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  • 130

    Question: Does this card still consider ANY order from Amazon to be from a bookstore (thus, getting 5 points/dollar)? I know that a year ago it did, but I wondering if they fixed that loophole (or if they consider it a loophole in the first place).

    • 130

      LOL so sad… I literally found out about this card and how it got 5 points/dollar for Amazon, maybe 3-4 weeks after I got the Amazon card.

  • http://www.nerdwallet.com Tim

    Matt, that's amazing. I'm going to have to start using this card for all my Amazon purchases.

    • Matt

      An update . . . Amazon.com purchases are still eligible for 5 ThankYou Points per dollar spent. However, I've discovered that ONLINE purchases made through Barnes and Noble are NOT (!!!). I've learned this through personal experience, but I've also found "confirmation" in another online forum. Interestingly, according to that forum, purchases made at a physical Barnes and Noble bookstore ARE eligible for 5 ThankYou Points per dollar spent, but I've not confirmed this myself. By the way, it's been my personal experience that online purchases made through Borders.com ARE eligible for 5 ThankYou Points per dollar spent (even if it's a CD or DVD that's purchased).

  • http://twitter.com/lar_middleton Larry Middleton

    I ditched my Amazon card when I found out that this gets you 5% back on Amazon as well as restaurants and book stores. My only complaint is that you have to save up 10,000 points to get a good deal. I just got my first $100 Walmart gift card for 10,000 points. Life can never offer enough toilet paper…

  • RyRy

    Their card provides great points for restaurants but you get screwed trying to redeem them at the Thankyou store.  Amazon giftcards are no longer available.  And barely any cards are 10,000 for a $100 card.  Most have a ceiling for 7,000 points for $50 card.  

    Im thinking about cancelling and doing a 2-3% cashback card. A rewards card  can always get you screwed because the “points” can have whatever value the credit card company wants them too.  All $10 giftcards can be worth a million points if they want. 

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

      Yeah ThankYou points can be a problem, but sometimes the options in the store are only representative of their current inventory. So if you check back often, there may be cards like Amazon available.

  • Ryan

    I am considering applying for this card but two things concern me greatly:

    1) I checked the website and sure enough it is difficult to find things to purchase where 1 point = $0.01
    2) Do they still honor all of Amazon as a book store, and if so I wonder what prevents them from changing it at anytime

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

      Hi Ryan, your concerns are perfectly valid.

      Amazon could stop earning bookstore rewards at any time, but it’s not up to Citibank to decide. Amazon chooses it’s own merchant ID, and as long as they use the “bookstore” ID, you’ll get the rewards.

  • Larrys

    I have the Citi Forward card.  A few months ago I exchanged 10K points for a $100 Sunoco gas card; today the exchange rate is 3500 points for a $25 card.
    Any idea how often this occurs where Citi will modify the exchange rates?

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

      Hi Larry, it depends on their supply. If they don’t have any $100 cards
      available, then your best bet might be a $25 card. But it changes all the
      time, so check back later for the $100 card again.

    • Joel

      The cash rate is 16000 points for $100 dollars.  Definitely not 5%. And they have almost no gift cards.  The city forward isn’t looking to hot now. Unless they 1 cent per point for travel somehow?

      • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

        Hey Joel, only certain gift cards get the full 1c redemption value, most of them do not. And you only ever get the full 1 cent when redeeming 10,000 points or more. Plus it’s subject to availability, and they seem to run out of the most valuable $100 gift cards pretty easily.

        This is our biggest complaint about this card, and it’s the reason we don’t give ThankYou points the full 1 cent value in our card finder rankings.

        For more info about maximizing ThankYou point redemptions, check out this post:

        http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/2010/getting-the-most-out-of-citibank-thank-you-points/

  • danny

    i own this card and love it. the best bang for buck to get the 5% cashback value is by using it to purchase flights. for example i just bought a ticket from atl to nyc, which cost about $210 roundtrip. i had about 18,000 points saved up, which translates to $180. so i paid $30 for my trip to nyc. you have to purchase through the thank you rewards travel center, but there is an option to put in your frequent flyer number so you get the normal airline in-house rewards credit for the flight even though it’s purchased through the citi rewards travel center.

  • http://profiles.google.com/jclassracer Christopher Kladis

    hello. interested in this card because i do so much shopping on amazon.Can the points be exchanged for amazon gift cards? if so , what is the rate? how many points buys how much amazon credit etc..

    i saw somewhere that this card is a better option for amazon users because of the 5 pts/ $1 spent. i just want more specific info on that. thanks!

  • Anonymous

    This card no longer gives 5 points / $1 for dining : (

    • http://www.nerdwallet.com/ Tim

      Where do you see this? They are still advertising that the card pays 5 points on restaurants.

  • Larrys1

    I agree; as of my most recent statement I was still receiving 5 points for each restaurant dollar.

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