jediwho

Could not agree more! If I had to have just one card, it would be Prestige. Their trip insurance is better than Chase, extended warranty is also the best among the three, fourth night free for two uses a year that no one else offers, more points per $$ spent on average, much better price protection and better roadside assistance (i.e. no cap on annual use).

Where Amex wins is Centurion lounges, FHR, better value for MR (at least for me), and better customer service. The one card that I absolutely don’t care for going forward is CSR. I will earn my points with Freedom, Unlimited Freedom and Ink. For car rental, I will either use the City Crystal or get the premium insurance from Amex.

mia

I think Citi's insurance was better until the most recent revision, but I have not done a careful comparison since. What features are more favorable?

Which INK card do you use?

yugi

But if you combine Prestige with Premier and book 4 nights at a time, you get 40% discount, which is better than Chase. I do book 4 nights at a time, and then I pad with Chase or US Bank if needed. Like if I need 5 nigths - 4 nights with Citi, 1 night with Chase. Also Citi don't allow back to back bookings, so you can do 4-1-4. I booked all inclusive hotels in Mexico like this many times.

yugi

If I had to have only one card it would be Altitude Reserve. It's similar to CSR, but it earns 3x(4.5%) everywhere in person with Samsung Pay. It also has primary CDW, and some kind of lounge access. Protections may not be as good as CSR or Prestige, but you can't beat 4.5% everywhere with $75 effective AF, and no FTF.

MD/DC Flyer

That is true if you compare the advance purchase rate or the BAR rate.

But with Citi you can use special rates and special promos that would stuck to the 25% off which potentially will be much more. With many hotels offering buy 3 get 4, which can be combined with the the 25% off you get effectively 44% off, as one example. Use corporate rate and you can get more than 25% off.

Of course the personal circumstances will differ as well as taking into consideration the discount on taxes with Chase and not with Citi.

jediwho

INK Business Plus with 5x at office supply stores and teleco.

seawolf

mikesyr18

People just have to accept that Citi is making a weak effort to keep the TY points program running. Cutting the portal redemption to 1 cpp, which is most likely equal to the price they pay for miles from their partner airlines, is all Citi wants to pay. It looks like they no longer want to pay 1.25 cpp or 1.66 cpp to redeem for flights. It wouldn't surprise me if the program as an entirety didn't exist within the next five years.

The Prestige is becoming more of a benefits card, even with the increase in dining and flight earnings - which I think is fine for many. Redeeming for two free nights at a $400 value plus $250 towards other travel as credits, is certainly great for a $495 AF.

akr1970akr

I don't think it really matters what happens in 5 years.

TYP or any of these bank / loyalty programs are not real wealth that is going to be grow if carefully invested.

Use them while they are available, squeeze them as hard as you can.

People on these kinds of boards are always going to be able to adapt to whatever the rules of the game are in the future.

Let's just keep hoping that all these benefits continue to be subsidized by

a) those who pay cash
b) those who carry interest bearing balances

At some point if the US becomes more like a cashless Sweden, and interchange is crushed/regulated, the card gamers / churners / optimizers would really face a cruel new world.

Polytonic

I'm in a similar situation -- I'll probably shift airfare spending over to the Prestige since the 5x on airfare is nice, and matches the Amex Plat, but TYPs are really weak in terms of transfer partners (pretty much just VS and SQ for me). I've contemplated dropping my CSR, except URs carry a significant value premium over TYPs/MRs with UA as a transfer partner.

I wish the Prestige would come with hotel status of some kind. If I'm holding a card for the benefits and not the spend, it has to at least meet what the Amex Plat is offering.

moe8555

True, but even in regulated countries (e.g. Australia), they still manage to offer cards with 1 point per dollar accrual, as well as bonus categories even with >1 point per dollar. So who knows... with $1 trillion in balances being carried, I would hope that there'd be enough money still being made to support rewards even with less interchange in the picture...

BugsyPal

Far as US market is concerned only about 30% (IIRC) of consumers with credit cards carry a balance from month to month. The remaining 70% are a mix of those who pay off balances entirely each month, leave cards inactive for long periods, and or use cards strategically to suit their purposes (points, zero percent balance transfers, and other rewards).

This leaves CC issuers to come up with ways to get card the more desired credit demographics to use their product. Sub-prime card holders may generate interest each month from all that unpaid carry over balances, but they also represent a higher default risk. As you move up the food chain from that group to the better cards the array of *rewards* or whatever increases. Again all to get holders to use that particular card, even if they pay off the balance each month.

akr1970akr

For Citi - very rough numbers - but balances carrying are like 10% of holders for Prestige, 40% at Double Cash.

I guess Citi grand strategy is going to be competing less on perks / rewards, and more on balance transfer offers up front.

For most of the FT types I think that is not as attractive as I think people are less inclined to take those balances and put them in 2% savings accounts for a the year or whatever.

My belief is that folks prefer getting a simple miles/points bonus and moving on, and not have to manage borrowing/lending type of stuff.

Of course there are people who are willing to do that work, and as interest rates rise just a little, it becomes more doable.

A 10k 0% interest rate offer for a year could be basically $200-$300 pre tax as rates normalize.

Not the lowest hanging fruit on the tree, but perhaps other stuff is picked over, and for some people, this might be what's left.

I hope Citi considers making Prestige a contactless card; they've done it with the Costco Visa so it should be doable if they want.

BugsyPal

While often attractive, thing about Citi's various zero percent offers is sums truly need to be paid off within that period. This because from what one has seen many Citi cards have very high APRs, this even for those who supposedly had good to excellent credit in order to obtain.

OTOH Capital One has several good cash back cards and many come with attractive balance transfer offers, but their APR for good to excellent credit customers is on average far lower than most Citi cards.

mikesyr18

On the other hand, Citi seems to be the most flexible with lowering APR's. I've seen people get multiple APR reductions per week, and some people have had single digit APR cards through Citi. I believe Mia told me she had a Prestige with an 8% APR at one point in time.