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Citi ThankYou Rewards Program Information Guide
This wiki is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the most frequently asked questions regarding the ThankYou Rewards program offered by Citi. For ongoing discussions regarding the different ThankYou Credit Cards and their benefits, please refer to the specific product threads listed at the bottom of this wiki. For the complete ThankYou program terms & conditions, see the TYP website. Program Overview Citibank and Citicards offers a joint rewards program called ThankYou. Members can earn ThankYou points that can be redeemed for travel, mortgage payments, student loan payments, gift cards, online purchases, statement credits, or cash. How to Earn Banking IMPORTANT CHANGES COMING THE END OF 2014: Effective Dec 16, 2014 Only CitiGold and 'The Citibank Account' packages will earn TYP, and at a reduced rate at that. In addition credit card, mortgages and line of credit will no longer count for qualifying balances to waive the monthly fee for these checking accounts. See updated earning rates below. Citi Basic Banking, Citi Student, etc will no longer earn any TY Points, period. Effective May 1 2015 In addition, starting May 1 2015, Citi At Work customers (through relationships Citi has with your employer) will no longer automatically qualify for 'The Citibank Account' via direct deposit. This means you'll need to have combined average monthly balance of at least $10,000 to waive the monthly fee. See here Short version If direct deposit is available to you, you can earn as little as 7800 points ($78)/year to as much as 19,200 points ($192)/year without paying fees and without any credit card / debit card spend requirements. Add in a top tier Citi credit card and multiply those numbers by 1.25 (Premier) or 1.6/1.33 (Prestige)* on travel benefits. These benefits are per signer, so adding a spouse can double the benefits. Long version Open and maintain a Citibank checking account with monthly direct deposit and bill payment. The complete ThankYou earning chart is located here, but below are some overviews:
The Citigold checking account carries a $30/mo service charge unless at least 1 of the following 3 conditions is met:
The Citibank checking account carries a $20/mo service charge unless at least 1 of the following 4 conditions is met:
The Basic Banking checking account carries a $10/mo service charge unless at least 1 of the following 2 conditions is met:
The Student checking account is eligible for the same rewards as the Basic Banking checking, and is completely free for students. Important: Citi offers what is called "householding." This links multiple deposit accounts together under an umbrella household for the purpose of combining all the balances to meet minimum balance requirements. This is only allowed for people at the same address. However, for a family, this means one member can have $50K, or 4 members can each have $12.5K, and if they're properly household linked, entitles all parties to a Citigold account. This is NOT the case on investments and mortgages, only deposit balances. FAQs about Earning through Banking Q: Is there a minimum direct deposit amount to be eligible? A: No, any amount once per month will work. Q: Is there a minimum bill payment amount to be eligible? A: No, any amount once per month will work. Q: I don't want to set up bill payment; it's inconvenient to change my auto pays. What should I do? A: Add yourself, a family member, or friend, and set up a recurring automatic monthly payment to them for any amount. Q: Can I earn these points on multiple accounts? A: One account is eligible per signer over the age of 18. Q: Does a Paypal ACH (etc) qualify as a direct deposit? A: No, only payroll. Q: Does the direct deposit have to be intended for the account signer? A: No. Details of the direct deposit are irrelevant. Q: Can my spouse and I each have an account and earn points? A: Yes, and you can merge TY accounts if you're married (this action cannot be undone). Credit Cards Citi offers numerous credit cards as part of the ThankYou program, listed here, but the most popular are listed below:
FAQs about the Citi Prestige Q: Why does the authorized user cost $50 per person? A: Authorized users receive their own annual international companion pass and global entry credit. Q: How does the annual companion pass work? A: Once per membership year per card holder and authorized user, you can purchase one airline ticket through Citi's travel partner, Spirit Incentives here, and pay only taxes and fees on the second traveler. Keep in mind, for many international flights, the majority of the final fare cost can be taxes and fees. The annual companion pass only covers the base fair of the companion. Q: Can I buy any airline ticket with the companion pass? A: Yes and no. While it is not limited strictly to one airline or one alliance, the Spirit Incentives matrix only pulls the cheapest, bottom of the bucket fares, often giving less-than-optimal routing. Online availability changes, based on what's available. A: When you purchase all (or a significant portion: some report >$50) of an airline ticket with your Citi Prestige card, you earn flight points for the physical distance flown, which are accrued into a separate "bucket." These flight points accrue separately from ThankYou points, and you still earn your standard butt-in-seat distance miles with your frequent flyer program. Once you see your flight points on your statement, you can "transfer" them from your flight point bucket to your ThankYou point balance with every dollar you spend. If you have a 10K flight point balance, and you spend $1000 on every day purchases and $500 on dining, you will earn: 1000 (at 1x earning), 1000 (at 2x earning), and 2000 (flight point matching of monthly earning total). You will receive 4000 points into your ThankYou account, and have 8K flight points remaining to be converted. NB: Flight Points are obsolete. Q: How does the 1.6x/1.33x airfare redemption multiplier work? A: See below under How to Use/Travel. Q: What can I buy with the $200 airline statement credit? A: Food, drinks, baggage, upgrades, gift cards, etc. Pretty much anything billed from the airline that is $100 or less. Note: You must opt in to this benefit. It only takes a 90-second call to a friendly, US-based CSR and you'll be good to go. My CSR even retroactively credited me when I failed to do this, but YMMV. Q: Can I use the $100 Global Entry credit every year? A: T&C state it resets every 5 years, just like the Global Entry membership. Q: Any other benefits? A: Three free rounds of golf a year, 15% discount on airfare purchased through Spirit Incentives, access to Airport Angel lounges, no FTF. How to Use Travel When booking travel through the ThankYou website, you get a 1 cent-per-point redemption value on flights, hotels, car rentals, etc. If you have a ThankYou Premier card, you earn a 25% value increase when redeeming for flights, rental cars, or hotels. Note that travel may be booked using points or a combination of points and cash. Because the latter is classified as travel-related spending ("other travel: travel agency"), it is advantageous to use a credit card with corresponding bonuses. Discussion thread: TYP flight redemptions: Prestige $0.0133 or $0.016/pt., Premier $0.0125/pt. * But some Prestige benefits will soon go away, including that 1.6; see: Citi Prestige benefit and reward changes effective July 23, 2017 Gift Cards There is some variance on the value for Gift Card redemption, depending on what credit card(s) you have tied to your ThankYou account. Generally, as long as there is a credit card tied to the account, it is a 1 cent-per-point redemption value, with $25/$50/$100 denominations. Cash and Quasi-Cash You can request mortgage or student loan checks 1 cent-per-point redemption values. Citi also offers statement credits, "select and credit" refunds for specific transactions, and VISA gift cards, at a horrible redemption rate. See below: Mortgage: $100 = 10,000 TY points Student Loan: $100 = 10,000 TY points Select and Credit: $100 = 13,333 TY points VISA Gift Card: $100 = 14,000 TY points Cash & Statment Credit: $100 = 20,000 TY points Point Transfers to Travel Partners All Airlines below are 1:1 (1000 increments) unless noted otherwise Avianca Lifemiles Asia Miles Etihad Guest EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer JetBlue TrueBlue (1:1 for Premier/Prestige, 5:4 for Preferred) JetPrivilege (Jet Airways) Malaysia Airlines Enrich Qantas Frequent Flyer Qatar Airways Privilege Club Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Note: Only points earned from Credit Cards are eligible to be transferred. Points from Banking are ineligible as are any "bonus points that may be awarded with no spend requirement." Discussion thread: Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs): airline/hotel transfer partners Transfer Bonuses Citi does periodically offer transfer bonuses. Etihad Guest: 10% Jun-Jul 2017 20% Oct 2016 **25% Nov-Dec 2015 and Jul 2016 offered by Etihad for all partner earn/transfer (excl SPG) Flying Blue 30% Jul-Aug 2018 JetBlue TrueBlue: 30% Mar-May 2018 *note - at the time, the transfer rate was 5:4 for Premier/Prestige and 2:1 for Preferred, so the 30% made the ratios 25:26 (or 1000=1040) and 20:13 (or 1000=650) respectively 25% Sep-Oct 2017 *note - at the time, the transfer rate was 5:4 for Premier/Prestige and 2:1 for Preferred, so the 25% made the ratios 1:1 and 8:5 (or 1000=625) respectively 50% Mar-Apr 2017 *note - at the time, the transfer rate was 5:4 for Premier/Prestige and 2:1 for Preferred, so the 50% made the ratios 5:6 (or 1000=1200) and 4:3 (or 1000=750), respectively Qantas Frequent Flyer 15%-30% Jun 2016 *tiered: 15% for < 100,000 transferred; 20% for 100,000-500,000; 25% for 500,001 to 1,000,000; 30% for 1,000,001+ Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 30% Sep-Oct 2018 25% Jan-Mar 2017 25% Mar-Apr 2016 25% Jun-Aug 2015 Sharing Points with Other TYP Accounts For information on sharing points with other TYP accounts (including the expiration rules and annual cap on shared points), see ThankYou Point Sharing capped at 100,000 points per calendar year. Points Expiration For information on points expiration, including the order in which points are used for redemptions, see the wiki at Citi ThankYou points - cancel, downgrade & expiration considerations. Shop with Points Amazon: $100 = 12,500 points Existing Threads Prestigious Citi Card Tricks [Citi Prestige Card benefits] How is the Citi ThankYou Rewards system in the current state? Citi Prestige card companion ticket Confirmed: Changes to Citi ThankYou and Premier cards 10.20.2013 New Citi Premier & Prestige 15% Off Travel when booked through Spirit Incentives Citi Prestige benefit and reward changes effective July 23, 2017 |
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