livencali

I was searching on Citicards.com and notice that the only Thank You Card(s) available was the Premier, unless until Prestige re-introduce on January 04, 2019.Is Citi discontinuing this card? Or is it just my computer, cookies etc? Maybe it's a small website glitch. I can't see Citi getting rid of Thank You Preferred.

BugsyPal

Have been getting offers for months now to switch my Citi TYP card to Double Cash Back. Guess it is time to cash out my points and start the change over transaction.

Quite honestly never really used TYP much because other cards give better rewards. This even for dining and entertainment which are supposedly the two big areas for TYP.

sdsearch

What I can see is Citi replacing Thank You Preferred with something another name. It's confusing that Chase uses Preferred for high-end cards, and Citi used Preferred for no-AF cards.

Meanwhile, while not classified as a TYP card, there's still another TYP card shown on the Citicards.com website: Scroll down to AT&T cards, and you see AT&T Access which earns TYP points.

mia

Prestige and Premier earn bonuses in those categories, but that doesn't tell us anything about what to expect from the free Preferred card.

It would be rational to eliminate or refresh Preferred if a high proportion of the accounts are dormant, as would be the case with cards opened just to earn a bonus, or converted from Prestige or Premier to preserve points.

rasheed

So exciting if they do drop this card. For a number of us, we went from mtvU to Forward to Thank You Preferred. Let's see what they come up with next. For awhile, there wasn't much happening in dining and entertainment, but now so many cards have both AF and non-AF options with 3% or more.

I am also interested if they do something new or bring us into a refreshed card. I can imagine if anyone does pay attention to best card, this card doesn't have much going on.

In general, I don't proactively switch cards from such offers and let them force the change. For the most part, I have benefited (mtvU to Forward, old Savor to new Savor w/o AF).

mikesyr18

Citi should replace it with a no AF cash back card.

3% on dining and entertainment, 1% back on all other purchases.

It's dumb that they only have one cash back card. It would allow them to compete against the lower level Savor.

BugsyPal

Well took the bait and made the switch over to double cash earlier today, and the Citi rep couldn't have been more helpful. Got a lower APR and some other goodies thrown in that will go over when things arrive via email or post.

Rep was adamant far as he knew Citi wasn't getting rid of or doing anything with the Preferred card.

Will be getting year end summary from AMEX gold soon, so shall crunch numbers and see how much "double cash" can earn on spending based upon 2018 levels. Usually put things like groceries, utilities and so forth on Amex and settle that one bill. From this of course one mainly gets only membership points which have a different value than simply getting cash back.

Most of our dining and entertainment went on Amex as well, hence the low use of Citi Preferred. So will see what shall see....

Meanwhile have 90 days to use up my TYP so need to find some gift cards or whatever. *LOL*

BugsyPal

IMHO think the battle lines are being drawn between points versus cash back. This in short going after Amex and others lunch by getting those who normally charge decent to large sums of various/routine things per month and simply pay off the bill when it arrives.

Using a credit card like a charge is all very well, but increasingly the "points" rewards system is getting complicated as cards realign alliances or whatever. To some simply getting near or double cash back might simply be a better option than dealing with multiple point redemption value levels.

Case in point is the Citi Preferred. Yes, earning points and redemption were good for dining and entertainment, but not so much for everything else.

kdm31091

Being as though the Premier only pays 2x dining and entertainment as well, I don't see how the Preferred would pay more on those categories. So I'm just kind of confused on what they could really do to enhance it unless they are completely changing the reward structure.

Time will tell. Would be nice if they just change it to a cash back card on dining but I kind of don't see it happening since it would contradict the Premier product in some ways (at least to the general public).

mia

I do not expect this, but Preferred could be turned into a clone of Chase Freedom or Discover and earn 5 ThankYou points per dollar in capped categories.

akr1970akr

Don't they already have some version of that Citi Dividend or something?

I have a hard time believing they would can the Pfd.

On their last investor day deck they made a big point of having a "good,better,best" strategy for their TYP portfolio to fight JP Morgan / Chase.

Sadly, one of my family members is a big user of their Pfd card. They mostly make Amazon purchases with their stash of accrued points.

They are not organized nor financially savvy - yet are actually doing pretty well - so not a good candidate for churning/travel hacking.

mia

Not that earns ThankYou points.

livencali

Is Citi actually trying to compete with JP Morgan Chase? Personally, they both stand great alone in their own lane(s). Both issuers offer solid credit cards with comprehensive programs. Why not leave "well enough" alone? Or is it that Citi doesn't feel that their program is "well enough"? I didn't know that JP Morgan was even a threat to Citi. I guess it's natural in business to feel that way, so it does make sense. Adding a hotel partner, plus American Airlines would seem to finish the race for me.

Mia, I hope that you are right! I could see this too.

jeffersun

preferred is the only card I've gotten targeted spend bonuses on. One back in September and one just recently for 5x up to 2500typ on travel ending 1/31/19. I don't imagine it being discontinued, and hope it doesn't, as that takes out the premier downgrade 24 month bypass switcheroo. There are plenty of CCs out there that don't have direct online applications, and if you can market the Premier with AF waived, I imagine you'll likely get a fair number of AF paying customers in the future.

mikesyr18

I"m not really sure what world you're living in. Why would Citi not compete with Chase on all aspects of banking, not limited to credit cards? Outside of churners, credit cards are huge revenue streams for banks, particularly because of interest charges, annual fees, late fees, etc. Forget the Flyertalk mentality and remember the average Joe is carrying a $2,800 balance on a 23.99% rate credit card for two years before paying it off. Credit cards are the biggest risks and money makers for a bank, most likely followed by investment services and personal loans. Banks aim for people that will go, "Oh, I can get 5x the points on dining? Well I'll buy that $75 dinner tonight," and then when the bill comes, they don't have the discipline to pay off the entire balance - before they know it, the balance has crept up to $3,500..

Also, why do you feel Citi's TY program is "well enough." The program is frequently called the worst of the big banks because it lacks value outside of some decent redemption through their transfer partners (which you don't even get with the Preferred). What use was the Preferred to anyone before it was shelved? You couldn't redeem for cash at 1cpp, there was only one airline transfer partner (Jet Blue), or you could choose weak redemption partners like Amazon or through Citi's gift portal. Gift cards? Who cares about that. The card was very unappealing to anyone, including those who think credit cards are for carrying large balances, and Citi probably started to realize that and shelved the card while it's being refreshed to become a more attractive product . What part about the current TY system is great? The 0 hotel partners? The non-existent domestic airline partners besides Jet Blue? The soon to be devalued airline portal redemption options at 1cpp?

Also, AA will never partner with Citi as a transfer partner. Apparently Citi doesn't like hotel and domestic travel partners (besides Jet Blue) - not to mention, it seems as if the relationship between the two companies has become weaker over the years (loss of Admiral's Club access on Prestige, loss of 1.6 cpp on Prestige, addition of AA cards within Barclay's card lineup)..