There’s now a better offer available for the Citi ThankYou Preferred card. You’ll get 30,000 points (worth $300 in gift cards) after you spend $2,000 in the 1st 4 months.
Normally, the sign-up bonus for this card is 20,000 ($200) points after you spend $1,500 in the 1st 3 months.
The sign-up bonus for the Citi ThankYou Preferred card has been as high as 40,000 points in the past. So while this is a good offer, it’s not the best deal I’ve seen for this card.
I’ll show you how you can combine this card offer with other Citi ThankYou cards to get Big Travel!
What’s the Deal?
Link: Citi ThankYou Preferred
You’ll earn 30,000 Citi ThankYou points after you spend $2,000 in the 1st 4 months with the Citi ThankYou Preferred card. And you’ll also get:
- 2 points per $1 you spend on dining and entertainment
- 1 points per $1 you spend on everything else
- 3% foreign currency fee (so don’t use it outside the US!)
- NO annual fee
What About Transferring Points to Airlines and Hotels?
Points earned from the Citi ThankYou Preferred card can NOT be transferred directly to Citi ThankYou airline and hotel partners.
But if you also have the Citi ThankYou Premier, Citi Prestige, or Citi Chairman (no longer available) cards, you CAN combine points earned from the Citi ThankYou Preferred with 1 of those accounts, and then transfer them to travel partners.
So the 30,000 point sign-up bonus is worth potentially much more than $300 if you have 1 of the other mentioned cards and transfer your points to airline or hotel partners.
Is This a Good Offer?
I like that this card earns 2 points per $1 you spend on both dining and entertainment. And their definition of entertainment is quite broad! It includes:
- Movies
- Concerts and theater
- Sporting events
- Record stores and movie rentals
- Tourist attractions (museums, zoos, amusement parks, art galleries)
This is also not a bad deal for a card with NO annual fee.
Fee-free cards are good to keep for a long time, because they’ll help build your relationship with the bank and possibly improve your credit score.
That said, for a limited time, there’s also an increased sign-up bonus on the fee-free Chase Freedom card. You’ll get 20,000 points (worth $200) after you spend only $500 in the 1st 3 months, plus another 2,500 points ($25) if you add an authorized user.
While the sign-up bonus is worth less than the Citi ThankYou Preferred offer, you’ll only have to spend $500 (and not $2,000) to get it.
And if you also have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Plus, or Chase Ink Bold (no longer available) card, you can transfer points earned from the Chase Freedom indirectly to airline and hotel partners.
But if you already have a lot of Chase cards, the Citi ThankYou Preferred could be a good option!
Bottom Line
There’s an increased sign-up bonus offer on the Citi ThankYou Preferred card. You’ll get 30,000 points (worth $300 in gift cards) when you spend $2,000 in the 1st 4 months.
For a card without an annual fee, this is not a bad deal. And if you have the Citi ThankYou Premier, Citi Prestige, or Citi Chairman card, you can transfer points from the Citi ThankYou Preferred to airline and hotel partners. So you could get much more than $300 worth of travel!
Folks might also consider the increased sign-up bonus on the Chase Freedom card. While it’s fewer points, you’ll only have to spend $500 in the 1st 3 months to get it.