k points and $50? Wouldn’t the 20k points equate to $267 of purchasing power?
October 21st, 2011 at 11:39 am
Just out of curiosity, what kind of credit limits are folks getting approved for when you applied for this card. Please let me know.
October 21st, 2011 at 11:52 am
No foreign transaction fee…that one caught my eye….I am going to check this card out. Thanks for pointing this one out.
October 21st, 2011 at 12:30 pm
@Michael – You’re right. Late night math error. Will fix.
October 21st, 2011 at 4:47 pm
This looks a lot better than the Citi Preferred Card (Spend $5000 to get 25k pts). Damn wish I didn’t sign up for that one
October 21st, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Has anyone else signed up for the 30k offer before this one came out? If so, please advise if you are successful in getting Citi to change the terms to this offer. I am considering trying this but I haven’t decided yet. I still have around 2 months to spend the $1500 for 30k points.
October 21st, 2011 at 6:51 pm
@Eric – yeah – I just applied for the 30k bonus a few weeks ago. I am e-mailing them right now – will let you know what they say. (I have had luck with this in the past, with both Citi and Chase. This is the second rewards this week I tried to upgrade! Chase said yes – I expect Chase will too).
October 21st, 2011 at 6:52 pm
ETA: I expect CITI will too – doh.
October 22nd, 2011 at 1:20 am
Yes, if you have already applied for a lesser offer, definitely message them and ask them to match this one. These days the offers are changing quickly as they want your business. Remember, there are two different cards – Citi ThankYou Premier and Citi ThankYou Preferred. At this writing, both have 50k offers that are available to the public.
October 22nd, 2011 at 6:24 am
Jonathan,
I recently redeemed for $75 toward my student loan payment for only 7500 thank you points. Are you sure your info is correct?
October 22nd, 2011 at 2:24 pm
@Eric – I agree that 7,500 TY points should equal $75 towards student loan for ThankYou cardholders. Did I say something different?
October 22nd, 2011 at 2:31 pm
@Eric – Aha, you’re right, I had some old info up in this post. Fixed, thanks.
October 22nd, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Just curious, how long do you guys usually keep the credit card(s) before you call in to close the account(s)? Thanks.
October 23rd, 2011 at 8:23 am
“Just curious, how long do you guys usually keep the credit card(s) before you call in to close the account(s)? Thanks.”
I wait untul the second I get the rewards. Once they are in hand – I close the cards (don’t want to forget). That said, Citi offered me 10,000 points to simply keep my card open 1-2 more months (last I called to cancel a card). I will still be careful to close before one year – before next years’ annual fee.
October 23rd, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Note, I signed up for this card a few months ago when this 50,000 bonus ThankYou points was first being offered. At that time the card came with a $125 annual fee. I just logged in to the website and wrote to Citi customer service after I saw they are now having the same offer with the first year annual fee waived and asked for my fee to be refunded. They responded quickly and said my fee would be refunded on my next statement. Just mentioning this in case others are in the same boat — quick way get get $125 back!
October 24th, 2011 at 7:45 am
@Stephen = can i ask you what you wrote to them? i got this response:
From: message.center@citicorp.com
Subject: Re: ThankYou Premier Offer
Date: October 24, 2011 7:21 EST
Thank you for your inquiry. We understand your frustration and would like to assist in clarifying this matter. In order to keep your account open, it is necessary to pay the annual membership fee. We work hard to keep annual membership fees low, while providing our customers with convenience, safety and purchasing flexibility.
We also understand that your account may not be the right one for you. Please call us at 1-800-950-5114 to discuss our different products and the terms associated with them. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Outside the U.S., call collect at 605-335-2222.
We have appreciated the opportunity to assist you.
Thank you for using our website.
From:
Subject: ThankYou Premier Offer
Date: October 24, 2011 7:14 EST
I signed up for this card a few months ago and have been happy with the card. At that time I signed up the card came with a $125 annual fee which I was charged. I now see that the same card is being offered with the first year annual fee waived. I would like to request that the annual fee be refunded. Thank you.
October 25th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
@Eric – they denied me in the end. I would still ask. It largely seems to be who you get when you ask AND how they classify you. I have a very high credit score and am used to getting everything I ask for with credit card companies. My dh has asked Citi to remove fees and bump up bonuses based on new offers, no problem. Our credit profiles are identical. For everything he has asked and got yes yes yes, I only get no no no. They don’t seem terribly interested in my business.
But, regardless of my own experience, I would still ask.
October 25th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
@TJ
I got the annual fee refunded just now. I wrote a short note that’s very similar to what you wrote. I guess it’s being done case by case basis.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:29 am
I just got rejected for this card because
“Your credit bureau report shows you have no revolving accounts with a balance”
That’s rather absurd! I’m getting slammed for paying off my balances every month. Anyone have any idea how to change Citi’s mind?
October 27th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
@Yinna – You can call the Citi reconsideration line at 800-763-9795. At the minimum, just ask what they are looking for, oftentimes the reason listed is not the full story and just a checkbox. Good luck!
October 28th, 2011 at 7:29 am
Just a heads-up – it looks like statement credits aren’t valued at a penny a point any more. $100 in credits now cost 14,500 points. $250 costs 35,000. etc.
Btw – big fan of your blog. Thank you!
October 28th, 2011 at 7:34 am
This was the first card that I have ever applied for and been rejected. The reason was the following: Your credit bureau report shows you have no revolving
accounts with a balance.
Has anybody ever encountered this problem?
October 28th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Thank you Jonathan and to all who posted here. I’ve been researching this new card offer, and since I’m in the same predicament as Yinna & Kathy, I will probably be denied for not have an account balance (never in the last 20 years – refuse to pay CC companies any interest).
Jonathan – any ideas how long this may offer will last? I may decide to keep a balance on my Macy’s card to try to satisfy this “revolving accounts with a balance” issue – though for only one month (which may not satisfy them also).
October 28th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
I’ve never had a credit card balance either and I got approved for the card. Might be worth a try, since there’s a fair bit to gain from this.
October 29th, 2011 at 6:19 am
Alexandria,
I actually wrote them right after seeing Stephen’s post since I figured they might be amenable. However, I was rejected like you were. It appears that Citi learned from Chase’s mistake regarding the Sapphire Preferred offer. I failed at getting the increase from 50K points to 100K points on that offer because I had only applied to the card a few days before Jonathan made that post. By the time I received the card they were no longer honoring the better offer as so many people had already gotten it. At least you can feel better knowing you aren’t the only one not getting the better offer.
October 30th, 2011 at 9:30 am
I was approved and I do not carry balances.
November 2nd, 2011 at 1:11 pm
I was approved even with never carrying a balance for over 20 years. Thanks Mike and Christy for your posting. Factors that may have influnced my approval: my credit score was 762, usually charge between 2-3K each month (charge everything including $3 Starbucks) so I can earn points, had a savings account with citi until recently and got an offer in the mail (but that had a requirement of $3000 in 3 months).
Thanks again Jonathan for your blog!
November 9th, 2011 at 7:05 am
Any idea how long this will last? I don’t want to miss out but I want to wait a little longer to apply! Is there a way to find out?
November 17th, 2011 at 12:55 am
Do you know if they give you the points after you charge the $2500 or do they wait till after the 3 months?
November 17th, 2011 at 3:32 pm
I called the Citi reevaluation line and they were nice but very unhelpful. It didn’t get beyond reading out loud what was already in the letter, and no information as to why other people are getting the card without a revolving balance while I get rejected.
Oh well.
Thanks for the info Jonathan!
November 17th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
@Mike
You will get the points once the billing cycle ends after you spend the required amount. It’s not right after you spend the amount but you don’t have to wait the entire 3 months either.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:40 am
So I applied for my husband and even though he has great credit, he was declined because he doesn’t have any revolving accounts with a balance! Lame, but I applied for myself (I closed this account 2 months ago). Previously, I had a Mastercard, but this time it appeared that I had to choose Visa as MC wasn’t an option. I called them and they told me it was a MC but I’m not really counting on it. I’m hoping I get a MC because that is the only card my husband’s college will accept for tuition! Unreal!
December 14th, 2011 at 6:36 am
So I applied for the Thank You card and was declined because I had no revolving accounts with a balance! I applied 4 months ago and got approved and also didn’t have any revolving accounts so I don’t know why I would get declined this time. I have great credit and high income so that is really annoying. We don’t like to carry credit cards and were just using this to pay for tuition that we would be reimbursed for later. Any idea why I would get approved a few months ago but declined now when nothing has changed?
December 16th, 2011 at 11:12 am
Hi – I have a quick question about the 33% premium for travel. I have TY points coming from different sources (e.g., Citi Forward Card, Citi Checking acct with debit card). If I have the Premier card, does that mean all of my Thankyou points (including those not earned through the Premier card) are now worth 33% more when redeeming for travel? Or, will Citi keep track of which points came from where and assign different value depending on the source of the points? Seems kinda confusing to me… Thanks.
December 28th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Is the quality of google voice better than skype?
anyone tried it?
January 5th, 2012 at 11:34 am
I just redeemed some points today (1/5) for an Amazon gift card. You can get a $100 for 9,000 points!
January 7th, 2012 at 5:01 am
Does anyone know when the 2nd window for 6 months for spending $5000 starts and ends? My Account was opened on October 3, 2011 and I have already completed the first $5,000 of spends and received the 25,000 bonus points. I got my statement date changed for my convenience. Now does the 2nd window start on April 3, 2012 and go on for 6 months from there? or is it going to start after completing 6 statement cycles?
January 8th, 2012 at 1:53 pm
I’m not really happy with this citi offer. I got a special offer for 60,000 points and when I called into to expedite my application they told offered me a $500 credit line.
I wasn’t to keen on that so I asked if they could close one of my other citi cards and they said they couldn’t guarantee it would increase my credit limit. I talked to three other people and a manager and none seemed too worry about losing my business. So I ended up canceling the account.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Can somebody walk me through the exact steps to setup the amazon payment scheme to transfer $1000 a month to use as purchases? I enrolled last night but my only options was to email money to my wife? I am not following how it works. Thanks in advance!
January 30th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
30000 points now, as of last week.
February 6th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Got the offer, 25000 points after spend $2000 within 3 months and 0%apr for first year an NO ANNUAL FEE! Applied and approved! Will enjoy this card to visit my family in Indonesia. Big fan of your blog! Thanks
February 7th, 2012 at 5:00 am
Hey Craig – How long after you meet the spend amount did you get your points avaliable for you to use?
June 4th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
It’s back! Got an offer for 50k points for spending $3k in 3 months. Annual fee of $125 is waived for 1st year.
June 5th, 2012 at 7:23 am
Justin – did you get it emailed? Can you provide more info?
June 5th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
@howard_roark I received it via snail mail. It requires me to enter a “personal number” when i apply online so it may be targeted only, but you never know. Keep an eye out.
June 9th, 2012 at 6:30 am
Personal number got me in and i have no revolving credit.
June 9th, 2012 at 9:39 pm
can the personal number be shared to take advantage?
June 25th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
I mentioned above that I received a new offer in the mail for this card: 50k points for spending $3k in 3 months. Annual fee of $125 is waived for 1st year.
While browsing the blog Million Mile Secrets, I found this link to the online application.
creditcards.citicards.com/usc/thankyou/Premier/internal/Oct2011/500gc
Hopefully, the link works. If not here is the link the the Million Mile Secrets page the discusses it.
http://millionmilesecrets.com/.....more-13424
August 1st, 2012 at 12:25 pm
I am not sure if I will get a response here but will try…
I received 25000 pts the first 6 mths and will receive the other 25k pts after my 6 month period ends on 9/27/12 but that would hit the one yr mark so I guess I will be charged $125 annual membership fee.
I won’t be able to redeem my 50k pts for cash for atleast one billing cycle after that. If I cancel my card prior to that I would forfeit my pts – so is there no way to get around to paying this 2nd year’s annual membership fee?
Perhaps not the best credit card deal I have done so far and I have done a couple of others.
Am I missing something?
Thanks