Citi ThankYou Points Deserve Your Attention
Citi and its ThankYou Points rewards program usually receive less attention than Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards. Chase has its notorious 5/24 rule for approving credit card applications. Amex is famous for generous welcome offers and a broad slate of credit card offerings. But, what is Citi known for? Three things: excellent points earning potential among its cards, great transfer partners, and the easiest way to cash out your points. For these reasons, Citi ThankYou Points deserve your attention!
Earning Citi ThankYou Points
Citi offers the most bonus categories for earning points across the fewest cards. They have 3 cards worth mentioning:
- Citi Strata Premier ($95 annual fee
- Double Cash (No annual fee)
- Citi Custom Cash (No annual fee)
The Citi Strata Premier is the cornerstone of the ThankYou Points system. That is because of the generous earning structure offered for just a $95 annual fee card:
- 3x points at
- Restaurants
- Supermarkets
- Gas Stations
- Air Travel
- Hotels
- EV Charging Stations (newly added)
- 1x on all other purchases
The Premier is one of our favorite cards at ToP. No other credit card offers 3x point on these many categories. Best of all, the Premier usually has a very generous welcome offer.
The Double Cash card earns 2% cash back (or 2x points) on every purchase (1% / 1x when you make the purchase, and another 1%/1x when you pay your bill). This card is another favorite of the ToP team, especially when paired with the Citi Premier, since it makes all of the transfer partners fully available with the points earned.
The Custom Cash earns 5% cash back (or 5x TYPs) in your eligible top spending category per billing cycle, on up to $500 spent. This is similar to the Chase Freedom Flex, but the Custom Cash is easier to maximize because the categories don't rotate. The eligible categories for earning 5x each month are:
- Restaurants
- Gas Stations
- Grocery Stores
- Select Travel & Transit
- Select Streaming Services
- Drugstores
- Home Improvement Stores
- Fitness Clubs
- Live Entertainment
If you have each of these Citi cards, you can earn between 2x, 3x, or 5x on every single purchase. Even better, you will only pay $95 in annual fees per year. Neither Chase nor Amex offer you this earning potential for so little in annual fees.
Citi Transfer Partners
Citi ThankYou Points work like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards. You can redeem them through for travel through Citi's travel portal or by transferring to airline partners. As always, you will get the most value for your points by transferring to partners. Citi has the following 17 airline transfer partners:
- Aeromexico Club Premier
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Avianca Lifemiles
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Guest
- Eva Air Infinity MileageLands
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Privilege Club
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Citi also offers the following hotel programs as transfer partners:
- Choice Hotels
- Wyndham Rewards
- Accor Live Limitless
- The Leading Hotels of The World
- Preferred Hotels & Resorts
You might recognize a few transfer partners in common with Chase and Amex. These include Emirates, Flying Blue, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.
Some may see this overlap in transfer partners as a weakness for Citi. Why earn ThankYou Points when Chase Ultimate Rewards can be used for the same partners? This is actually a strength for fans of ThankYou Points. Few of us, if anyone, have Citi cards without having any Chase or Amex cards. This means Citi offers an excellent way to supplement the more popular currencies for those transfer partners they have in common. After all, Citi cards generally earn more points per dollar than Chase cards. And Citi offers similar earning rates to Amex with much lower annual fees.
Meanwhile, Citi's exclusive transfer partners also offer some unique opportunities. Even when they are just unique in the transfer rate like with Choice Hotels. Getting 2 Choice Privileges points for just 1 ThankYou Point makes them twice as nice as everyone else. That can offer up some mighty cheap hotels in Europe.
Cashing Out Citi TYPs
Cashing out your Citi ThankYou Points will never get you the most value for your points. That said, we all have reasons to cash out our points at any given time. With that in mind, Citi offers among the easiest options for cashing out points.
Through Citi's Cash Rewards option on its website, you can redeem TYPs for cash at 1 cent per point (cpp). This is as simple as it gets. Citi simply gives you a statement credit, direct deposits it into a bank or mails you a check for the amount you are redeeming. You can redeem in any quantity if done as a statement credit or direct deposit. Going via the check route has a $5 minimum. There is no annual dollar cap or limit to the number of cash redemptions you can make.
Despite only 1 cent per points in redemption, Cash Rewards is actually better than it looks. That is mainly because of the earning structure that the Citi lineup of cards offers. When you are getting 2, 3 or 5 points per every dollar, you may be earning more points then you need for travel. Especially when you consider all of your other points. This could be a decent option if you are in a pinch and could use some cash.
ToP Thoughts: Citi ThankYou Points Deserve Your Attention
Citi ThankYou Points are an underrated transferable points currency. Yet, it provides great value and flexibility. Citi's cards offer an excellent earning structure, with a baseline of 2x on every purchase. Having so many transfer partners in common with Chase and Amex is actually a strength of Citi's. Lastly, for those looking to cash out their points, Citi offers ease and flexibility.
Do you have questions about how Citi ThankYou Points can be helpful for your award traveling goals? Come join the discussion in our Facebook group to learn more!
