Citi ThankYou Premier Card

Update: Citi now offers 40,000 sign-up bonus points instead of 50,000

There are a lot of ways to earn valuable points:

• Eligible flights

• Hotel stays

• Credit card sign-up bonus

• Purchase points/miles

• Credit card spend/promos/shopping portals

 In this post I will discuss one of my favorite ways of earning points/miles, and that is credit cards sign-up bonus. I only started getting into the credit card game very recently and since i started it become almost an addiction. Some people (including my wife :)) believe that applying for several credit cards and having many active credit cards is a negative thing and might affect your credit score. My response to this is always “yes and no”, I will dedicate a separate post just for this discussion some time in the near future.

 I will start with one of my favorite credit cards that I recently applied for.

 Citi ThankYou®Premier Card:

 Details:

• Earn 50,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open.

• Earn 3x points on Travel transaction including gas

• Earn 2x points on Dining at Restaurants and Entertainment

• 1 ThankYou® Point per $1 spent on other purchases

• Chip based technology

• No foreign transaction fees

• Transfer points to select Airline and Hotel programs

• $95 Annual fee (waived for the first year)

I love this card for many reasons. First, the sign-up bonus, according to many other points and miles experts and bloggers ThankYou® Points are valued at 1.6 cents which gives the sign-up bonus a value of $850. This alone offsets the annual fee for more than 9 years (given the first year is free) while enjoying earning points through the great bonus categories that fit in your daily spend.

You can also stretch the value of your ThankYou® Points even further by redeeming them through 11 airline transfer partners:

• Asia Miles

• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands

• Etihad Guest

• Flying Blue

• Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer

• Malaysia Airlines Enrich

• Qantas Frequent Flyer

• Qatar Airways Privilege Club

• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

• Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

The major advantage of this card is how broad the definition of the “Travel Category” is. It includes all of the following:

• Airlines

• Hotels

• Car rental agencies

• Travel agencies

• Gas stations

• Commuter transportation

• Taxis/Limousines

• Passenger railways

• Cruise lines

• Bridge and tolls

• Parking lots/garages

• Campgrounds and trailer parks

• Timeshares

• Bus Lines

• Motor home and RV rental

• Boat rental

The entertainment (2x points) is quite broad as well, including:

• Sports promoters, may include stadiums.

• Theatrical promoters, may include concerts, live theatrical productions, and ticketing agencies.

• Movie theaters.

• Amusement parks, including zoos, circuses, aquariums and parks/carnivals offering mechanical rides and/or live animal shown

• Tourist attractions, including museums and art galleries.

• Record stores, including online record stores.

• Video Rental stores, including game rental and online video rental.

Bottom Line:

Between the broad travel and entertainment categories. Citi ThankYou Premier Card makes for one heck of a card to keep long term if used for it’s full potential.

If you have any questions please tweet me @pointspointers or email me at pointspointers@gmail.com