Citi Forward and TY Points

[jake619]

Can somebody explain what circumstances cause Citi Thank You points to not redeem at face value?  For example, I've read the 5% restaurant points don't redeem at the earned rate.

[bs6054]

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@jake619 wrote:

Can somebody explain what circumstances cause Citi Thank You points to not redeem at face value?  For example, I've read the 5% restaurant points don't redeem at the earned rate.

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It's not the category of points, it's how you redeem them (so like a lot of cards, redeeming for cash back, or statement credit, gives a worse rate than other options).  As an additional complication, the redemption rate depends on the card (and sometimes on the offer given when you got the card).  That is why the ThankYou.com site tells you to login to see the real rate, without login it shows you 1:1.

The Freedom has a lower redemption rate.  If you look at $25 or $50 gift cards for example, you'll see, apart from special offers, a $25 card takes 3,500 points, or a $50 one 6,000.   Sometimes, $100 can be had for 10K points, which is the 1:1 ratio

All cards belonging to a user share a single TY account, and so points earned by Freedom can be added to the account, and then, with a "higher" card, redeemed 1:1.  So with one of those cards (Thank You Preferred, Premier...) you don't need to worry about sub 1:1 redemption

And some offers, particularly student loan and mortgage, DO cost 1c per point, even with freedom, so these are the best options without a higher-level TYP (along with sometimes $100 gift cards)

[jake619]

So you can use the Forward to get the 5% on restaurants but have to redeem it with a "better" card to realize that rate?  It takes two TY cards to do this?  If so it sounds like a hassle.

[bs6054]

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@jake619 wrote:

So you can use the Forward to get the 5% on restaurants but have to redeem it with a "better" card to realize that rate?  It takes two TY cards to do this?  If so it sounds like a hassle.

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No, if you redeem your points with a student loan or mortgage payment option, you will get the full 5%.  Often, if you redeem for $100 gift card, you will also get the full 5%.

The difference in rate for redemptions isn't that unusal, other cards have a similar thing. But there are few options with TY that give you full value, other cards tend to penalize cash back and statement credit.  Here it's nearly everything.

The other thing that people dislike about TY is that historically Citi has really played around with their value a lot, so if you are saving up many points and they change the redemption rate so that they lose 20% of the value, people vent!  Any rewards system can be devalued of course, it's just that Citi has done this more than some others.

[jake619]

First, thanks for the explanation.  I reread your original reply and I'm still a bit confused.  When do the TY Preferred/Premier come into the mix with the 1:1 redemption?  I guess in short all I'm trying to do is round out my rewards and I spend a bit of time on the road and eat out more than any sane cardiologist would recommend.  When I look at my spending habits I'm throwing away some opportunities.  Maybe there is a better option but the 5% caught my eye.

Thanks again for the time.

[bs6054]

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@jake619 wrote:

First, thanks for the explanation.  I reread your original reply and I'm still a bit confused.  When do the TY Preferred/Premier come into the mix with the 1:1 redemption?  I guess in short all I'm trying to do is round out my rewards and I spend a bit of time on the road and eat out more than any sane cardiologist would recommend.  When I look at my spending habits I'm throwing away some opportunities.  Maybe there is a better option but the 5% caught my eye.

Thanks again for the time.

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OK, I will try to be clearer!    So you have a ThankYou account, initially attached to the Forward say.   Your points accumulate, and when you need money to pay your cardiologist bills, you login to Thankyou.com.  While there, you see a $25 gift card to "ReallyYummyAndFattyExtraCream IceCream store" and hey, it's only 3,500 so you redeem that instead.

Time passes and for whatever reason you also get a TY Preferred card.  This has a different set of rewards than the Forward, no 5% for example, so you use both, accumulating more TYP.  When you next login to Thankyou.com, the points from your Forward and your Preferred can be combined there, and now you see $25 gift cards are only 2,500.  (So, since it's so cheap, you redeem two of the icecream ones!)

So even though many/most of the points are being earned on the Forward, you can redeem them all at a more favorable rate because you have the preferred.  With the more expensive card that has a high annual fee, you can use the points to get discounted travel, again on all TYP, not just those earned on the AF card.

This is similar to say Chase Freedom and CSP.   It's easy to earn points with the Freedom, but when combined with the CSP, you can redeem all the points earned on both cards 1:1 with airline and hotel programs.

[nickn86]

What's said above is true.  But also even with just the Forward, TYPs can be redeemed for a full 1:1 value for travel book through the ThankYou site (which has the same prices as Expedia/Orbitz, etc...).  Additionally, if you get the Premier card (annual fee) travel can be redeemed at a 1.33:1 value.

If gift cards are important, you should pile up points with the Forward and then eventually get a ThankYou Preferred card (no AF) to get 1:1 on everything.

[SnackTrader]

Jake,

I'm in your same situation with eating out on the road. That's why I applied for the Forward last month. I may be in a significantly different situation because I have massive amounts of student loans that need to be paid off, but this card fits the bill perfectly for me. I have yet to redeem any TY points, but I've looked around the site and generally found the redemption values to be fair. I will be using all of my points for extra student loan payments, and if you have a mortgage or student loans I would suggest the same (save on interest, get 5% CB, it's a win win). But if you want gift cards or statement credit, the Forward is still about get you over 3.5% for those things, which is excellent.