Citi Premier Card — Full Review [2023]

Name: Citi Premier Card — Full Review [2023]
Item: Citi Premier Card
Rating: 4
Author: Jarrod West

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"Travel benefits you can count on."

Frequent flyers will enjoy 3x ThankYou Points at restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets, air travel, and hotels.

Learn More (at our partner's secure site)

Jarrod West

- Updated: May 21, 2023, 11:13pm CDT|

11Comments

The Citi Premier® Card is an excellent option for anyone looking for an all-around travel rewards credit card. The card helps you earn points fast with great 3x bonus categories such as restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, airfare, and hotels. Plus, it offers access to airline and hotel transfer partners, doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, and has a reasonable annual fee!

Pros

3x points at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, airfare, and hotel purchases
Access to Citi transfer partners
Annual hotel credit
No foreign transaction fees

Cons

$95 annual fee

Citi Premier Card — Snapshot

Welcome Bonus & Info (Partner Content)
- Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.
- Earn 3 Points per $1 spent at Gas Stations, Air Travel and Other Hotels
- Earn 3 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants and Supermarkets
- Earn 1 Point per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Annual Hotel Savings Benefit
- 60,000 ThankYou® Points are redeemable for $600 in gift cards redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com
- No expiration and no limit to the amount of points you can earn with this card
- No Foreign Transaction Fees on purchases
Card Categories:
Rewards Center
Citi ThankYou Rewards
Customer Service Number
888-248-4226
Login Link
http://www.citi.com
Related Articles

Great Card If

You fly for business and pleasure
You spend a lot in the travel category

Don't Get If

You rarely travel
You want access to a wide variety of airline loyalty programs

Citi Premier Card — Fees

Foreign Transaction Fees
None
Interest Rates
- 20.99% - 28.99% Variable
Late fees
- Up to $41
- Penalty APR: Up to 29.99% variable
Balance Transfers
- 20.99% - 28.99% Variable
- Fee: 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum.
Cash Advance APR
- 29.99% Variable
- Fee: 5% of each cash advance; $10 minimum

Citi Premier Card - Is It Worth It?

Citi Premier Upgraded Points LLC 04 Large — Travelers will love the Citi Premier card because you can earn rewards for all types of travel purchases, along with dining and entertainment! Image Credit: Upgraded Points

The Citi Premier card is a stellar option for award travelers in large part due to how well-rounded its bonus categories are. With the Citi Premier card, you’ll earn 3x points per $1 at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, airfare, and hotels.

Plus the Citi ThankYou Rewards points you earn are transferable, meaning they can be transferred to some of the top Citi ThankYou Rewards transfer partners, including Avianca Lifemiles, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Turkish Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.

Put simply, if you’re looking for a great workhorse travel rewards credit card that can really help you rack up points quickly for a reasonable annual fee, then the Citi Premier card would likely be very worth it for you.

Citi Premier Card Top Benefits

Annual Hotel Savings Benefit

To help offset the Citi Premier card’s $95 annual fee, the card offers $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees, when you book through thankyou.com and pay with your card each year. If you know you’ll have at least 1 hotel stay per year that costs $500 or more, then holding the Citi Premier card can be a no-brainer.

Citi Entertainment

Through Citi Entertainment, you can receive special access to tickets, including presale tickets and exclusive experiences, for concerts, sporting events, dining experiences, and more. This can be a massive benefit anytime you want to go to an event that is likely to sell out quickly.

Best Ways To Earn and Redeem Your Citi ThankYou Points

Read our guide full of tips to see how to get the most out of the Citi Premier card by earning as many Citi ThankYou Points as possible.

Once you’ve built up a balance, you have quite a few options for redeeming your ThankYou Points. For travel, you can redeem your ThankYou Points for flights through the Citi travel portal or (our preferred method) make direct transfers to Citi’s airline and hotel partners.

Alternative Cards to the Citi Premier Card

Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

If you want a card that rewards you more for everyday spending, you could explore the Amex Blue Cash Preferred card. It has an annual fee of $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95, and an introductory APR on purchases and transfers (see rates and fees).

This card earns 6% cash-back at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $6,000, then 1%) and select U.S. streaming subscriptions, 3% cash-back at U.S. gas stations and transit, and 1% everywhere else.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

If you travel frequently, you may want to consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred card‘s higher bonus category of 5x points on travel purchased via the Chase travel portal.

The card also has a superior collection of travel benefits and protections, such as a $50 hotel credit, primary rental car insurance, and trip and baggage insurance.

Read more about these 2 cards here: Citi Premier card vs Chase Sapphire Preferred card

See our comparisons of the Citi Premier card to these popular cards:

The information regarding the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, click here.

Featured Image Credit: Citi

Frequently asked questions

Is the Citi Premier card worth it?

Overall, it is a good card for everyday spending. The card earns 3x ThankYou Points on airfare, hotels, gas stations, dining, and supermarkets. Plus, you get 1x ThankYou Points on all other spending. The annual fee is $95.

ThankYou Points can be redeemed for travel, merchandise, and gift cards.

How do I redeem Citi Premier card points?

Redeem Citi ThankYou Points through the Citi ThankYou Rewards program for travel, merchandise, gift cards, and more.

When do Citi Premier card points expire?

There is no expiration date for Citi ThankYou Points as long as you have an active account.

Is there a limit to how many ThankYou Points I can earn?

No. There is no limit to the number of ThankYou Points you can earn with the card.

How do I use the Citi Premier card for travel rewards?

Transfer ThankYou Points in increments of 1,000 to participating airline loyalty programs. Additionally, you can book flights, rental cars, hotels, and more through the ThankYou Reward Center.

What is the annual fee for the Citi Premier card?

The annual fee is $95.

About Jarrod West

Jarrod has been writing about the ins and outs of credit cards and loyalty programs, along with airlines and hotels, for over 6 years. He is regularly called upon to share his expertise on the latest news within the space, and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, RetailMeNot, and Yahoo! Finance. Jarrod has over 20 credit cards in his wallet and has tested out dozens more in order to vet the very best card options for readers. As he is constantly sampling new cards, Jarrod also earns (and redeems) over 1 million points and miles each year. This allows him to book luxury travel experiences the world over, and save tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.

11 comments

tamra l dann September 19, 2019
Please correct your false information on this site. They do not waive the first year annual fee of $95. I was charged the fee and they also got rid of all travel insurance. I called Citi Bank and told them of our false advertising and the direct link to their web site. If you do not take this false info down you will deal with Citibank and my attorney. Either you or both you and Citibank are conducting false advertising and are a scam.
Reply
- Jarrod West September 20, 2019
  Hi Tamara,
  We have updated the post to reflect the correct offer, and I am sorry for the frustration this may have caused you. I can assure you that our website is in no way a scam. As you know, credit card offers can change sporadically. Our team here at Upgraded Points works incredibly hard to deliver great content and keep that great content as up to date as possible. We have close to 1,000 pieces of content available to readers so, unfortunately, things can fall through the cracks at times. We highly encourage all of our readers to look closely at the offer terms stated on a banks application page before submitting an application for a credit card. But we are very grateful to have loyal readers like yourself who point out when updates need to be made.
  So thanks again for pointing out that an update needed to be made and thanks for reading!
  Reply
- Kevin December 1, 2022
  At the time when this article was written, they did waive the $95 AF but that is no longer the case because people don’t keep the card after 1 year or so.
  Reply
Gaius Gracchus July 1, 2021
The offer itself for the Citi Premier card is pretty good if you can get the $60k bonus, but it is dealing with Citibank that has been a horror.
First, they declined my application. Which is insane. Why? My FICO scores range from 835-850. Yearly earnings vary from $230,000 – $260,000 per year. We have NO DEBT. I have a number of credit cards but they are paid off every month. No loans, just paid off our million dollar home. Assets in the range of millions.
Then, after I complained, they opened the credit card with a limit of $2000. LOL! Really?! The same day I applied to Chase Sapphire and got a very large limit and a few months later with Fidelity Signature Visa and got an even larger limit. (Just sayin’.)
But it gets better! Even though I have had a Citi Double Cash card for over a decade and have a flawless record with that, they refused to apply my payments to the Premier card for weeks. That’s right – they take the money from my bank and refuse to allow me to use the credit line even though they have the money for weeks. It is the same payment account being used to pay the Citi Double Cash card, by the way.
This is a form of theft, is it not? Think about it. They take the money from my bank account and, in effect, create a forced loan from me to them because they don’t make the money available to me to use, but they have it. Somewhere, right? Free interest for them using my funds in a forced loan every time I make a payment and wait for weeks for it to be applied to my credit line.
They are treating me like a brand new customer they have never met before – after over 10 years with them as a customer they act like this 5 month old account is suspect and I am engaging in criminal activity that needs close monitoring. And the credit limit of $2000 makes the card virtually UNUSABLE.
Working with their customer service has been an exercise in frustration. I despise Citibank and me and my family members are closing all accounts with them ASAP.
Reply
John July 28, 2021
How can you have had the Double Cash card for over a decade? It launched in 2014.
Reply
EB August 14, 2022
Tolls are no longer considered travel for the 3x points allotment. It’s just 1x.
Reply
- Jarrod West August 24, 2022
  Hi EB,
  Thanks for pointing that out, I’ve corrected the post.
  Reply
James August 23, 2022
Hi Alex! Hasn’t Citi cancelled all Citi Price Rewind benefits a few years years ago?
Reply
- Jarrod West September 6, 2022
  Hi James,
  Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve just corrected the post.
  Reply
Maria October 5, 2022
Hopefully, this offer will be around early next year which will be when I need a card with this spend amount. Any idea how long these offers usually stay around?
Reply
- Jarrod West October 6, 2022
  Hi Maria,
  The offer has been around for a while now, but we haven’t received any word yet as to when it will end.
  Reply

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