Citi Card Lineup

I have been playing footsie with Citi for a while now. Well, to be fair, I have been playing footsie with Citi with my wife's accounts. Did this just get weird? Anyhow, we have been trying to get our Citi card lineup set for a year now, but keep coming up snake eyes. She currently has a decent array of Citi cards, but is missing the capstone, which is the Citi Strata Premier. The plan was to try to get a new welcome offer out of that card, but it hasn't been going so hot, which means it is time for an Uno Reverse.

My Wife's Current Citi Card Lineup

My wife has two of the three cards required for the Citi trifecta. The holy trinity of Citi requires you to have a Double Cash, Rewards+ and a Citi Strata Premier. With this combination we can essentially earn 2, 3 or 5 points on every single purchase we have out in the wild. That is pretty tough to beat, especially for only $95 in annual fees. It is one of the reasons that we think Citi should be a focus once you move past Chase 5/24.

Current Card Lineup

For the last several years my wife has been rocking the Citi Double Cash (which was downgraded from an old Strata Premier), Rewards+ and a personal AAdvantage Platinum Select card. She also had the Citi AAdvantage Executive card back when the offer was 100K, but we closed that after the first year. It just wasn't worth the annual fee since we rarely go into American Airlines lounges. We could have downgraded that card, but we didn't really need the space at the time, so we closed it instead.

Future Card Plans

My plan was to have her grab the Citi Strata Premier last year for the bonus points, unlocking ThankYou points transfer partners and some top notch earning categories. It had been over 48 months since she last received a bonus on the card so she was due for another one. We had a great plan until we got punched in the face with a denial. I figured she must have had too many recent inquiries, so I planned to play it safe with her over the next several months. The goal was to get her well under 3 hard pulls in the last 6 months to have a better shot at approval. I figured that would do it because Citi was always an easy approval for us in the past.

Striking Out After Being Patient

She was on the straight and narrow for the next several months, making sure to not get any more hard pulls during that time. When she finally dropped below the 3/6 rule we put in a new application fully expecting an easy approval. Wrong! Another denial.

I was a bit frustrated since we had actually played the long game a bit for this one. Once the disappointment wore off I was left with two options to move forward. We could wait another few months for another hard pull to drop off and then try again. The worst part of a Citi denial is that it adds a hard pull to your 3/6 count after all. The other option was to take a different route and skip over the welcome offer (for now at least) and move ahead with finishing our Citi trifecta.

Reconfiguring Our Citi Card Lineup

We decided to go with option 2, but a hybrid approach. With her AAdvantage Platinum Select card collecting dust in her sock drawer we had an opportunity available to us. My wife could call Citi and try to product change the American Airlines card to a Strata Premier. The cool think about Citi product changes is you can pretty much change any personal card to another one. There are no family rules like with other issuers either. I think the Citi Costco card is the lone exception to this wide open card swap opportunity. That is why a product change is the best way to get a Double Cash after all!

Another awesome thing about Citi, unlike Amex, is that holding a card doesn't hurt you on future welcome offers. That is because their application rules are based on when you last received the bonus points, and not when you last held the card. It sounds similar to Chase's rule, but where Citi differs from Chase is that you can carry a card while applying for the same card. Holding the card will have no effect on whether or not you receive the welcome offer. All that matters is that it has been 48 months since your last bonus.

Because of that my wife could product change to the Citi Strata Premier and still attempt to grab a bonus down the road a bit. My wife actually gets her cake, and gets to eat it too!

Citi Card Lineup: ToP Thoughts

I am glad we were able to kind of accomplish our Citi card lineup goal, even if we got there by going down a different path then intended. That is one important thing to realize from our experience. Each credit card issuer has their own unique rules and quirks. Understanding them, and how to use them to your advantage, is how you can really maximize your miles and points earning.

By deciding on the product change to the Citi Strata Premier we are able to unlock the points my wife has been earning with her Rewards+ and Double Cash cards. That will open more transfer partners to us, and at better transfer rates. Not only that, but we could still possibly get the welcome offer on the Strata Premier a little ways down the road. That is because of the way the Citi application rules work. Knowing that allowed us to set up the Citi trifecta now, without risking future profits. A real win-win situation.

Let me know if you have any questions about your Citi card lineup over in the ToP Facebook Group.