Citi Premier credit card review

The Citi Premier credit card is a rewards credit card with no annual fee. The card offers 1.5 percent cash back on all purchases, which is not the best in the industry, but still competitive enough to be worth considering for someone who spends a lot of money every month.

The citi premier card benefits is a credit card that has a variety of features. It offers exclusive rewards and bonuses, as well as no annual fee.

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Our immediate thoughts: The Citi Premier® Card is a top mid-tier credit card that comes with a large sign-up bonus and earns Citi ThankYou Rewards points, which can be redeemed for cash back or travel, transferred to the program’s airline partners, or converted into American Airlines AAdvantage miles at a 1-to-1 ratio for a limited time now through Nov. 13.

Pros:

• For every dollar spent on air travel, motels, petrol stations, supermarkets, and restaurants, you will get three points (including takeout).
• Points may be redeemed for travel at a rate of 1 cent per point via the Citi ThankYou Rewards travel site, with no blackout dates or limitations on award availability.
• Points may also be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to any of Citi’s 16 airline partners.
• For a limited period, until November 13, 2021, points may be transferred at a 1:1 ratio to American AAdvantage.
• Benefits of the World Elite Mastercard are available to you.

Cons:

• On regular expenditures, other credit cards may provide better benefits.
• Travel insurance and shopping safeguards are limited.
• If you’ve established or closed other chosen Citi credit cards within the last 24 months, you won’t be eligible for the sign-up bonus.
• An annual charge of $95 is required.

Earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on qualifying purchases during the first three months of account creation.

Best for: Those seeking for a credit card with flexible rewards that may be used on domestic American Airlines flights, as well as those who are familiar with the process of arranging award travel via foreign airline loyalty programs.

Click here to learn more about the Citi Premier card’s 80,000-point bonus offer.

The Citi Premier credit card offers all of the benefits of Citi’s ThankYou Rewards program without the high annual fee. While you won’t receive all of the perks of a high-end ultra-premium travel credit card, you will earn extra points in a variety of areas, which you can redeem for cash or a variety of helpful travel choices.

The Citi Premier’s numerous various foreign reward program agreements are one of its greatest features. Others who are familiar with redeeming points and miles may appreciate the variety of possibilities, while those who are new to travel rewards may find the selections overwhelming. Fortunately, you may always use the Citi travel site to redeem your ThankYou points at a cost of 1 cent per point and avoid the complexity of partner programs.

However, Citi Premier cardholders may now transfer their ThankYou points to American Airlines’ AAdvantage frequent flyer program, making it much easier to redeem the card’s points for domestic flights due to an unusual new collaboration. Unfortunately, this option is only available for a short time, although it’s conceivable that the collaboration may be extended beyond its present expiration date of November 13th.

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Citi Premier ThankYou points may be transferred to American Airlines for a limited period till November 13th.

This is a great credit card to use in conjunction with the Citi® Double Cash Card. When you have both the Citi Premier and Citi Double Cash cards, you may convert the cash back you receive on the Citi Double Cash card into points that you can use on the Citi Premier card. Because the Citi Double Cash card gets 2% cash back on every transaction — 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay it off — you may use the Citi Premier card for bonus categories and the Citi Double Cash card for everything else.

Citi Double Cash, which has no annual fee, is the greatest cash back credit card.

There’s never been a better opportunity to purchase the Citi Premier than right now. That’s because new cardholders may now receive 80,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 during the first three months of account creation. That’s the biggest sign-up bonus we’ve ever seen on this card, and with it, you may easily earn $800 in travel value – and perhaps more.

Earn 80,000 extra points when you apply for the Citi Premier credit card.

The Citi Premier offers several excellent bonus categories for a card with a low annual fee. For every dollar spent on air travel, hotels, petrol stations, supermarkets, and restaurants (including takeout), you’ll get three points, and for every dollar spent on anything else, you’ll get one point. The points don’t expire as long as the card is active, and there’s no limit on how much you may earn.

Unfortunately, you won’t get extra points for all travel-related purchases; only plane flights and hotel stays will give you additional points. However, the bonus categories cover so many commonplace items that it should be simple to start collecting points fast, making this card a high earner.

One of the simplest ways to redeem your rewards is to “cash in” your ThankYou points for cash back or a statement credit. However, when you redeem this method, you’ll only receive 0.5 cents each point, which isn’t a great deal. Another alternative is to exchange your points for gift cards, which will give you a far greater value of 1 cent per point.

If you’re itching to go on the road, you have two options for using your Citi Premier points. The first is to book via Citi ThankYou, which is similar to purchasing through an online travel agency like Expedia or Orbitz except that you may pay for your ticket or hotel with points rather than cash. When you redeem this method, you’ll receive the same 1 cent per point, and you may combine cash and points if you don’t want to pay completely with one or the other.

If you’re a seasoned travel rewards expert, moving your points to one of Citi’s 16 airline partners will almost certainly provide the greatest value, particularly if you’re seeking to fly first or business class abroad. Learning how these partner loyalty programs operate takes some time and effort, but it’s the greatest way to get the most out of your points while still flying in luxury.

Until the new Citi/American agreement, the Citi Premier’s sole domestic transfer option was JetBlue’s TrueBlue reward program. However, with the addition of the ability to transfer ThankYou points to American AAdvantage, Citi Premier cardholders now have two simple options for transferring ThankYou points to book flights on US airlines.

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You may simply book domestic flights by transferring Citi ThankYou points earned with the Citi Premier card to JetBlue.

The Citi Premier card also comes with a $100 yearly hotel credit when you book a $500 or more stay via ThankYou.com, as well as extended warranty protection, damage and theft insurance, and no foreign transaction fees.

You’ll also get World Elite perks, such as a $5 discount on three Lyft rides each month, three free months of DoorDash’s DashPass food delivery subscription, and access to Mastercard Luxury Hotels and Resorts, since the Citi Premier is a World Elite Mastercard.

Apply for a Citi Premier credit card right now.

While the Citi Premier card is a strong performer in terms of travel rewards, it falls short in terms of travel and purchase safeguards. Most of the protective features you’d expect to find on a travel rewards credit card, particularly one with an annual fee, have been removed by Citi in the past two years.

In reality, the Citi Premier does not provide any form of travel insurance coverage. This implies you won’t be able to get vehicle rental insurance, travel cancellation and interruption insurance, trip delay insurance, luggage delay insurance, and other services. When it comes to planning holidays, several similar cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, provide all of these benefits, making the Citi Premier — and many other Citi cards — unsuitable.

Related: Having a credit card with travel insurance on your next vacation may save you hundreds of dollars.

On the shopping side, you won’t be able to use Citi’s Price Rewind function or return protection if you hold the Citi Premier card. To be fair, many credit cards, not just Citi’s, have eliminated these once-common benefits in recent years, but it’s still a sad loss. There are no luxury travel perks on the Citi Premier, like as lounge access or travel statement credits, but that’s not something we’d expect on a $95-per-year mid-tier card.

Finally, when it comes to the Citi Premier’s sign-up bonus, Citi has some unique conditions. The issuer decides whether you are eligible for the incentive depending on whether you have previously opened or closed specific Citi cards. You won’t be eligible for the 80,000-point bonus if you’ve gotten a bonus for the Citi Rewards+®, Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi ThankYou® Premier/Citi Premier®, or Citi Prestige® in the last 24 months, or if you’ve closed any of these accounts in the last 24 months.

Check to see whether you qualify for the Citi Premier credit card bonus.

The Double Cash Card from Citi has been selected as our “benchmark” credit card by CNN Underscored. That doesn’t imply it’s the greatest credit card on the market; rather, we use it as a baseline against which we evaluate other credit cards to determine where they excel and where they fall short.

Here’s how the Citi Premier compares to our standard. Each card’s characteristics are colored green, red, or white in the chart below. The color green denotes a card feature that outperforms our test. The color red denotes a characteristic that is worse than our benchmark, whereas the color white denotes a feature that is either equal to our benchmark or cannot be directly compared to it.

We use this methodology and these criteria to compare other credit cards to our benchmark when evaluating them. More information on what we consider when it comes to benefits, safeguards, and redemption value can be found in our credit card methodology.

The Citi Premier credit card gives you access to Citi ThankYou benefits.

Citi ThankYou Incentives, Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, and Capital One miles are the four main kinds of flexible credit card travel rewards. While they’re all excellent in their own ways, the major distinction is in their airline and hotel relationships, which may or may not appeal to you depending on your own travel patterns. Here are some additional credit cards that are comparable to the Citi Premier if you’re “program agnostic.”

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is Chase’s mid-tier credit card, with the same $95 annual fee as Citi’s, but it earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points that may be transferred to 14 airline and hotel partners, some of which are the same as Citi’s and some of which are not. This card outperforms the Citi Premier in that it includes three hotel partners, and you can use your Sapphire Preferred points to book any flight via the Chase travel site for 1.25 cents per point.

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you’ll also receive a lot of shopping and travel protection advantages. For example, if you have to cancel a vacation due to illness or injury, the Sapphire Preferred would compensate you for your nonrefundable and prepaid travel expenditures, while the Citi Premier may leave you with a large amount of sunk expenses.

However, the Citi Premier offers much more bonus categories, and you’ll even get 3 points every dollar spent on travel, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred only earns 2 points (unless bought via Ultimate Rewards, in which case you’ll get 5 points per dollar). As a result, you’ll have to decide if accumulating more points or having greater travel and purchase coverage is more important to you.

Another incentive to acquire the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the record-breaking sign-up bonus.

The American Express® Gold Card, on the other hand, is a similar mid-tier choice if you’re searching for an American Express card. Amex Membership Rewards points are earned on the card and may be transferred to a list of 21 airline and hotel partners, or redeemed for flights and hotels via Amex Travel.

All three of these mid-tier card choices have the biggest bonus categories, but the Amex Gold has the greatest. On dining abroad and at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 in expenditures each calendar year, then 1x), the card gets 4 points per dollar. It also gets the same 3 points per dollar on flights as the Citi Premier (but extra points on the Amex Gold must be booked directly with the airline), and 1 point per dollar on everything else.

The Amex Gold card also comes with a number of travel perks and monthly credits, as well as travel insurance. The biggest difference is that the Amex Gold has a $250 annual charge (see rates and fees), which is considerably more than the Citi Premier’s $95 annual fee. As a result, you’ll have to decide if the extra points and benefits are worth the money.

Related: With this American Express Gold card offer, you may earn the highest-ever 60,000 bonus points.

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If you want to earn travel rewards with your credit card, the Citi Premier is a fantastic option.

The Citi Premier is probably not the ideal card for you if you’re searching for a credit card with travel perks or yearly credits. Instead, the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Amex Gold are better options. If you’re searching for a higher-end card with VIP benefits, try the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or American Express’s Platinum Card®.

The Citi Premier, on the other hand, is a good option if your main goal is to obtain a mid-tier travel credit card and diversify your points. It generates a lot of useful ThankYou Rewards points for a cheap annual fee, and Citi’s transfer partners provide you access to numerous foreign carriers, as well as American Airlines, until November 13. If you decide the Citi Premier is the card for you, make sure you sign up immediately away to take advantage of the 80,000-point sign-up bonus while it lasts.

Learn more about the Citi Premier Card and apply today.

Find out which credit cards CNN Underscored selected as the best of 2021.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the credit limit for Citi premier card?

The credit limit for Citi premier card is $500,000.

Is Citi Premier hard to get?

It is not easy to get a Citi Premier card. You would have to be eligible for the card and meet all of the requirements, which includes having a good credit score and making at least $30,000 per year.

Does the Citi Premier card have an annual fee?

The Citi Premier card does not have an annual fee.