Citi Premier® Card review

You don’t have to venture far to reap the benefits of this travel rewards card. The Citi Premier card offers triple the rewards points on a wide variety of expenses, including not only air travel and hotels, but also gas stations, restaurants and supermarkets. This makes the card a smart choice for frequent travelers who want to use a single rewards card for the bulk of their everyday spending.

Lucrative bonus categories

The Citi Premier card offers three points for every dollar spent on air travel, hotels, restaurants, gas stations and supermarkets, as well as one point per dollar on all other purchases. This combination of bonus rewards on travel spending and practical everyday spending should make the Citi Premier a flexible and lucrative choice for many cardholders.

Indeed, based on the average consumer’s spending, we estimate that the Citi Premier card carries an average rewards rate of 2.16 points per dollar – one of the higher average rates available on a travel rewards card. You can redeem your points toward airfare with Citi at a rate of 1.25 cents per point through April 10, 2021, so if you spent $15,900 in a year with the Citi Premier card, you’d wind up with around $429 worth of travel rewards.

Unfortunately, the card no longer offers bonus points on as wide a variety of travel purchases: Where the Citi Premier once got you three points per dollar on purchases like bus, train and subway fares, as well as parking and tolls, it now only includes air travel and hotels. The card’s entertainment bonus category has also been removed. However, these purchases make up a relatively small amount of most people’s spending, especially compared to the newly-added bonus category of supermarket purchases.

60,000-point bonus

The Citi Premier card is currently offering an elevated sign-up bonus of 60,000 points for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. This is not the highest welcome bonus currently available on a travel rewards card (the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card*, for example is currently offering a bonus of 80,000 points if you spend $4,000 in first 3 months, worth $1,000 when redeemed for travel through the Ultimate Rewards portal), but it is still very valuable worth.

Based on a 1.25-cents-per-point value, the current Citi Premier bonus is worth up to $750 in airfare when booked through Citi’s ThankYou Travel Center or $600 in gift cards when redeemed at thankyou.com. However, the 25% bonus value is set to expire on April 10, 2021.

Keep in mind that if you’ve received a cardmember bonus for other Citi ThankYou rewards cards, or closed a Citi ThankYou card account in the past 24 months, you aren’t eligible for the bonus.

Flexible redemption

Citi gives you a ton of options for redeeming your rewards, so you won’t have trouble finding something to do with all the points you’re racking up. The ThankYou points program allows you to redeem your points on everything from Amazon.com purchases to credit card statement credits. But you’ll get more bang for your buck if you redeem points for gift cards and travel, which offer a higher redemption value. If you book your travel through Citi’s travel center before April 10, 2021, for example, your ThankYou points will be worth 25 percent more.

Limited transfer options

Another major downside to the card is its paltry transfer options for cardholders who do most of their traveling stateside. You can transfer points to partnering travel rewards programs. But most of Citi’s 15 airline transfer partners – including Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, Air France and Qatar Airways – are based overseas, so cardholders who do most of their traveling on domestic carriers won’t benefit.

Pairs well with the Citi® Double Cash Card

To fill your earning gap and maximize your rewards on spending outside of airfare, hotels, gas stations, restaurants and supermarkets, consider pairing the Citi Premier card with the Citi® Double Cash Card, which offers up to 2% cash back rate on all purchases with no annual fee (you earn 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay off your purchases).

With the Double Cash Card, you’re not limited to receiving your rewards as cash back. You can convert cash back to ThankYou points at a rate of $1 cash back to 100 ThankYou Points, which is effectively a 1:1 rate. This is great news, as the Double Cash card’s 2% cash back rate gives you an effective earning rate of 2 ThankYou points per dollar on all purchases, not just the bonus categories included with the Citi Premier card.

Rich side benefits

Citi’s Premier card also offers a number of premium credit card perks that are usually reserved for higher-fee cards. For example, cardholders get access to VIP entertainment and concert ticket pre-sales as well as round-the-clock concierge services to help book hotel and restaurant reservations.

Why get the Citi Premier card?

• You spend a lot of time on the road and want to be rewarded for both gas and air travel purchases.
• You are looking for a card that covers both travel spending and everyday purchases at supermarkets, restaurants and more.
• You eat a lot of takeout or frequently visit fast food restaurants or coffee shops as well as traditional dining establishments.
• You travel frequently abroad.

How to use the Citi Premier card:

• Don’t bother redeeming your points for cash or merchandise. You’ll get more value from your spending if you stick to travel purchases, such as airfare or hotel reservations, or gift cards.
• Book your rewards-funded travel through Citi’s travel center so you can cash in on the higher redemption value for travel purchases.

*All information about the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has been collected independently by CreditCards.com and has not been reviewed by the issuer. 

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