Citibank

Citibank Rewards Catalog

by
free travel rewards beach trip

There are tons of Citibank rewards credit cards. Like most other credit card rewards programs, there are a wide range of items that you can redeem your credit card miles for, ranging from travel items like free airline tickets to discount car rental or free hotel room nights. In addition, you can redeem your Citi rewards points for merchandise, gift cards and even get cash back from your Citibank MasterCard or Citibank Visa rewards card.  One popular card is the Citibank Rewards Premier Credit Card. The Citibank Rewards catalog is a great way to look through what you can redeem your miles for. Citibank Rewards Catalog Travel A while back, the Citibank travel rewards were changed from flat-rate awards to awards based upon the actual cost of the airline ticket. The current rate is approximately 100 points for every dollar the plane tickets costs. So a free airline ticket reward for a round-trip fare that costs $300 would require redeeming 30,000 points.   Note that in order to redeem Citibank ThankYou rewards for free airline tickets, you must book the plane tickets through the Thank You rewards website which always seems to have fares that are slightly higher than the …

Read More

Latest Citibank ThankYou Rewards Premier Card Offer

by

Over at one of my favorite deal news websites, I noticed that Citibank is offering a bunch of bonus points for people who sign up for their ThankYou Premier rewards card as its latest Citi rewards card offer. As regular readers know, I don’t recommend that people go chasing after credit card rewards or applying for new credit cards just to get credit card points or miles. If, on the other hand, you are currently in the market for a new credit card AND you are looking for a rewards credit card, this offer might be interesting. First, off, be sure to read all of the fine print in the credit card agreement as well as my Citibank ThankYou Premier rewards card review. On of the big things you will want to note is that this card comes with a very steep annual fee. That should knock it out of the running for most people, but if you tend to rack up a lot of spending on a card for whatever reason, you might be able to make money by earning more rewards than you pay for the annual fee. Second, although the ad claims that you can get $500 …

Read More

How To Compare Rewards Credit Cards

by

Not long ago, comparing rewards cards was pretty straight forward. Most credit card offers gave cardholders one point, or one mile, for each dollar spent and charged to the card. Credit card rewards programs sometimes offered bonuses for earning miles either for using the cards during specific periods of time or when shopping at certain types of stores. Often, these special offers came in the form of “double miles” or even “triple points”. These days, such offers are non-expiring specials on some credit cards. Other cards, such as some Capital One rewards cards offer a base miles earning rate other than 1 mile per dollar. My Capital One No Hassle Miles credit card, for example, has a base miles earning rate of 1.25 miles for each dollar spent, with two times miles per dollar spent when the card is used in certain types of retail shopping establishments. Of course, comparing which card offers the highest miles earned per dollar spent is useless without also comparing what rewards those miles or points can be redeemed for. In order to determine which rewards cards are good values and which ones are below average (or worse) it pays to keep in mind that …

Read More

Government Making Profit From Bank Bailout?

by

The huge government bailout of banks during the height of the banking crisis was the cause of much concern and hand wringing. Among political types, the debate centered around the theoretical concepts of whether or not the government should be involved in propping up banks and whether or not such involvement constituted something “socialist.” Whenever the political theories involved, as a more practical matter, there were some very real concerns about how and when the government might be able to undo some of the things they had done. One example was the government’s bailout of Citigroup. The Treasury provided $25 billion to the banking giant. In exchange, it got an enormous amount of preferred stock. At the peak, the U.S. Treasury owned approximately 27 percent of Citigroup stock. This unprecedented arrangement left some very difficult questions up in the air to be determined later, not the least of which is how does someone — the U.S. Government included — get out of a 27 percent position in a major financial institution without causing more problems? Thankfully, recovering markets and an improving situation at Citigroup have made it unnecessary to answer such questions under difficult scenarios. Rather, the Treasury has been …

Read More

Credit Card Rewards Programs – Are New Laws Making Them More Stingy?

by

It is standard lobbying practice for any industry about to come under additional regulation from Congress to shout to the press, and whoever else will listen, that any and all proposed regulations or laws of any kind would adversely affect the poor customer. Thus, any additional rules or regulations of any kind on credit card companies would make things worse for credit card customers. More reading: Citibank Thankyou Points catalog. Grandstanding aside, while poorly thought out regulations can hamper entire industries and harm customers, many times new government oversight can have a positive affect both on the industry as a whole, and on the experience of customers as well. In the case of recent credit card legislation, the new rules and regulations on banks and credit card issuers were thoroughly debated not just between Republicans and Democrats, but within those parties as well. Fortunately, the by-product of real debate is often good legislation. Unfortunately, the power of lobbyists can overwhelm good debate when the sides are fractured. What emerged from Congress in the form of newer, tougher, credit card industry regulation was indeed thoroughly debated, but was it good for customers, or did it, as the industry claimed, hurt ordinary …

Read More

Review Citibank Rewards Points Elite Level Premier Pass Card

by

The Citibank PremierPass credit cards offers higher point earnings for frequent travelers, but comes with a steep annual fee.  And, most cardholders were recently nailed with a steep increase in interest rate even if they had good credit.  Do the PremierPass pros outweigh the cons?

citibank-credit-card-premierpass-elite

Earn Points Citi Premier Pass Card

The basic Citibank rewards points chart looks like this.

  • 2 ThankYou Points earned for ever $1 spent at Grocery Stores, Gas Stations, Drugstores, Parking, and Public Transportation like subways.
  • 1 Thank You Point earned for all other $1 spending.
  • 1 Thank You Point earned for every mile flown on any airline, including other people whose tickets you bought with the card.

ThankYou Points Redeem Chart

Points / $ Travel Reward* Spending Required Cash Back Equivalent
Grocery, Parking, Drugstore, Gas 2 Points / $ 20,000 points (for $200 ticket) $10,000 2%
Everywhere Else 1 Point / $ 20,000 points (for $200 ticket) $20,000 1%
50 / 50 Split 1.5 Point / $ 20,000 points (for $200 ticket) $15,000 1.5%

* Since there is no fixed flight option anymore, I tested a couple of flights through the booking system and it appears that tickets are pricing at approximately 100 points per dollar.

Reward Value is average unless you maximize shopping at the 2 for 1 points locations.

Read More

Citibank Credit Card Rewards Thank You Network Update

by

According to an email received this week, the fixed flight option will no longer be available as of March 1st. Quick Summary Before 3/1/09 – Great deal for flights between $200 and $400 (the closer to $400 the better the deal).  Still a good deal for flights over $400. After 3/1/09 – Deal Gone.  You pay 100 points per dollar.  Average travel reward at best. Check here for updated information about 2011 Citibank rewards credit card programs. Look here for an updated review of the Citibank rewards catalog 2011. Fixed Point Travel Flight Option What does that mean for Citibank credit card holders?  A worse deal. Until 3/1/09 you can get a domestic flight reward on “virtually any airline” for 20,000 ThankYou Points, up to $400.  If the ticket is more than $400 then it is 5,000 points for every $50. That works out to 50 points per dollar for a $400 flight and then 100 points per dollar after.  That, of course, only works at exactly $400, but any flight over $200 costs you less than 100 points per dollar. Even if you go over $400, you are still getting a good deal because that first $400 comes at …

Read More

Credit Card Rewards Catalog

by

One of the toughest things about comparing all the different rewards credit cards out there is that the credit card companies aren’t very good about showing you what your points can buy until AFTER you sign up. Go ahead, try and find the rewards catalog for a reward credit card without logging into the site. Most reward programs sound the same. Earn 1 point for every $1 you spend with some specials here and there thrown in to maybe give you more points at grocery stores, gas stations or elsewhere. The catch though is that it doesn’t matter how many points you earn, what matters is what you can get with those points. Remember Chuck e Cheese and Showbiz Pizza? 10,000 tickets gets you an 8″ stuffed animal. What do 10,000 points get you from your credit card? Less than two years ago I used 40,000 points on my Capital One Miles Reward card to get $400 worth of gift certificates to Baby’s R Us. I pretty much furnished the nursery for free. It was a great deal. I logged in at Christmas time this year (2007) looking to do the same for a pregnant friend. Imagine my shock when …

Read More