Just like many other credit cards that receive COVID-19 related temporary benefits, now Citi Premier also receives something pretty good: starting June 2, 2020, you will earn 3x points on groceries (increased from 1x) and dining (increased from 2x); however, the difference here is that this benefit is considered permanent rather than temporary.  Back in April, Citi announced the revamp of Citi Premier which would kick in as of August 23, 2020 and include 3x points on groceries and dining; obviously after seeing competitors ramping up the temporary COVID-19 relief, Citi has decided to move the implementation date of this benefit a couple of months earlier.  However, the whole revamp situation is kind of complicated, and here we would like to break it down for you.

• For those who applied on or after April 10, 2020: (1) effective June 2, 2020, earn 3x points on groceries and dining; (2) continue to earn 3x on travel & gas and 2x on entertainment through August 22, 2020; (3) effective August 23, 2020, earn 3x on airlines & hotels & gas & groceries & dining and 1x everywhere else; (4) effective August 23, 2020, earn $100 annual hotel credits when you purchase a hotel stay $500 or more through ThankYou.com; (5) effective April 10, 2021, the fixed value travel redemption will be reduced from 1.25 cents to 1 cent per point. 
• For those who applied before April 10, 2020: (1) effective June 2, 2020, earn 3x points on groceries and dining; (2) continue to earn 3x on travel & gas and 2x on entertainment through April 9, 2021; (3) effective April 10, 2021, earn 3x on airlines & hotels & gas & groceries & dining and 1x everywhere else; (4) effective August 23, 2020, earn $100 annual hotel credits when you purchase a hotel stay $500 or more through ThankYou.com; (5) effective April 10, 2021, the fixed value travel redemption will be reduced from 1.25 cents to 1 cent per point. 

​Confusing? Indeed.  As the the revamp for new applications will fully take effect on August 23, 2020, we will wait until then to re-rank this card and expect a higher ranking.

As covered in a previous post, we praised Chase Sapphire Reserve for offering powerful temporary COVID-19 related benefits such as reduced annual fees, 5x points on groceries, enhanced flexibility for $300 annual travel credit, and enhanced flexibility in points redemption.  Now Citi and US Bank are following Chase to offer some great temporary benefits for Sapphire Reserve's two major competitors.

• Citi Prestige: (1) earn 5x points on online purchases, up to $1,500 spent in this category (in addition to the regular 5x on airlines | travel agencies | dining, 3x on hotels | cruise lines), from 6/2/2020 through 8/31/2020; (2) as previously announced, the annual $250 travel credits can be used towards groceries and dining, from 5/1/2020 through 12/31/2020.
• US Bank Altitude Reserve: (1) the annual $325 travel credits can be used towards dining, from 6/1/2020 through 12/31/2020; (2) earn 3x points on dining (in addition to the regular 3x on travel and mobile wallets), from 6/1/2020 through 12/31/2020.

So with all these, which card is the "king of credit cards" during this pandemic?  Obviously it depends on your spending patterns.  In our opinions, as most consumers have been cutting down on travel and dining while increasing online and grocery purchases, who offers the most for the latter two categories will win.  In this way, we have to choose between Sapphire Reserve and Citi Prestige: the former offers 5x on groceries for two months (capped at $1,500 spent per month) and allows points to be redeemed for groceries | dining | home improvement in addition to travel at the impressive 1.5 cents per point value for seven months, and the latter offers 5x on a arguably wider category for three months but capped at $1,500 spent total.  Due to the higher spending cap as well as the enhanced flexibility of redemption, we think Sapphire Reserve is still the best card during the pandemic.

With the unfortunate recent devaluation of United miles, we have to adjust our ranking.  Chase United Club Visa is now replaced with Amex Green Card as the #10 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.  We don't want to cover the details of the devaluation - you might visit travel blogs such as onemileatatime for details.  In a nutshell, United has decided to align its Star Alliance partner redemption rates with those of its own metals, and as a result, our valuation of United miles is adjusted from 1.4 cents per mile (cpm) to 1.3 cpm.  Below is a comparison of our Top 10 list before and after this change.

As detailed in the previous post, several card issuers have temporary COVID-19 related benefits for select credit cards.  Now Chase pushes this further on the popular Sapphire Reserve Card and Sapphire Preferred Card.

• Chase Sapphire Reserve: (1) the annual $300 travel credit will apply automatically to groceries and gas stations between 6/1/2020 to 12/31/2020 (in addition to the regular travel category); (2) between 5/31/2020 to 9/30/2020, Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed in statement credits for groceries & dining & home improvement at a fixed value of 1.5 cents per point (in addition to the regular travel category redemption through Chase booking portal); (3) the annual fee will be reduced from $550 to $450 when you renew before 12/31/2020 (previously this reduction applies to renewals between 4/1/2020 to 7/31/2020); (4) as previously announced, continue to earn 5x points on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchases per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred: (1) between 5/31/2020 to 9/30/2020, Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed in statement credits for groceries & dining & home improvement at a fixed value of 1.25 cents per point (in addition to the regular travel category redemption through Chase booking portal); (2) as previously announced, continue to earn 3x points on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchase per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020.

Obviously, Sapphire Reserve is a very powerful card during this special time, as no other card has offered 5x points on groceries temporarily or offered 1.5 cent/point temporary redemption option for groceries & dining & home improvement.  Of course the added flexibility of the annual $300 travel credit and temporary reduced annual fees all add to the value of the card.  Personally, I was on the fence whether to keep this card upon my renewal in the coming October due to the increased annual fee and greatly reduced spending on travel & dining, and now it is clear that I will keep this card, at least for another year.

COVID-19 pandemic has obviously changed consumer behavior big time, and it makes sense that credit card issuers are making adjustments accordingly.  This post summarizes these adjustments from Amex, Chase, and Citi.

American Express

• For those who open a credit card (personal or small business) between 12/1/2019 and 5/31/2020, the period to meet spending requirement to receive signup bonus will be extended for three months.
• Platinum Card (personal): up to $320 in statement credits on select U.S. streaming services and U.S. wireless phone services (up to $20 per category per month, from May through December 2020); cardmembers that renew between April and December 2020 will receive $200 in statement credits for Amex Travel (Amex's travel booking portal, from August 2020 to December 2021).
• Business Platinum Card: up to $320 in statement credits on wireless phone services and U.S. shipping (up to $20 per category per month, from May to December 2020); up to additional $200 in statement credits on Dell purchases in U.S. (up to $100 from 5/1/2020 to 6/30/2020; up to $100 from 7/1/2020 to 12/31/2020) - this is on top of the $200 Dell credits that are already part of this card's benefits; select cardmembers will also receive a $200 credit when they renew between May and November 2020.
• Green Card: up to $80 in statement credits on U.S. wireless phone services (up to $10 per month, from May through December 2020).
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card: earn 6x points on U.S. supermarkets, up to $7,500 in purchase, from May through July 2020); $300 Marriott statement credits can now be used towards U.S. restaurants, from June through August 2020).
• Marriott Bonvoy Business Card: select cardmembers will receive a $59 credit when they renew between May and December 2020.
• Hilton Aspire Card & Hilton Surpass Card: earn 12x points on U.S. supermarkets, up to $7,500 in purchase, from May through July 2020; bonus points earned through these credit cards from May to December 2020 will be considered base points for determining Hilton elite status; unexpired free weekend night certificates as of 5/1/2020 and newer certificates issued until 12/31/2020, will be valid for any night of the week, and those issued between 5/1/2020 and 12/31/2020 will be valid for 24 months (instead of 12 months); in addition, Hilton Aspire's $250 Hilton resort credits can now be used towards U.S. restaurants, from June through August 2020.
• Hilton Business Card: select cardmembers will receive a $50 credit when they renew between May and December 2020.
• Delta SkyMiles Reserve, SkyMiles Platinum, SkyMiles Gold, SkyMiles Blue cards: earn 4x miles on U.S. supermarkets, from May through July 2020; select Business SkyMiles Reserve cardmembers will receive a $125 credit when they renew between May and December 2020; select Business SkyMiles Platinum cardmembers will also receive a $75 credit when they renew between May and December 2020.

Chase

• For those who open a new credit card (personal or small business) from January through March 2020, the period to meet spending requirements to receive signup bonus will be extended for three months.
• Sapphire Reserve Card: annual fees will be reduced from $550 to $450 for those who renew the card from 4/1/2020 through 7/31/2020; earn 5x points on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchases per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020.
• United Club Infinite Card, United Club Card, United Presidential Plus Card: earn 5x miles on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchase per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020.
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, Bonvoy Bold, Marriott Rewards Premier: earn 6x points on groceries, up to $6,000 in purchase, from 5/1/2020 through 7/31/2020.
• The following cards will earn 3 points or miles on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchase per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020: Sapphire Preferred Card, United Explorer Card, United MileagePlus Select Card, Southwest RapidRewards (RR) Plus Visa, Southwest RR Premier Visa, Southwest RR Priority Visa, British Airways Visa, Iberia Visa, Aer Lingus Visa, World of Hyatt Visa, Hyatt Visa, IHG Rewards Club Premier WEMC, IHG Rewards Club Select MasterCard, and Disney Premier Visa.

Citi

• For those who open a credit card (personal or small business) between 12/1/2019 and 5/31/2020, the period to meet spending requirement to receive signup bonus will be extended for three months.
• Citi Prestige: the annual $250 travel credits can now be used towards groceries and dining, from May to December 2020.
• Citi AA Executive: cardholders that renew after 3/31/2020 will receive a $225 statement credit, which equals to half of the annual fee.
• Citi AA Platinum Select: the annual $125 flight discount certificates (after $20K annual spending) that are expiring between 3/31/2020 and 5/31/2020 will be extended for 6 months.
• CitiBusiness AA Platinum Select: the annual $99 companion certificates (after $30K annual spending) that are expiring on 12/31/2020 will be extended for 6 months.

To reflect the major changes that kicked in as of January 12, 2020, our review of Chase Sapphire Reserve has been updated, so as many other reviews that involve this popular card.

In a nutshell, the changes for Sapphire Reserve are as the following:

• The annual fee for primary cardholder is increased from $450 to $550, which seems an industry wide trend (Amex Platinum is $550, Amex Delta Reserve will soon be $550, Citi Prestige is $495, ...)
• One year Lyft Pink membership - activate before March 31, 2022.  Lyft Pink (valued at least $199 on paper) offers 15% off every car ride, priority airport pickups, relaxed cancellations, and exclusive savings;
• 10x points on Lyft purchases through March 2022, i.e., 7 additional points over the 3 points on regular travel;
• One year DoorDash subscription service for free - activate before December 31, 2021.  This subscription service offers $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees on food orders over $12 via DoorDash;  
• Receive $60 statement credits for DoorDash purchases through December 2020 and another $60 through December 2021;

As we can see the new Lyft and DoorDash perks, which might be useful to some customers, are sort of temporary to mitigate the annual fee increase.  We think in general this card was devaluated.  Considering the easy-to-use $300 annual credit, the effective annual fee is increased from $150 to $250.  In order to cancel that out and beat the benchmark 2% cashback provided by several non-fee cards such as Citi Double Cash and Fidelity Visa, the minimum spending on the 3x categories (dining & travel) is increased from $6,000 to $10,000, with our valuation of Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents a piece, because $6,000 x 3 x 1.5% = $6,000 x 2% + $150 while $10,000 x 3 x 1.5% = $10,000 x 2% + $250.

When compared to another Chase card that offer flexible miles/points transfer feature - Sapphire Preferred which carries a $95 annual fee and offers 2x points on dining & travel, you need to spend $10,500 per year on dining & travel to cancel out the effective annual fee difference, because $10,500 x 3 x 1.5% - $250 = $10,500 x 2 x 1.5% - $95.  Previously, you only need to spend $3,700t on dining & travel to cancel out the difference in effective annual fees, and that was why it was an easier recommendation to get the seemingly more expensive Sapphire Reserve.  Now you really need to figure out if you could spend that much in those categories and how much you value the extra perks and protection provided by Sapphire Reserve.  Another factor to consider is that Sapphire Reserve is still a better card for Ultimate Rewards ecosystem (we always recommend comparing it with the non-fee Freedom Unlimited to get best out of this ecosystem), as in addition to the flexible miles/points transfer feature it does offer a better fixed travel redemption option at 1.5 cents when you book through Chase.

All in all, it is not as easy as before to recommend Chase Sapphire Reserve, but for cardholders who spend enough on dining & travel and/or value excellent travel perks such as airport lounge access, luxury hotel privileges, primary rental car insurance, premium roadside assistance, the best travel & consumer protection provided by any credit card, and the ultimate flexibility in redeeming points, this card still represents great value.  After number crunching, Sapphire Reserve maintains the No.1 spot on our Top 10 Best Credit Cards list, for now.

After Citi's September overhaul and Barclay's November overhaul of their credit card protection benefits, Amex will also have some major changes coming on January 1, 2020.  Here are the breakdowns of the upcoming changes.

• Trip Cancellation & Interruption: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant.  This covers trips cancelled or interrupted due to weather, terrorism, sudden illness or injury, jury duty, up to $10,000 per trip and $20,000 per year.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
• Trip Delay: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, for flight delays more than 6 hours, up to $500 per ticket.  Also added to Gold Card (personal and business), Green Card, and Delta Platinum (personal and business), for flight delays more than 12 hours, up to $300 per ticket.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
• Travel Accident Insurance: removed from all cards!
• Roadside Assistance: removed from all cards!  For most cards it is not big deal, as the benefit only dispatches a service provider and you still have to pay for the service.  However, certain premium Amex cards such as Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant currently offer Premium Roadside Assistance which covers towing up to 10 miles and other incidentals for free, for up to 4 times per year, and this benefit will be gone as well!  Many cardholders including myself, actually use the Premium Roadside Assistance in lieu of AAA's basic plan, and in 2020 they have to look into alternatives such as Chase Sapphire Reserve (which unfortunately only covers up to $50 per use) or start paying AAA once again.
• Return Protection: removed from all cards except for Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Blue Cash Preferred, EveryDay Preferred, and Plum Card (business).
• Extended Warranty: coverage will be reduced from two years of extended warranty down to one year.  Remember Amex actually just increased the coverage from one year to two years back in August 2018, and in 2020 the only card issuer that continue to offer two years of extended warranty is Citi (and only for certain cards).  What is more, this benefit will be removed entirely for EveryDay Card, Blue Card, Blue Cash Card, and Cash Magnet.
• Purchase Protection: coverage will be reduced from 120 days back to 90 days.  The same story here - Amex just increased the coverage from 90 days to 120 days in August 2018.  The coverage usually covers only theft or damage, up to $1,000 per item and $50,000 per year, but Amex will add accidental loss and increase the per item limit to $10,000 for Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. 

Overall, the changes are mixed - some gain and some loss - but not as bad as Citi's drastic devaluation.  The cards that benefit from the changes are probably limited to those with an annual fee at least $450 - Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant; the rest of the cards are generally considered to receive reduced coverage.  We think most cardholders will be unhappy about the changes.  We will update our Protection page once these changes kick in.

Following Citi's drastic devaluation of credit card protection benefits, Barclays has also cut quite a few protection benefits on its credit card portfolio effective November 1, 2019.  The following benefits are removed from most of their credit cards:

• Trip Delay
• Price Protection
• Extended Warranty
• Purchase Assurance a.k.a, Purchase Protection
• Satisfaction Guarantee a.k.a. Return Protection

At the same time, just like other MasterCard issuers, Barclays has added Cellphone Protection to its World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard.  So after the devaluation, Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red Word Elite MasterCard, for example, will offer protection benefits such as Travel Accident Insurance, Travel Cancellation and Interruption, Baggage Delay, Cellphone Protection, Identity Theft, Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver (still secondary), etc.  For details of credit card protection benefits, please visit our Protection page.

Overall, the changes are not as bad as Citi's but still very bad for Barclays' cardholders.  BTW, American Express also has some major benefit changes on the way (kicking in as of 1/1/2020), which we will cover in the next post.  It seems like a trend in the industry, but we will see if other major players such as Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and US Bank will follow suit.

We never reviewed Amex Green Card because of the mediocre rewards (2x points on travel booked through Amex Travel, 1x everywhere else), until October 2019 when Amex had a major revamp of the card by increasing annual from $95 to $150 but enhancing travel & dining earning to 3x points and adding $100 CLEAR credit & $100 LoungeBuddy credit.  Please see our review for details.  It is now rated as one of the best credit cards for rewards.

The current signup bonus is 45,000 points after spending $2,000 within 3 months of new account opening; you also receive up to $100 in statement credits for purchases made directly with Away (a travel luggage brand) within the first three months when you apply by January 15, 2020.  This signup bonus is not available to applicants who have or have had this card or any previous Amex Green Card. 

Our analysis: "The annual $100 CLEAR credit and $100 LoungeBuddy credit can't be treated at face value for most customers, so we will still consider the annual fee to be $150 for this card.  Using our current valuation of MR points at 1.5 cents a piece, you need to spend $6,000 a year in travel & dining combined to beat the $150 annual fee and 2% cashback provided by non-fee cards such as Citi Double Cash and Fidelity Visa, because $6,000 x 3 point/$ x 1.5 cent/point - $150 = $6,000 x 2%."

The 3x rewards structure is exactly the same as our favorite card Chase Sapphire Reserve which happens to have an effective annual fee of $150 after considering the $300 annual travel credit, and our current valuation of Chase Ultimate Rewards points happens to be the same at 1.5 cents per point.  In general, however, Sapphire Reserve is still a better card due to its travel perks, consumer protection, and enhanced 1.5 cent per point fixed value travel redemption.

Amex Green Card also pairs well with Amex EveryDay Preferred (EDP) to form a formidable MR combo.  We wrote, "with 30 transactions per month, EDP returns 4.5x points on groceries (up to $6K spent each year, = 6.75% rewards) and 3x on gas (=4.5% rewards), while Amex Green returns 3x points on travel and dining (=4.5% rewards).  As for general spending, EDP returns higher rewards at 1.5x (=2.25% rewards) and will be ideal for most purchases other than foreign transactions.  With this powerful combo, you can easily cover all five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airfare, and non-air travel, with impressive returns - that is an incredible deal! 

Starting September 22, 2019, Citi Double Cash allows its cash rewards to be transferred to ThankYou points.  This feature makes Double Cash the best personal card for general spending, returning 3% travel rewards based on our current valuation of ThankYou points, if paired with a premium ThankYou card such as Citi Prestige or Cit Premier.  Finally, we have a personal card comparable to Amex Blue Business Plus.  At least on paper, Double Cash beats Alliant Visa Signature which returns 2.5% cashback with a $99 annual fee.  A combo of Double Cash and Citi Prestige is also one of the best credit card combos.

The details can be found in the reviews and here are some highlights:

• A total of 2% cash rewards: unlimited 1% cash back for all purchases, and an additional 1% cash back for the payments made, as long as you at least pay minimum amount due each month.  You can redeem your cash rewards once your rewards balance exceeds $25, for statement credit, check, or direct deposit into your checking account.  Cash rewards expire after 12 months of account inactivity.  Starting September 2019, you might also transfer your cash rewards to ThankYou points at a ratio of 1:100.  The transfer is irreversible.
• Normally, you might redeem ThankYou (TY) points for cash, merchandise, gift cards, and travel, returning up to 1 cent per point (note: cash rewards in form of statement credit or check have 0.5 cent value and in form of bill pay have 0.65 cent value).  You might also transfer TY points earned from Double Cash to JetBlue's TrueBlue points at 1:0.8; as our current valuation of JetBlue points is 1.4 cents a piece, this option will make your TY points a little over 1 cent (1.12 to be exact); however, considering the hassle of redeeming points for flights, we actually won't recommend this option.  The bottom line: considering the valuation of TY points, for most consumers, it is better to keep the cash rewards earned from Double Cash as is and not to transfer them into TY points.
• However, if you have a premium TY card such as Citi Premier ($95) or Citi Prestige ($495), you might pool all your TY points together and take advantage of the better miles/points transfer feature: transferring TY points to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs at 1:1 ratio (including JetBlue).  In this way, you increase TY points earned from Double Cash quite a bit; based on our current valuation of 1.5 cents per TY point using this feature, Double Cash returns 3% rewards instead of 2% cashback!  Please see our featured review Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. CR for the programs that allow points transfer to frequent traveler accounts.  In addition, Citi Premier has a fixed value flight redemption option at 1.25 cents per TY point; if you use this option, Double Cash then returns 2.5% rewards, a little lower than the miles/points transfer option but with a much easier redemption process.
• If you have a premium TY card and combine all your TY accounts, the TY points earned from Double Cash become transferrable to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs.  Based on our current valuation, Double Cash becomes a powerhouse for general spending, returning 3% travel rewards, beating both Chase Freedom Unlimited and Amex EveryDay Preferred.  Of course, you want to use Citi Prestige for dining & airlines & travel agencies (5x points, =7.5% rewards), hotels & cruise lines (3x points, =4.5% rewards), and foreign purchases.  You might replace Citi Prestige with Citi Premier which also allows frequent traveler miles/points transfer, returns lower rewards (3x points on travel & gas, = 4.5% rewards), but has a lower annual fee ($95, $150 lower than Citi Prestige's effective annual fee).