Citi Premier Card Review (Old Review NOT being Updated)
Updated July 23, 2020. Please see our updated review here.
The Facts
The Math
If you redeem TY points for airfare (1 point = 1.25 cents), this card essentially returns 3.75% on travel and gas, 2.5% on dining and entertainment, and 1.25% on other purchases. This is by no means amazing considering the fact that several less expensive or even no-annual-fee cards return 2% cashback on everything. However, if you transfer TY points to frequent flyer programs, you may get better value, and this card is very competitive among our favorite miles/points cards.
Citi Premier vs. Citi Prestige: the difference in the annual fees might seem high at the first glance ($495 vs. $95), and Citi probably intends to offer Prestige only to the most affluent clients. However, after considering the $250 annual travel credit, Prestige is merely $150 a year more than Premier, and its 5-3-1 rewards are generally much more than Premier's 3-2-1 rewards - Prestige offers 2 more points on airfare and travel agencies and 3 more on dining, but 2 less points on gas and travel other than airfare/travel agencies/hotels/cruise lines. You may do your own math to see how easily Prestige comes out ahead, even with the $150 more in annual fees. For example, based on 1.5 cents per point valuation, assuming your gain in airfare/travel agencies happens to offset your loss in gas and trivial travel categories, you just need to spend $3,333 in dining for Prestige to make more sense. Of course, you receive better travel perks from Prestige on top of that. The bottom line is that Prestige is generally a better card.
Citi Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred: They have the same annual fees, and both waive foreign transaction fees; currently we have similar valuation for Chase UR and Citi ThankYou points. Sapphire Preferred has travel/dining as the 2x categories, while Citi Premier has the travel/gas as the 3x categories and dining/entertainment as the 2x. On paper, Citi has Chase beaten since it not only covers gas and entertainment but offers one additional point for travel as well. However, the real difference between the two lies in the different transfer partners: Citi has Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Garuda, etc., while Chase has United, Southwest, British, Korean, Hyatt, etc.; Singapore is the only partner that is in both programs.
The Conclusion
Scoring high in signup bonus and rewards, Citi Premier is currently ranked as one of our Top 10 Best Credit Cards.
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The Facts
- Annual Fee: $95
- Signup Bonus: 60,000 points ($750 in travel rewards via Citi, or 60K miles of Avianca, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Flying Blue, JetBlue, etc.) after you spend $4,000 within 3 months of new account opening. Note there is no more first annual fee waiver like before. The signup bonus won't be available if you received a signup bonus for Citi Rewards+, Citi ThankYou Preferred, Citi ThankYou Premier / Citi Premier, or Citi Prestige, or if you closed any of these accounts, in the past 24 months. Historical best bonus of this card: 60,000 points in mid 2018 with the first year annual fee waived; 50,000 points many times with the first year annual fee waived in the past years.
- Application Landing Page
- Rewards: 3x travel and gas, 2x dining and entertainment, 1x everywhere else
- Best Use of ThankYou Points: ThankYou (TY) Rewards is Citi's rewards program and the points can be redeemed 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). However, better than the regular TY cards (such as ThankYou Preferred), Citi Premier offers two enhanced redemption options: (1) when redeeming for travel (flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, etc.) through ThankYou, you get 25% more value, making 1 TY point = 1.25 cents; (2) you may transfer TY points to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs. The second option was first added in January 2013 with Hilton as the sole partner and then expanded to quite a few airlines over years. 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.
- Other Benefits: Waived foreign transaction fees.
- Other Facts: Citi Premier has been issued as either a World MasterCard or a World Elite MasterCard. Most likely you will be offered a Word Elite MasterCard with the following standard benefits: MasterCard Luxury Hotels & Resorts (a collection of 2,000+ luxury hotels worldwide that offer complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, early check-in, late check-out, and a special amenity such as a certain amount of hotel credit up to $100 per stay, free internet, or welcome gift, etc.), MasterCard Travel & Lifestyle Services (savings on airfare, private jets, airport concierge, car rentals, chauffeured cars, cruise lines, tours, vacation packages, etc.), complimentary ShopRunner membership (free two-day shipping and returns at participating stores), 10% discount with onefinestay (high-end home sharing service), monthly $10 Lyft credit after five rides each month, double Fandango points for movie tickets ($5 rewards for every two tickets purchased), 5% rewards for Boxed purchases, $5 off every order of $25 or more on Postmates, the Dining Program (special amenities at participating restaurants), the Nightlife Program (exclusive access to and recognition at participating night clubs), Priceless Cities, Priceless Surprises, Priceless Causes, Priceless Golf, MasterCard Cellular Wireless Telephone Protection (up to $800 for a stolen or damaged phone as long as you charge your monthly cellphone bills to the card), MasterCard ID Theft Protection, etc.
- History: Citi ThankYou Premier was first introduced in early 2011 to replace the long lasting PremierPass Credit Card Elite Level. Citi made a few changes, but kept the most critical feature "flight points" intact. Back then, ThankYou Premier was an very interesting product, and for some that could use full potential of the card it was one of the best cashback equivalent credit cards in the market. That is why it was placed on our prestigious Top List. Unfortunately, in October 2013 Citi devaluated ThankYou Premier by taking away the flight points feature as well other useful perks. One positive change was the introduction of the new 3-2-1 rewards structure, which mimicked Chase Sapphire Preferred's. However, at that time, ThankYou had only one transfer partner (Hilton) and was mostly considered cashback equivalent (fixed value rewards) and that is why we considered it as a mediocre product and removed it from our Top List. In July 2014, with the enhanced miles transfer feature, ThankYou Premier suddenly became interesting again. In April 2015, Citi made additional adjustments to the card by reducing the annual fee and changing the bonus categories, which in general is considered very positive. In October 2018, Citi changed the name from Citi ThankYou Premier to simply Citi Premier while keeping all the features intact.
The Math
If you redeem TY points for airfare (1 point = 1.25 cents), this card essentially returns 3.75% on travel and gas, 2.5% on dining and entertainment, and 1.25% on other purchases. This is by no means amazing considering the fact that several less expensive or even no-annual-fee cards return 2% cashback on everything. However, if you transfer TY points to frequent flyer programs, you may get better value, and this card is very competitive among our favorite miles/points cards.
Citi Premier vs. Citi Prestige: the difference in the annual fees might seem high at the first glance ($495 vs. $95), and Citi probably intends to offer Prestige only to the most affluent clients. However, after considering the $250 annual travel credit, Prestige is merely $150 a year more than Premier, and its 5-3-1 rewards are generally much more than Premier's 3-2-1 rewards - Prestige offers 2 more points on airfare and travel agencies and 3 more on dining, but 2 less points on gas and travel other than airfare/travel agencies/hotels/cruise lines. You may do your own math to see how easily Prestige comes out ahead, even with the $150 more in annual fees. For example, based on 1.5 cents per point valuation, assuming your gain in airfare/travel agencies happens to offset your loss in gas and trivial travel categories, you just need to spend $3,333 in dining for Prestige to make more sense. Of course, you receive better travel perks from Prestige on top of that. The bottom line is that Prestige is generally a better card.
Citi Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred: They have the same annual fees, and both waive foreign transaction fees; currently we have similar valuation for Chase UR and Citi ThankYou points. Sapphire Preferred has travel/dining as the 2x categories, while Citi Premier has the travel/gas as the 3x categories and dining/entertainment as the 2x. On paper, Citi has Chase beaten since it not only covers gas and entertainment but offers one additional point for travel as well. However, the real difference between the two lies in the different transfer partners: Citi has Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Garuda, etc., while Chase has United, Southwest, British, Korean, Hyatt, etc.; Singapore is the only partner that is in both programs.
The Conclusion
Scoring high in signup bonus and rewards, Citi Premier is currently ranked as one of our Top 10 Best Credit Cards.
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