I’ve come to think of my approach to Citi ThankYou earning credit cards as a work in progress. That’s because by the time I’ve completed my plan, Citi makes changes to their cards making them more or less desirable to hold.
I never got to finish my last plan. It was done before it even started because Citi stopped conversions to the AT&T Access More card. I made about 1/2 of the moves I planned on and was relatively happy where I was.
Then Citi announced that they were making more changes to their card benefits.
On August 23rd, The Citi Premier’s bonus categories were changing to:
- 3x points on airfare and hotels
- 3x points on gas
- 3x points on dining
- 3x points on supermarkets
The 3x on travel is now just for airfare and hotels. The dining category goes from 2x to 3x earning and the card is losing the bonus category for entertainment and adding 3x for supermarkets.
Another change is that the Citi Premier allows you to redeem ThankYou points for air travel through the Citi portal for 1.25 cents each. That is going to 1 cent per point on April 10, 2021.
Citi has been pretty liberal letting you change from the card you to have to any other card in their portfolio. However, a product change will reset the 24-month clock to get a sign-up bonus for a card in that category.
So if you’re eligible and want to apply for a new Citi card, just do it before you do any product changes.
Here’s where we’re positioned right now
Person 1
Person 2
Given our position, Person 2 needs to keep the Citi Premier because it’s their only card that allows the transfer of miles to Citi ThankYou travel partners.
The Citi Prestige is on thin ice with a price that doesn’t match the benefits, except for niche uses. But there also no need for both of us to have a Citi Premier card.
So my current plan is to downgrade Person 1’s Citi Premier card to the only other Citi card that I want. The Citi Double Cash.
The Double Cash earns 2% back on all purchases. That’s not bad for a no-annual-fee card. The Double Cash gets really valuable when transferring your points to the Premier or Prestige card. Your cashback gets converted into points at a 1:1 rate. So you’re able to earn 2 ThankYou points per dollar instead of 2% cash.
I think this is the best set up I can think of for Citi ThankYou cards. Earning 2% on all purchases with the Doule Cash and taking advantage of the bonus categories for the Premier and Prestige. When redeeming points, I’ll also get up to 10,000 points back when redeeming them by having the Rewards+ card.
If I get fed up with the Prestige, I can always downgrade it to the Premier with a lower annual fee.
What about you? Making any changes to your Citi card lineup because of the upcoming changes?
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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