The preceding discussion suggests this is not true. If the question is important, login to thankyou.com to check.

Is the bonus cashback only good for the first year on this card? A friend of mine thinks after the first year, it goes to 1% cashback only. Is he mistaken?

no indication it's first year only.

Thanks. I'm relieved.

So I now have 10,000 Thanks You points saved up.

In terms of getting cash back, my only option is redeeming 8,000 points for a $50. check.

I use this card only for Amazon purchases and dining.

My question is, what percent cash back is this? And is this still better than than the Amazon Visa which gives 3% cash back on Amazon purchases and 2% on dining?

I do see that there are some $100. retail gift cards available for 10,000 points available. However, I'm not certain for how much I'd be able to sell one of those for.

What's the best way to go about this to maximize my cash back?

Should I just get any $100. retail gift card I can and then re-sell it? I do see some Gap ones on eBay that typically sell for $90.

PlasticJungle.com does not tell me how much I'd get for the card until I have the card in hand so this is all a bit frustrating.

Divide the amount of the reward that you receive by the amount you spent to earn it.

How is a retail giftcard inferior to cash? You can, for example, redeem 10,000 ThankYou points for $100 Amazon credit:

https://rewards.thankyou.com/b2r/mer...toryId=1720663

Because if I buy something with a giftcard, I'm not earning more cashback on that purchase!

To continue with the previous example (and it is only an example), you are still better off redeeming 10,000 points for $100 Amazon credit and forgoing $5 in cashback on that $100 versus redeeming 8,000 for a $50 check:

$0.00626 per point ( 8,000 for $50 cash)
$0.00950 per point (10,000 for $100 credit, $95 net)

So, are you saying it would be better to spend the $100. giftcard to Amazon than to sell it for like $90.?

Also, I just checked and a $100 Amazon giftcard is not an option for me. They only have a $50. one for 6,000 points.

There are a few other retailers that have $100. ones for 10,000 points though not places I shop at.

If your account is not eligible for the $100 rewards the arithmetic would be different, but the Amazon credit is still better value than cash, and the Citi card still nets out better than the Amazon VISA.

$0.00626 per point ( 8,000 for $50 cash)
$0.00792 per point ( 6,000 for $50 credit, $47.50 net)

5 x .00792 = 3.96% rebate on both Amazon and Dining

Ok thanks for the info.

I guess I need to decide if I should take the $50. Amazon giftcard for 8,000 points or if I should get another store $100 giftcard for 10,000 points and sell it.

Which would be better?

If you can sell the $100 card for more than $79.20 (10,000 X .00792) you would be ahead. I don't know anything about selling giftcards, except that it cannot be done on Flyertalk.

However, I would wait awhile for others to read and reply to this thread, because I may have overlooked another approach.

I ended up just redeeming for an Amazon credit. I guess it still works out to about 3.5-4% ($50. Amazon credit for 6,000 points).