Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.
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If you’re looking to stretch your Citi ThankYou points, check your account for discounts on gift cards. My account has a 10% discount on gift cards, but others have 15% off. I’m not sure if this is a targeted promotion or just one that is different for each account.
Normally, redeeming Citi ThankYou points for gift cards isn’t the best option because your points are only worth 1 cent each this way. But if you have the Citi Rewards+® Card, you’ll get a 10% points rebate on the first 100,000 points you redeem, which makes this an opportunity worth looking into.
Citi ThankYou Points Gift Card Discount
Normally, you can redeem Citi ThankYou points for gift cards at a rate of 1 cent each in increments between $25 & $100.
So with this sale you can pick-up a $100 gift card for 8,500 to 9,000 Citi ThankYou points. That’s a solid rate for gift cards, but it’s not an absolutely killer deal because if you have the Citi Premier® Card, you can redeem Citi ThankYou points for 1.25 cents each toward travel booked through Citi’s travel site. This includes hotels, rental cars, flights, and cruises.
If you happen to have a Citi Rewards+® Card, you’ll get a 10% points rebate on the first 100,000 points you redeem per calendar year. This rebate applies to gift card redemptions.
If you have the Citi Premier card you can redeem 8,000 Citi ThankYou points for $100 in cruises, hotels, etc. booked through the Citi travel portal. Here is a breakdown of how many points it would take to get $100 in travel gift cards with this sale and the Citi Rewards+ Card:
| Gift Card Discount | $100 Gift Card Cost | 10% Points Rebate | Total ThankYou Points Cost | Value Per ThankYou Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 9,000 ThankYou points | 900 ThankYou points | 8,100 ThankYou points | ~1.23 cents per point |
| 15% | 8,500 ThankYou points | 850 ThankYou points | 7,650 ThankYou points | ~1.31 cents per point |
If you’re targeted for the 15% gift card discount you can get a 23%+ discount and a value of ~1.31 cents per point, which beats out the Citi Premier card. And to top it off, the Citi Rewards+ doesn’t have an annual fee.
One thing to note is that if you transfer Citi ThankYou points to someone else’s account that has a Citi Rewards+ card, the transferred points aren’t eligible for the 10% points rebate. The other drawback is that you can only redeem Citi ThankYou points for a limited number of travel related gift cards including:
- AirBnb
- Hotels.com
- Royal Caribbean International
- Mandarin Oriental
This is probably as good as it gets for redeeming Citi ThankYou points for gift cards. The big advantage cards like the Citi Premier and Citi Prestige Card have is that they give you the ability to transfer your ThankYou points to airlines. When you do this, you can potentially get an even better return for your points, especially if you book expensive Business or First Class awards.
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