Citi Premier Credit Card Review 2024

If you value earning generous rewards across a wide variety of spending categories and like the flexibility of redeeming points for rewards or transferring them to travel partners for potential outsized value, consider the Citi Premier® Card.

For a $95 annual fee, the Citi Premier® Card has a strong value proposition for those with large amounts of spending across multiple categories. The Citi Premier® Card earns 3 ThankYou points per dollar at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels, 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases and a total of 10 points per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024. Where the card falls short is with travel protection benefits. The Citi Premier does not offer any trip delay, trip cancellation or delayed/lost baggage coverage in contrast to other cards in its class.

The Citi Premier® Card earns ThankYou Points, a flexible points currency similar to American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards®. ThankYou Points can be redeemed for a number of rewards or transferred to travel partners. Like many programs, you can pool the points earned by all your ThankYou Points-earning cards. A distinctive feature of the ThankYou Rewards program, however, is that you can share points with other members. Note that shared points are only valid for 90 days.

• Welcome offer: Earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
• Earns 3 ThankYou points per dollar at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels, 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases and a total of 10 points per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024
• A $95 annual fee
• No foreign transaction fees

The Citi Premier Card may be the best option for you in a few cases. The categories where we consider this card to be one of the best available are:

• Best Credit Cards for Dining and Restaurants
• Best Credit Cards for Groceries
• Best Citi Credit Cards

Earning Rewards

The Citi Premier® Card offers a nice blend of travel and everyday bonus categories. It earns 3 ThankYou points per dollar at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels, 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases and a total of 10 points per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.

The card also has a welcome offer of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

Redeeming Rewards

ThankYou Points can be redeemed for various awards, from gift cards to merchandise to travel and more.

Cash Rewards

Citi ThankYou Points can be redeemed as cash back at a value of 1 cent per point via a statement credit, direct deposit or a check in the mail. There’s no minimum redemption required for the first two options, but if you choose to receive a check in the mail, you’ll need to redeem at least 500 points for $5.

Gift Cards

The Citi ThankYou Points program offers redemptions for gift cards at many restaurants and retailers, with redemptions starting at 1,000 ThankYou Points for a $10 gift card. Citi occasionally runs sales on gift cards for certain brands. Citi also offers general gift cards that can be used at a several merchants in a category (such as restaurants or home improvement) like a prepaid debit card.

Shop With Points

Citi ThankYou offers a number of ways to shop using your ThankYou Points. At Amazon.com or PayPal, in-store at CVS and Walmart, or at the pump at BP/Amoco and Shell gas stations you can use ThankYou Points to pay for your purchase. In addition, members can use points for a statement credit to offset previous purchases from 1-800-Flowers.com or BestBuy.com.

Using Shop With Points is generally a poor value, offering less than 1 cent per point. As an example, when paying with points through PayPal or at Walmart, Citi ThankYou Points are only worth 0.8 cents per point at checkout.

Travel Booked Through ThankYou.com

You can book travel, including flights, hotels, cars and cruises using Citi’s ThankYou.com site. For most simple itineraries, the Citi ThankYou travel center will price travel similarly to large online travel agencies such as Expedia or Orbitz. If you do not have enough ThankYou Points for your entire booking, you can use ThankYou Points to offset a portion of the cost of your trip. With the Citi Premier® Card, ThankYou Points are worth 1 cent each toward travel bookings.

Transfer to Travel Partners

One of the best redemption options in the ThankYou Rewards program is the ability to transfer ThankYou Points to airlines at a 1:1 rate and redeeming those points for international business class travel. In particular, Air France/KLM Flying Blue can offer phenomenal value because of its monthly sales on award tickets. Other Citi airline transfer partners include Avianca LifeMiles, JetBlue TrueBlue, Singapore Krisflyer and Turkish Miles&Smiles.

Citi has a few hotel transfer partners which opens up even more options for redeeming your points. One notable hotel partner is Choice Hotels. ThankYou Points transfer to Choice Privileges at a 1:2 ratio, doubling their value.

Periodically, Citi offers transfer bonuses for specific travel partners. Bonuses generally vary from 15% to 30%. Taking advantage of a transfer bonus allows you to get even more value from your ThankYou Points. Learn more about Citi’s travel transfer partners in our complete guide.

Transfer to Another ThankYou Account

Interestingly, Citi allows you to transfer up to 100,000 ThankYou Points per calendar year to another person with a Citi ThankYou account. The big caveat here is that the person who receives the points must redeem them within 90 days or lose them altogether. While this fine print may seem restrictive, having the ability to pool points with a partner, spouse or family member is a huge benefit and one you won’t find with other travel credit cards.

Rewards Potential

Using data from various government agencies, Forbes Advisor estimates how much a family in the 70th percentile of income spends annually in various categories. The 70th percentile of wage-earning households brings in $118,438 annually and has $39,337 in expenses that can reasonably be charged to credit cards. These figures are used to estimate the potential rewards from this credit card.

The greatest earning on spending will come from the Citi Premier Card’s 3 points per dollar earned on air travel, hotels, gas stations, supermarkets and restaurants. Our example household spends an average of $19,055 annually across all these bonus categories, which would result in earning 57,165 ThankYou Points each year.

In addition, our example family would have $20,282 in remaining expenses that could be charged to credit cards, earning 20,282 ThankYou Points annually. This brings the total annual ThankYou Points that you could expect to earn using the Citi Premier® Card to 77,447 in addition to the first-year welcome bonus.

If you are redeeming ThankYou Points for gift cards, cash back or travel, it is very easy to get 1 cent of value per point, bringing your potential value to $774.47 annually. If you transfer your points to travel partners and value international business class redemptions, the actual value you receive from your ThankYou Point redemptions could be substantially higher.

Here are the benefits that you can expect to receive once you sign up for the Citi Premier® Card.

Citi Premier Travel Benefits

• $100 annual hotel savings benefit. Get $100 off one hotel stay of at least $500 before taxes and fees when booking through ThankYou.com, once each calendar year.
• No foreign transaction fees. You won’t have to pay any additional fees when you use your credit card for purchases overseas.

Citi Shopping Benefits

• Damage and theft protection. If an eligible item purchased with the Citi Premier® Card is damaged or stolen within 90 days of purchase or delivery, it will be replaced or repaired or you will be reimbursed up to the amount paid with the credit card, up to $10,000 per incident to a total of $50,000 per year.
• Extended warranty. Eligible items purchased with the Citi Premier® Card and/or ThankYou Points are covered for an additional 24 months with this extended warranty benefit. Covered items will be repaired or replaced or reimbursed up to the amount paid for with the Citi Premier Card and/or ThankYou Points to a maximum of $10,000 per item

Citi Premier Entertainment Benefits

• Citi Entertainment. Purchase presale concert tickets, admission to exclusive events and more through this free cardmember-only service.
• Citi Concierge. Receive assistance with travel, shopping, dining and entertainment needs.

Citi Premier Security Benefits

• Virtual account number. A randomly generated account number can be generated for your Citi Premier® Card to protect your real credit card number when shopping online. For even more protection, you can set a purchase limit for the virtual account number.

Interest Rates

• Regular APR: 21.24% - 29.24% (Variable)
• Purchase intro APR: N/A
• Balance transfer intro APR: N/A

Fees

• Annual fee: $95
• Balance transfer fee: 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum.
• Foreign purchase transaction fee: 0%

Earn the Welcome Bonus

Give your ThankYou Point account an immediate initial boost by earning the welcome bonus of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

Make Everyday Purchases

Citi Premier’s multiple bonus categories makes it easy to earn lots of ThankYou Points quickly through everyday purchases of gas, groceries and dining.

Book Hotels and Car Rentals Through the Citi Travel Portal

Until June 30, 2024, hotel and car rental bookings made through the Citi Travel Portal earn 10 ThankYou Points per dollar. Be aware though that as a third-party booking platform, Citi Travel Portal reservations do not earn points in hotel loyalty programs and hotels may not recognize your elite status.

Add Your Citi Premier to Your Mobile Wallet

Adding your Citi Premier card to your mobile wallet ensures that you always have it on hand for purchases.

Special Promotions

Citi periodically offers special spending promotions to earn extra ThankYou Points on your card. Promotions are usually distributed via email or regular U.S. mail and must be activated to earn the extra points.

Citi Premier® Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card*

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card* competes directly with the Citi Premier® Card. The Sapphire Preferred earns 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), 2 points per dollar on all other travel purchases and 1 point per dollar on other purchases. It charges an annual fee of $95.

At first glance, the Sapphire Preferred may appear to have weaker earnings. However, the Chase Ultimate Rewards program has a number of airline transfer partners that may be easier to use for North America-based flyers, including United Mileage Plus, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Iberia Plus and British Airways Executive Club. Ultimate Rewards points earned with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card* can also be redeemed through the Chase travel portal at a rate of 1.25 cents per point. It should also be noted that the Sapphire Preferred comes with a comprehensive travel protection package which includes trip cancellation/interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, auto rental collision damage waiver and baggage delay insurance.

Citi Premier® Card vs Citi Double Cash® Card

Another offering from Citi is the Citi Double Cash® Card. With a simple but rewarding structure, the Double Cash earns 2% cash back on all purchases—1% when purchases are made and another 1% when they’re paid off and unlike the Premier card, offers a 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months. After that, the standard variable APR will be 19.24% - 29.24%, based on creditworthiness. An intro balance transfer fee of either $5 or 3%, whichever is greater, applies to transfers completed within the first 4 months of account opening. After that, the fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5).

The Double Cash is a good option for those who want to earn ThankYou Points without the hassle of tracking bonus categories or whose spending doesn’t match the rewards structure of the Premier. The Double Cash may not be the best flat-rate cash-back card, but its reward earning and simplicity are hard to beat.

Citi Premier® Card vs Credit One Bank Wander® Card

The Credit One Bank Wander® Card also charges a $95 annual fee and though it doesn’t offer ThankYou Points or another transferable currency, it does offer 10 points per dollar on eligible hotels and car rentals booked through the Credit One Bank travel partner, 5 points per dollar on eligible travel, dining and gas and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.

The Credit One Bank Wander® Card is available for those with “average” credit. Although it’s light on extra benefits, those who have less-than-perfect credit but would still like to own a card with plenty of travel rewards potential may find that the Wander card fits the bill.

If you spend a lot of money at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, airlines and hotels, and can also maximize the value of the ThankYou Points you earn through either booking travel at ThankYou.com or transferring points to airline partners, you should strongly consider the Citi Premier® Card.

If you desire a card that offers travel benefits like car rental insurance, trip delay reimbursement and trip cancellation insurance, take a look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card*—or even the Chase Sapphire Reserve®* for premium perks like lounge access.

If you prefer not to pay an annual fee or don’t think that you can take advantage of travel bookings through ThankYou.com or Citi’s transfer travel partners, consider another card with cash-back earnings in the categories most relevant to you.

Forbes Advisor considers a variety of factors when assigning a credit card rating. Cards are graded based on numerous factors including:

• Annual fees
• Welcome bonus offers
• Ongoing earning rates
• Value of individual points of miles
• Included travel or merchant credits
• Additional cardholder benefits

Forbes Advisor rates cards both as stand-alone products (the card rating on the review) and compared to others in a specific use case (the card rating you see on a specific “Best” list). The rating for each card changes on different “Best” lists according to how a person looking for a card in that category may value certain card features.

For instance, a card that might be considered middling on an overall list of rewards cards could be the top card on a list of rewards cards with no annual fee. That’s because the card might offer limited features compared to other rewards cards, but after we remove cards that charge an annual fee, it’s the best card that remains.

Forbes Advisor uses data from multiple government agencies to determine how much a typical cardholder might spend. We use the same numbers for cards in the same category to make sure we are comparing cards in a consistent fashion. The bonus categories for spending included with each card are taken into consideration in our determination of how many points a cardholder could expect to earn if they use the card as a consumer normally would.

To learn more about our rating and review methodology and editorial process, check out our guide on How Forbes Advisor Rates Credit Cards.