Great news! Citi is currently offering an increased sign-up bonus for the Citi ThankYou Premier credit card. The offer is for 50,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 in the first 90 days following account opening. The new 50,000 ThankYou point sign-up bonus represents the highest publicly available offer I’ve seen in several months. Prior to this increased offer Citi offered just 30,000 ThankYou points after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days. Prior to that Citi wasn’t offering a sign-up offer of any kind. Now that Citi is offing an increased 50,000 ThankYou point sign-up offer for the Citi ThankYou Premier card does it make sense to open the card?
Yes, the new 50,000 point sign-up bonus is a great offer. However, I tend to avoid opening cards only to close them a few months later. In fact, it appears American Express is the first issuer to come out and prohibit such behavior. With that in mind I only sign-up for credit card I plan on keeping for at least 12 months. Generally I plan on keeping accounts open for longer and will convert the card to another product offered by the same issuer.
Citi ThankYou Premier Benefits
Since I plan on keeping an account open for at least 12 months it’s important to only open cards that add long-term value. The Citi ThankYou Premier is such a card in my opinion. At face value the card comes with a $95 annual fee which Citi waives for the first 12 months. The card offers 3X ThankYou points on all travel purchases which includes gas. 2X ThankYou points on dining and entertainment and 1X points on all other purchases.
A decent amount of my annual spend is on gasoline so carrying this card makes sense for me. Also, as far as I know the Citi ThankYou Premier and Citi Prestige are the only cards currently offering bonus points on “entertianment” purchases. Entertainment purchases include concerts, sporting events, movie tickets, tourist attractions, record stores, and video rental or on-demand streaming services (Netflix). This is my go to card to all ticket purchases and my streaming media service subscriptions. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t know any other cards that offer bonus points on this category.
In addition to points earning the card also comes with robust trip and purchase protection benefits. Also the Citi ThankYou Premier card waives foreign transaction fees.
Is The Citi ThankYou Premier 50,000 Point Bonus Worth It?
Although this is a highly personal decision I’d argue opening this card is a great decision for most people. Sadly if you’ve had the Citi Prestige or Citi ThankYou Premier card in the past 24 months you aren’t eligible. If you’re unsure about your eligibility I’d recommend calling Citi and asking before applying.
50,000 ThankYou points represents a great deal, especially for a card as rewarding as the Citi ThankYou Premier. ThankYou points are quite valuable especially when transferred to airline transfer partners. In fact, I recently transferred ThankYou points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and flew Singapore Airlines Suites class to Frankfurt! That was an incredible experience and this sign-up bonus alone would get you very close to the 76,000 points required.
The only reason to avoid opening this card at the moment is the current Citi Prestige sign-up bonus. Citi is currently offering 75,000 ThankYou points after spending $7,500 in the first 90 days for the Citi Prestige card. Opening the Citi Prestige card is a better option if you’re able to organically spend the $7,500 required. Keep in mind the Citi Prestige card has a $450 annual fee which is due in the first year.
Final Thoughts
I’m personally extremely happy to see Citi offer such a generous sign-up bonus for the Citi ThankYou Premier card. I’m often asked “which card should I open?” In the past I’ve been reluctant to say the Citi ThankYou Premier card due to the limited sign-up bonus. The card comes with fantastic benefits, but the low sign-up offer was discouraging. Now that the sign-up offer is equal to the card’s nearest competitor, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, I’d highly recommend the card to anyone. In the long run most people will earn more points and see more value from the Citi ThankYou Premier card than from the Chase Sapphire Preferred as well.
The only reason I’d avoid opening this card with the increased sign-up offer (assuming I am eligible) is if I could instead earn 75,000 points with the Citi Prestige card. If I knew I could organically put $7,500 of spend on the card in 90 days I’d instead open the Prestige card. I wouldn’t plan on carrying that card too long due to the high annual fee, but it would be worth carrying for at least one year. At the end of the year you can always downgrade the Citi Prestige card to the Citi ThankYou Premier card anyway.
