thoughts on Citi TY Premier?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys..pre qualified for Citi's TY Premier..dont hear much about this card but looking at it looks pretty cool. most of my spending is on travel as in; gas, ubers, subways, and bus/train which this card gives 3x points and dining which is 2x. I really only actually travel 1-2x a year which is why im not really considering the CSP/CSR. Right now I have the Arrival+ and Discover IT.

I have around $900 on my Arrival which i will use by the end of the year and then probaby PC to basic Arrival for no AF. Can anyone touch upon the Citi card? I know tranfering points isnt that great, but you can still just reddem for travel credit through their portal right? I would use this as my daily. I was also thinking getting the Venture which I realize is similar to Arrival except for a cheaper AF.

[Anonymous]

I received an upgrade offer on my Preferred last year to Premier, fee free for the first year. It came in a nice box with all of the Thankyou points information. The card itself is nice looking-if you are into that. 

The 3X points on travel (including gas) and 2X restaurants is nice, but I have no idea what to do with Thankyou points. Nobody does points better than Chase in my opinion. Thankyou has gotten better over the years but still difficult to understand-granted I have not really even tried. From what I understand the best redemption is through American Airlines.  Love that Citibank posts payments immediately. 

Customer service: I also have a Citibank Diamond Preferred. When I call the # on my DP card, I was connected to a human right away in the US, they even identify which city they are in. With TYP I had to go through all the prompts etc. just like their more plebian cards. 

CSP + Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (trifecta) maximize UR points when used correctly and UR points can be a lot more rewarding than Thankyou points-even for the less frequent traveler. Plus, Chase offers Visa whereas the TYP is MasterCard. That is really only an issue if you are a big Costco shopper. 

Overall, it is not a bad card, but I think for $95 a year, the CSP is better. My free year is nearly up and I will be downgrading back to Preferred. Hopefully they will let me keep the World Elite MasterCard. I shall see. 

[Anonymous]

I've researched how the TY points work and I'm still unsure. I see they are partnered with JetBlue but only at a 1:.8 transfer rate. JB and United are only airlines I use and I stay at Marriotts.

I like the Arrival flat 2% rate so maybe I'll just wait to use my miles then downgrade and apply for the Venture. If I don't fly AA or stay at Hiltons is Citi a waste?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I've researched how the TY points work and I'm still unsure. I see they are partnered with JetBlue but only at a 1:.8 transfer rate. JB and United are only airlines I use and I stay at Marriotts.

I like the Arrival flat 2% rate so maybe I'll just wait to use my miles then downgrade and apply for the Venture. If I don't fly AA or stay at Hiltons is Citi a waste?

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I am not prepared to call the Premier a waste....but it sounds like for your needs it would not be the best choice. I really do not understand Thankyou or MR points; but Chase has made UR very friendly and beneficial. Even then, I think that travel points are best left to frequent travelers that have the time and know-how to use these points to their advantage.

As far as Arrival + and Venture...they are great for the sign up bonus but after the first year they are less compelling due to the annual fees. A 2% cashback card like Double Cash is the best option as you get the 2% in cash with no annual fee. True, these cash back cards usually have foreign transaction fees which is the main drawback. 

I was hoping others might have chimed in by now to give you more advice. I would say there is probably a good reason why Premier is not talked about much here and that is because 1) for many months Citi did not offer any sign up bonus for the card and even now, the 30,000 points pales in comparision to the CSP; 2) its not metal and 3) Thankyou points are not as loved here as Chase UR points. A lot of people here have the Premier's big brother, the Prestige mostly for the added perks like 4th night free etc. 

Hopefully others can add more insight or you can find addiitonal information on your own. At the very least you could try the card out for a year fee-free to see how you like it; then, if at the end of the year it does not meet your needs you could always downgrade it to Double Cash. Otherwise, I'd say skip this one. 

[mongstradamus]

I am about to close my premeir when the AF comes up again this year, Since I have the CSR there is no real reason for me to have TYP. There is a lot of overlap with airline partners between MR and TYP and Typ and UR i think . Also another thing to consider is they aren't partners with any of the domestic airlines that are part of the big 3 alliances. 

[red259]

I have the premier and prestige card. Barring a large retention offer I will likely PC the prestige to a double cash and close the premier to reset the bonus clock. Citi Ty points are ok, but I invested in them at a time when I was getting a great deal with the prestige card and citigold bank account and then topped off with the premier card. Since then they really hacked at the prestige benefits and Chase upped their game with the CSR. I think the prestige and premier are worth getting for the signup offers when they have good offers, but beyond that I am not super impressed. I have about 27k TY points left and I will likely be dumping them into SQ where I can merge my amex MRs as well for a redemption to singapore. As is the case with soo much of this game timing is everything. For awhile citi was a hot ticket item and they allowed me to book my trip to japan, but now I have to cut bait and go somehwere else. The CSR signup offer was nice and Chase is much better with giving me bonus categories I want to spend in. 

[mongstradamus]

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@red259 wrote:

I have the premier and prestige card. Barring a large retention offer I will likely PC the prestige to a double cash and close the premier to reset the bonus clock. Citi Ty points are ok, but I invested in them at a time when I was getting a great deal with the prestige card and citigold bank account and then topped off with the premier card. Since then they really hacked at the prestige benefits and Chase upped their game with the CSR. I think the prestige and premier are worth getting for the signup offers when they have good offers, but beyond that I am not super impressed. I have about 27k TY points left and I will likely be dumping them into SQ where I can merge my amex MRs as well for a redemption to singapore. As is the case with soo much of this game timing is everything. For awhile citi was a hot ticket item and they allowed me to book my trip to japan, but now I have to cut bait and go somehwere else. The CSR signup offer was nice and Chase is much better with giving me bonus categories I want to spend in. 

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I dumped my typ 80k in to sq already so probably should just close out the premier,I wonder if I can pc it to double cash f I have one already . I pced my citi American Airlines card to a double cash last year . 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input guys.

Rethinking the CSP now. My only thing with it was I saw some posts here saying if your travel and dining spend isn't a certain amount it's a waste. I spend a ton on dining though just not that much on travel as in flights or hotels. Could still be a good benefit as I have nearly 100K in Marriott points.

[Anonymous]

Reading up on CSP seems as if Travel still constitutes as Ubers and bus/trains? Along with dining that is most of my spending. Even if I don't actually "travel" that often maybe this is a good option for me.

[Anonymous]

Any other input?