The Citi ThankYou Premier is now offering 50,000 ThankYou Points as a signup bonus, matching the ThankYou Preferred’s offer, but with an extra kick. Plus, it’s actually really easy to attain: just spend $2,500 in the first three months, and the bonus is all yours.
It comes in the form of TY Points, which underwent a facelift earlier this year and is now among the better rewards programs out there. You can choose from an extensive collection of gift cards, in which case your points are worth 1 cent, and your bonus is valued at $500. Alternatively, if you use it for airfare booked through the ThankYou travel center, you get 33% more, bringing its value up to a whopping $665. That even beats the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 50k-point bonus.
The ThankYou Premier has a lot to recommend it besides the 50k-point bonus (though that’s a pretty substantial perk). You also get:
- No foreign transaction fee
- 1.2 TY Points per $1 spent on gas, groceries, drugstores, commuter transportation and parking
- One complimentary domestic companion ticket, plus a 15% discount when you book airfare through Citi’s travel partner, Spirit Incentives
- 33% greater value on your points when you use them for airfare booked through Citi
- ThankYou Points that don’t expire – this isn’t available on all Citi cards
- An anniversary bonus that scales up: 1% of all your points the first year, up to 5% the fifth
With this bonus, worth up to $665, the Premier vaults to one of the best travel credit cards out there.
| Citi ThankYou℠ Premier Rewards Card - enough for $500 in Gift Cards | |||||||||||||||||||||
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But how does the Premier compare to its no-fee, lesser-rewards cousin, the Citi ThankYou Preferred?
1. The Premier’s signup bonus is worth 200-266% more than the Preferred’s
We’ll lead off with the best: the Premier offers 50,000 ThankYou Points as a signup bonus, while the Preferred offers only 25,000 – $500 in gift cards to the Preferred’s $250. But that only accounts for some of the Premier’s value: you can get $665 in airfare, because your points are worth 33% more when you redeem for travel booked through Citi, a benefit not offered on the Preferred. That brings the difference in value all the way up to $415 – a pretty substantial increase.
2. The Preferred has no annual fee
The Premier comes with a $125 annual fee (waived the first year), while the Preferred has none.
3. The Premier has a better anniversary bonus
The Premier gives you an anniversary bonus that scales up every year you hold the card: 1% on all the points earned the first year, 2% the second, up to 5%. The Preferred tops out at only 3%. However that extra 2% only translates to 0.02% more on your spending, so really, it’s not that big of an improvement. The Premier does give you 20% more points on groceries, drugstores and various transportation-related categories, but again, that works out to 0.2% extra on your purchases – nothing to write home about, and probably not worth paying an annual fee for.
4. The Premier has no foreign transaction fee
This is the big one. The Preferred has a 3% foreign transaction fee, which is levied on all the purchases you make overseas. This can set you back quite a bit: spend $2,000 in France and you’re out $60. The Premier, on the other hand, has no foreign transaction fee whatsoever. Still, you have to spend quite a bit to negate the $125 annual fee, $4,167 to be exact. That is, of course, if you plan to hold the card for an extended period of time – there’s no annual fee in the first year, so the Premier is quite attractive in the short term. For example, it’s the best option in the first year. Spend an average of $2,083 overseas each year, and you’ll break even if you hold the card two years.If you hold it for three, you need to spend $3,125 on average. And so on.
5. The Premier gives you a domestic companion ticket
Another good reason to choose the Premier: you get a free domestic companion ticket when you book through Spirit Incentives, Citi’s travel booking partner. You also get 15% of your booking price. This goes a long way towards wiping out the annual fee, especially if you’re a frequent flyer. Let’s value that companion ticket at, say, $80. If you spend $1,500 abroad, you’ve made up for the annual fee right there. Having no foreign transaction fee can yield pretty substantial savings.
6. The Premier gives you 33% extra rewards on travel
If you book through Citi, the Premier gives your points an extra 33% boost. This is actually a fairly substantial increase, although you’re trusting Citi to make the best booking choice for you. But it’s what makes the Premier’s bonus value jump from $500 to $665.
So which one’s better?
If the bonuses were the same, it would be more of a contest. But since the Premier gives you a $665 value as a signup bonus, while the Preferred gives only $250, well, it’s hard to argue with those numbers. Plus, you’ve got no foreign transaction fee, a better anniversary bonus, and a free domestic companion ticket…okay, we’ll just say it: Premier, hands-down.
And if you’re just plain fee-averse, you can do better than the Preferred. For example, the Capital One Cash has no annual fee, a 1.5% rewards rate, and, like all Capital One credit cards, no foreign transaction fee at all. So, to recap: 20-50% more rewards than the Premier, depending on the anniversary bonus; no foreign transaction fee at all; and it pays out in cash, which is a lot easier to manage than ThankYou Points gift cards. While Citi’s gift card collection is extensive, it’s hard to argue with cold hard cash.
| Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card - 25,000 points - $250 in gift cards | Citi ThankYou℠ Premier Rewards Card - enough for $500 in Gift Cards | ||||||||
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| Signing Promo | |||||||||
| 25,000 Citi ThankYou Points Bonus after spending $2,000 - within 4 months of account opening | 50,000 Citi ThankYou Points Bonus after spending $2,500 - in the first 3 months | ||||||||
| Intro APR Promo | |||||||||
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| Annual fee | |||||||||
| $0 | $0 the first year, then $125 | ||||||||
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