Benefits I Wish Came With My Citi Prestige Card

Ariana Arghandewal
By Ariana Arghandewal 
Updated
Edited by Mary M. Flory

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The Citi Prestige® Card may not be as frequently covered as other premium rewards credit cards, but it definitely has its merits. This card is loaded with generous welcome and category bonuses, a $250 annual travel statement credit and Priority Pass Select membership, to name a few great perks.

The card offers creative travel benefits and an awesome rewards program, but there are a few perks that would really round it out. Here are five benefits I wish came with my Citi Prestige® Card:

Travel and purchase protection

Citi removed most travel and purchase protections in September, which makes charging purchases to the Citi Prestige® Card difficult to justify sometimes. This is especially true since other credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® still offer trip cancellation and interruption insurance (in addition to bonus points on travel). It’s unlikely Citi will undo this decision in the very near future, but here's hoping it will restore some of these benefits.

Lower annual fee

At $495, the annual fee on the Citi Prestige® Card is quite high. For a card that competes with the likes of the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, the annual fee feels a little too high — especially since the card lacks valuable travel and purchase protections. Citi seems unlikely to drop the annual fee after it already increased it, but hopefully in the future there will be more protections in place to make this fee easier to justify for some cardholders.

Added perks for hotel bookings

The Citi Prestige® Card’s fourth-night-free benefit on hotel bookings is an awesome perk. Basically, it amounts to 25% off the base rate on four-night room rates, which (even though you can only use it twice a year) is pretty substantial. You do have to book through CitiThankYou.com to get this benefit, which isn’t bad — but we wish Citi would throw in some perks like AmEx Travel does through its Fine Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Collection programs.

Perks offered through these programs include complimentary breakfast, hotel credits, room upgrades and more. Since Citi already has a booking site, it would be nice if they negotiated similar benefits with hotels to sweeten the deal.

Auto collision damage waiver

Auto collision damage waiver is offered by few cards, and it can be very useful when you’re renting a car. Many rewards credit cards offer rental car coverage that is secondary, meaning it only kicks in if your own insurance company denies coverage. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is one of the few cards that offers primary rental car coverage. As a competitor, it would be nice if the Citi Prestige® Card offered it, too — especially considering it did away with so many of the other travel protections.

The bottom line

The Citi Prestige® Card is a solid card overall, but there is always room for improvement. If Citi hopes to remain competitive with Chase and American Express, it’s going to have to improve its premium card benefits. Here’s hoping to positive changes coming in 2020.

In the meantime, the card does offer a pretty big welcome bonus if you’re looking to stock up on Citi ThankYou points: Earn 50,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening*


How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024, including those best for:

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