One of the hardest parts of the world of points and miles is knowing which card to use in each scenario. As it stands today, there isn’t just a single credit card that offers the “best” return across all categories. Instead, points addicts usually maintain well over 10 credit card accounts to maximize value in all spending scenarios. This means they’ll have a card for groceries, a card for dining out, another for online purchases, etc. This is fantastic for people, partially myself, who actually take the time to learn the ins and outs of each credit card from various credit card issuers.
The problem with this of course is that the average person doesn’t care enough to spend time researching card or to carry 5-10 cards with them at all times. Instead, most people just want one or two great cards that offer good enough value for the money. This is part of the reason you’ll see so many people with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card as their primary or only credit card. They know that the card offers great benefits and that’s good enough for them.
Additionally, a lot of people, like myself like simplicity. When it’s time to pay their credit card bills they don’t want to log into 10 different online banking accounts to pay each card individually. Instead, they want to log into one portal and pay off all their cards at once.
Introducing The Credit Card Trifecta
It’s that final point, creating simplicity, that created the idea of a credit card trifecta. That is, carrying 3 cards from the same issuer that each offer unique benefits. In the case of Chase this includes the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited, and the Chase Ink cards (among others). By carrying each of these cards, you can earn 5X on technology purchases, 3X points on travel and dining, 2X points on gas, and 1X or 1.5X on all other purchases. Of course, with the Chase Freedom option you can also earn 5X points on quarterly bonus categories as well.
As you can see, with a trifecta you can earn a lot more from 3 cards than you would with just one. That should be fairly obvious. However, the other major benefit of a trifecta is simplicity. With a trifecta strategy you earn all of those points in the same point currency that you can pool together. So instead of earning 25,000 points with Amex, 25,000 points with Chase, and 25,000 points with Citi, you simply earn 75,000 Chase points each year. This of course makes it much easier to spend those points when you’re ready to make a redemption.
Now, credit where credit is due, Chase really did pioneer the ‘trifecta’ strategy by allowing cash back credit cards holders to convert cash back into Ultimate Rewards points. Because of this, most people are familiar with the Chase Trifecta and believe it to be the best combination of credit cards from a single card issuer. However, with some recent changes to Citi’s lineup of credit cards, I’m starting to wonder if the Citi Trifecta is the new benchmark.
The Citi Credit Card Trifecta
Citi, following Chase’s lead, now allows Citi Double Cash card holders to convert cash back into Thank You points. With this change, and improvements to the Citi Prestige and Citi Premier cards, Citi might just offer the best credit card trifecta available today. With a Citi strategy you can expect to earn the following:
- 5X ThankYou Points on Air Travel (Citi Prestige)
- 5X ThankYou Points on Restaurants (Citi Prestige)
- 3X ThankYou Points on Hotels & Cruises (Citi Prestige)
- 3X ThankYou Points on Gas & Groceries (Citi Premier)
- 2X ThankYou Points on All Other Spend (Citi Double Cash)
It’s worth noting that the above represents changes to the Citi Premier card coming later this year as I don’t see value in highlighting benefits not offered going forward.
With that, from the above it becomes quite clear that the Citi Trifecta offers exceptional value across a wide variety of spending categories.
Citi Credit Card Trifecta Cost
While the point earning potential of the Citi Trifecta is appealing, there is a fairly substantial cost associated with carrying all three cards. Two of the cards, the Citi Premier and Citi Prestige cards, carry annual fees. The Citi Premier card’s annual fee is just $95 while the Citi Prestige cards is currently $495. That means in total, you’ll have to pay $590 in annual fees, which is substantial.
Thankfully, in addition to the point earning potential, both the Citi Prestige and Citi Premier cards do offer annual statement credits to help offset the annual fees. The Prestige card offers a $250 annual travel credit and the Premier card will offer a $100 hotel credit later this year. Those credits help drop the effective annual fees to just $350. Furthermore, the Citi Prestige card offers the 4th Night Free hotel benefit twice annually. The value of this benefit varies greatly based on the cost of the hotel rooms you book, but I think most people could manage to squeeze at least $350 of value from this each year which would completely offset the annual fees to carry these cards.
Finally, there is also an opportunity cost of carrying these cards. Those costs are the points/miles you are missing out on from other card issuers by spending on these cards. Now, it’s impossible to outline all of that here, but notable examples include 4X Points on Dining (Amex Gold) and 3X Points on Misc. Travel (Chase Sapphire Reserve). So, in evaluating a credit card strategy it is always important to analyze your specific spending habits.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been really impressed by Citi over the past year or two. A few years ago they absolutely gutted the benefits of the Citi Prestige card, but I’m glad to see they’re starting to improve benefits offered from that card and others in their portfolio. I’m especially happy to see Citi allowing the conversion Double Cash cash back to ThankYou points. The ability to earn 2X ThankYou points on all spend is huge!
With all of those changes, I think it’s finally time people start to take a Citi Trifecta card strategy seriously. Yes, there are still better individual cards out there that offer better value, but I can’t think of a better offering from a single card issuer. I personally have shifted majority of my annual spend to Citi cards and will use this strategy for the foreseeable future.
