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50,000 Points for Citi Thank You Premier = $665 in Free Travel

by on October 21, 2011 · 29 comments

in Citi, Credit Cards

*bonus has been reduced to 30,000 points*

Citi is now offering a 50,000 point sign-up bonus for the ThankYou Premier card after $2,500 spend within 3 months. This card is part of the ThankYou Rewards, which is a fixed-value redemption program. What this means is that you cannot transfer these points to airlines or hotels – instead you can redeem ThankYou points for 1.33 cents each for travel. So 50,000 points = $665 towards airfare and those flights will earn you miles, including elite miles or 1 cent each towards most gift cards (like Marriott, Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, Royal Caribbean or even Sunoco). The great thing is that you earn miles and elite status on all redemptions.

Citi ran this promo earlier this year, but this offer is better because the $125 annual fee is waived for the first year.

The basics:

Earning:
1.2 ThankYou Points for every dollar you spend on purchases at supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores and commuter transportation/parking merchants.
1 ThankYou Point for every dollar you spend on all other purchases.
Redeeming: 1 point = 1.33 cents towards travel, 1 cent towards gift cards
Anniversary bonus: 1-3% of the points you’ve earned that year
No foreign Transaction fees
Card: You can choose either Visa or Mastercard

Overall, this card won’t get you any airline or hotel miles, but it will get you $665 in free travel or $500 in gift cards – not bad for a card with a reasonable spend requirement, no annual fee for the first year and especially because it’s not Chase or Amex!

If you’ve gotten a Citi card recently, I’d wait at least 65 days in between applications. If you’ve gotten this card before, I would not apply for it again- I’d wait at least 18 months- 2 years before trying that! There is not a business version of this offer (to my knowledge).

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author.s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.

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  • R-info

    Hi, do you think I would get approved for this card if I got the Citi ThankYou Preferred back in April? (assuming I’ve waited 65 days since my last Citi application)
    Thanks!

  • Brian

    My wife and I both got this card back in June. When I saw this offer, I secure messaged Citi to save if I could get the annual fee refunded since the current offer waives the annual fee the first year. They did refund the annual fee for me, but when my wife tried the same thing the next day, they refused to give the refund for her.

  • Scott

    When you say 18-24 months before applying again, do you suggest counting from the date of application or the date when you cancelled the card.

  • UT Horns and Free Money Fan!!!

    If I spend $15K to $20K on credit cards a year, what is the best card to get. I already have the Chase Preferred card. I don’t know if it worth taking hits on the credit report by signing up for all the new cards. I want to buy a house in 4-5 years so I am thinking about keeping my credit score healthy. I don’t travel that often except on holidays. I go international every 2-3 years during peak season so I usually can’t get award tickets. Thanks!

  • UT Horns and Free Money Fan!!!

    Maybe $25K to $30K next year. I was able to switch my State Farm to CC from bank draft so that is an extra $4K a year starting November.

  • Cotter77

    nice that its not chase or amex, but not that big of advantage if they are all pulling from same CR all the time (experian). pulls are pulls on the CR, and the only way i know of to get rid of them is time

  • Anonymous

    I applied for my wife and she got instant approval. It’s probably been 6 months since her last Citi card (since the demise of easy AA churning, most of our more recent cards seem to be Chase), but this is the first time I can recall instant approval in years.

    Now the hard part: gasoline gift cards at a penny or travel at 1.33 cents. Tough call, because I get a lot of free travel and not a lot of free gasoline. Maybe I’ll “split the baby” and do both.

  • Jessica

    I’ve had this card for 3 years now and one of the big benefits is earning a $1 per mile for flights purchased on the card. It is a bit strange how it works though. You get a bank of flight points and then they transfer over one flight point along with the standard 1 or 1.2 points for each dollar you charge that month. It’s great for when you buy flights through a site like cheapoair or expedia where you wouldn’t get bonus points for using something like a delta or united credit card.

    I have had great luck redeeming the points for flights. They have an easy site to book them on and as you mentioned, the flights are eligible for upgrades, miles, etc. since they are booked just like you paid for them.

    I haven’t had any luck redeeming the free companion flights though. I’ve tried several times for several flights and it seems like nothing is ever available.

    You can also get thank you points for making online purchases through their website similar to amex rewards or one of the airline shopping malls. If you have a citibank account for your regular banking or mortgage, you can get additional thank you points each month for that activity too.

  • Anonymous

    “you can redeem ThankYou points for 1.33 cents each for travel. So 50,000 points = $665 towards airfare”

    What I don’t get:
    if you MUST redeem via credit card’s own travel desk, how do you
    know lowest fare they find is going to match lowest fare out there?

    Facing same with my 60K+ Chase Sapphire points, too.

  • atxtravel

    Chase points are much more flexible. They can be transferred directly to the airline or hotel and be worth much more than 1.33cents. I’ve also checked ticket prices on Chase and they’re identical to airlines.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for response. This is offer TPG may want to analyze:
    (AA offering 30K bonus miles on Australia r.t.)
    https://www.aavacations.com/specials/asa1139-australia-travel.asp?ADID=AAVA-EN1-ASA-11-42

  • Musicalholiday

    Looking into applying for the Citi AA Biz card and this card too. Does anyone know if I could apply for both the same day and potentially be approved like with the two AA personal cards?

  • Anonymous

    Sure.. I don’t see why not

  • MN1971

    Citi has a target offer for this card offering 100,000 points ($1,330). A friend of mine got the offer on the mail and gave me the ad but when I called Citi and asked they said that was a target promotion. No luck here.

  • M124

    If you plan to buy a house in 4-5 years, it is too early to worry about inquiries. Start worrying about 2 years prior.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HE34PG3JXRGF5XFFUST3Q5FFVM Tilley

    Can the 50K points be converted to Delta Skymiles?

  • http://heerow.com/goheerow Heerow

    If I’m an authorized user of my wifes credit card, does that disqualify me of any bonus points/miles if I apply for the same card myself?

  • a2

    I think only the date of application matters

  • Spartacus

    Today in the mail (Oct 24, 2011) I received Citi Thank You Preferred card offer for 60,000 points… likely several offers out there.

  • Spartacus

    Don’t think so, but they can be used as $665 towards your Delta internatiional taxes on a free travel ticket!

  • Anonymous

    I always get this response with Citi and then later get approved: Thank you. We have received your application and further processing is required at this time. We will contact you within a week via email regarding our decision. Thank you for requesting a Citi ThankYouSM Premier Card.

  • PJ

    Does Citi report value of points to IRS? somehow I remember seeing the writeup: Citi reports value of points as Miscellnaneous income to IRS anybody can share your expereince?
    I do know AMEX BLUE let you pay Time Share and every 100 dollar charge can be paid by redeeming 7500 points. As we know Uncle Sam knows nothing about the points

  • 3sarkar

    TY, Brian, for your blog posts. Applied 11/14 and got instant online approval

  • Striper2

    Thanks for the advise. My wife and I applied and my wife got it yesterday. I called CITI and explained that an inquiry for a refi probably red-flagged my app, and CITI is resubmitting my app! Very polite and concerned rep. Will let you know if i get it also!

  • DBAUM

    Approved online in 3 min, looking forward to this car.

  • Anonymous

    you also get a free companion ticket. or you can pay in cash through their website http://www.thankyoucompanion.com

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  • Anonymous

    Cash meaning CC.

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