Is the AF for Citi TYPr worth it?

[Anonymous]

A little background: I eat out at restaurants and semi-fast food places a majority of the time. I fill my gas tank probably about once a week. I would probably be using the points purely for statement credits. I don't really use the cash back that I am earning now on my CapOne card. I am a student and would qualify for the TY preferred for students that has a sign up bonus right now of 2,500 points with spending $500 in the first 3 months. Is it worth it to get the ThankYou Premier and pay an annual fee of $95 or get the ThankYou Preferred for Students with no annual fee?

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:
A little background: I eat out at restaurants and semi-fast food places a majority of the time. I fill my gas tank probably about once a week. I would probably be using the points purely for statement credits. I don't really use the cash back that I am earning now on my CapOne card. I am a student and would qualify for the TY preferred for students that has a sign up bonus right now of 2,500 points with spending $500 in the first 3 months. Is it worth it to get the ThankYou Premier and pay an annual fee of $95 or get the ThankYou Preferred for Students with no annual fee?

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The points do not work well for statement credits. If that's the goal, avoid Thankyou points altogether. They work best for gift cards or travel. Getting cash is a bad deal.

But for a student just wanting a restaurant rewards card, no, I don't think the Thankyou Premier and its fee are ideal. But I also don't think the Thankyou Preferred is a great choice. At this stage I would not make things overly complicated. I would go for a solid flat rate cash back card, such as Capital One's Quicksilver which isn't too hard to get, hassle free 1.5% back on everything, redeem anytime. Or a Citi Double Cash with 2% back. There are much better choices than the Thankyou cards for your situation.

[Closingracer99]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
A little background: I eat out at restaurants and semi-fast food places a majority of the time. I fill my gas tank probably about once a week. I would probably be using the points purely for statement credits. I don't really use the cash back that I am earning now on my CapOne card. I am a student and would qualify for the TY preferred for students that has a sign up bonus right now of 2,500 points with spending $500 in the first 3 months. Is it worth it to get the ThankYou Premier and pay an annual fee of $95 or get the ThankYou Preferred for Students with no annual fee?

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The points do not work well for statement credits. If that's the goal, avoid Thankyou points altogether. They work best for gift cards or travel. Getting cash is a bad deal.

But for a student just wanting a restaurant rewards card, no, I don't think the Thankyou Premier and its fee are ideal. But I also don't think the Thankyou Preferred is a great choice. At this stage I would not make things overly complicated. I would go for a solid flat rate cash back card, such as Capital One's Quicksilver which isn't too hard to get, hassle free 1.5% back on everything, redeem anytime. Or a Citi Double Cash with 2% back. There are much better choices than the Thankyou cards for your situation.

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Well if you put some serious spending on the TY preferred and you do entertainment stuff along with food it could be worth it considering it has no AF.... Not ideal but TBH out of the student cards which IDK could be easier to get I rather get that over the discover IMHO. Not because it is "better" but because it is a Mastercard instead of discover.

[takeshi74]

Worth is always highl subjective and to assess any program for yourself you need to run the numbers for your spend all the way from earning on spend through redeeming to determine the value you can get for your spend so you can compare to other programs or, in your case, the two cards you're considering.

It sounds like you've gone around this backwards by selecting cards first and trying to justify one of them.  Do the analysis and let that determine what's best suited to you.

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@Anonymous wrote:
I would probably be using the points purely for statement credits.

What value does that redemption method get you?  What sort of rewards would that yield for your spend?  How does that compare to other programs?  How does that compare to other programs?  How does that compare to a cash back card?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the answer for you is Marvel MasterCard, 3% on dining. You'd get a great SL with those scores, too. Just gotta deal with Synchrony every once in a while when they menstruate and get on your case (and if you don't carry balances or open thousands of accounts you'd be left alone)

[Anonymous]

@CreditSnorlax - I see that you have BoA Cash Rewards, Citi DC and Marvel. All of these have cash rewards that are inviting, which do you use most or find the best value of?

[Closingracer99]

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@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous - I see that you have BoA Cash Rewards, Citi DC and Marvel. All of these have cash rewards that are inviting, which do you use most or find the best value of?

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I have all 3 as well and TBH for a general spending card I would just use the DC TBH. 2% on everything.

[Anonymous]

I barely use BoA, it's a new PC from my original plain BoA that's my oldest acct so I can't close it. It's only for groceries when the 5% cards aren't on groceries. Marvel for the categories, pretty straightforward. DC for general spend like shopping but that doesn't happen much for me. DDs are currently Freedom bc it's on dining and DC otherwise.