topic Re: Citibank World Mastercards in Credit Cards

Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:34:43 GMT

I wasn't on the boards for this, but I hear it created quite an uproar when Citi began to convert its Dividend MasterCards to Dividend World MasterCards. Has Citi been known to do this with any of its other products, out of curiosity? Can this be done with the CashReturns MC, or are there World MC's created from Platinum Selects, and Visa Signatures created out of regular Visas?

Of course issuers have an incentive to do this because they can charge a higher interchange fee when those cards are swiped.

Oh yes - is the regular Dividend Mastercard (not for College students) even still around or has it been replaced entirely by the CashReturns?

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:08:04 GMT

I still have the regular Dividend Platinum, with the 2% and 1% rebates. They know good and well not to switch me to that World MC without my consent.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:38:47 GMT

I've tried to look for the application for the Citibank Dividend MasterCard, but I find it only available for college students. I'm glad I was grandfathered into the current program, but I have a feeling they'll be converting us over to the CashReturns program sometime soon (just straight up 1% cash back with automatic statement credits or checks sent to your address) because with current gas prices, the 2% gas cash back could be an annoyance for them.

The second they try to convert my Dividend card, I'll ask them for a PremierPass card, because I really like what I have now, and I don't want the Diamond Preferred (is this one any good? I've heard people don't like the ThankYou program much, but how are the other perks?)

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:56:44 GMT

There is a Dividend Platinum Select. Is that the card you're looking for?

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:14:29 GMT

yes. where is the link to apply for this? I read something online that people weren't being allowed to apply for this card currently (with the exception of the cards being issued to college students) because the program was undergoing restructuring.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:18:54 GMT

d09 wrote:
yes. where is the link to apply for this? I read something online that people weren't being allowed to apply for this card currently (with the exception of the cards being issued to college students) because the program was undergoing restructuring.

Here you go. I don't know anything about people not being allowed to apply for it right now, but the link is available directly from the CitiCards website.

https://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/cardDetail.do?screenID=923&origincontentId=FAMILY_DIVIDEND&CONTENT_TYPE=family_detail

Message Edited by cheddar on 08-05-2008 08:18 PM

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:45:36 GMT

Thanks! How did you get there from the main Citi site?

also another part of my question was; Citi has turned these Platinum Select MasterCards into World MasterCards much to the chagrin of current cardholders, because of both reporting and promotional issues (if they convert you to the World ends your 5% cash back promotional period). I wonder if they're doing the same thing with their other Mastercard and Visa products.

p.s. cheddar, how are you enjoying that Citi Platinum Amex?

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 03:53:40 GMT

d09 wrote:
Thanks! How did you get there from the main Citi site?

It wasn't easy. Go to www.citi.com. Click "Credit Cards" in the bar at the top. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Check all Citi Cards." A new window opens. In the drop down box that says "I know the card I want:" select "Citi Dividend Cards." The Citi Dividend Platinum Select MC is in the upper left corner.

d09 wrote:

also another part of my question was; Citi has turned these Platinum Select MasterCards into World MasterCards much to the chagrin of current cardholders, because of both reporting and promotional issues (if they convert you to the World ends your 5% cash back promotional period). I wonder if they're doing the same thing with their other Mastercard and Visa products.

I wasn't aware that they were ending the promo period early on cardholders they convert. Wow. Yeah, if they converted me and it meant my promo period ended early, they'd be getting an earful.

d09 wrote:

p.s. cheddar, how are you enjoying that Citi Platinum Amex?

Loving everything about it. The TYP are racking up fast. Thanks for asking.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:47:22 GMT

Quick question, anyone - does anyone know if you can convert the Dividend World MC into a PremierPass card? Is this allowed, or should I call to ask?

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

creditninja9000 — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:55:46 GMT

What's the problem with having a World MC??? I thought it was better than the regular one......

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:04:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Loving everything about it. The TYP are racking up fast. Thanks for asking.

How many TYP do you have?

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:08:20 GMT

mekmek86 wrote:
What's the problem with having a World MC??? I thought it was better than the regular one......

They are "better" in the sense that they have no preset spending limit, and they come with some other benefits.

However, because they have no preset spending limit, most of the time they don't report a CL. This sometimes has the effect of making your utilization look higher than it actually is.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:16:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Loving everything about it. The TYP are racking up fast. Thanks for asking.

How many TYP do you have?

Well, technically right now I have 0, because you don't get your TYP until the charges appear on a statement. My first statement cut only a couple of days after I got the card, so it had a $0 balance.

However, if my next statement were to cut today I would have 21,853 TYP. If you subtract the 15K bonus TYP I'll get for opening the account, that's 6,853 TYP from purchases. I've only had the card for three weeks, and I've charged $1,915 on the card so far.

That's a return of 3.6% at the moment, not even counting the 15K freebie TYP.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:21:44 GMT

Awesome! So what are you going to get? Have you checked out the Thank You site yet?

Are you saving for something specific--they also have a "wish granted" or something to that effect. Not sure how that works but I have always been curious!

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:33:28 GMT

miahmarie wrote:
Awesome! So what are you going to get? Have you checked out the Thank You site yet?

Are you saving for something specific--they also have a "wish granted" or something to that effect. Not sure how that works but I have always been curious!

Not really saving for anything specific at the moment. Typically what I do with points-based programs, though, is save until I have just enough to redeem at the highest rate available through the program, usually for a gift card for some place where I would be spending money anyway (like a gas card, for example). That way, it's really the same as cash back, because I get to keep the cash that I would otherwise be spending for that purchase.

When I first started getting rewards with other cards, I made the mistake of getting a gift card to a store and going to pick out something "special" for myself, but in the end I felt like I'd cheated myself a little bit because I didn't actually "save" anything in the long run. I just ended up getting something that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten.

With the Citi TYP network, the highest redemption rate is 1:1, and that's only for gift cards 10K points and up. There aren't any gas cards available though, so I'm not sure what I'm going to get yet. Maybe a $100 Target gift card for 10K TYP, so I can give the RedCard a break for a couple of months.

I also saw that "your wish fulfilled" thing and wondered how it worked, too!

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

creditninja9000 — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:48:34 GMT

In all honesty, thank you points work a lot better for people with a family of Citi accounts. I had 12000 points and I didn't even know my checking account also accumulated them, I added that to my account and got an additional 9000 points that I may have accumulated over the past couple of years. And, it's only 9000 because I had a basic student checking instead of EZ that would have gotten me two or three times as many points.

Right now, I'm learning that the more you do with Citibank's products, like using your debit card, online bill pay, etc. you get more points per month. So stacking that with using a card that TYP allows them to accumulate even faster. Right now I have a Diamond Preferred Rewards card, which, when it switches to only 1 point per dollar will be pretty lame, and I'm also getting ready to change my Dividend card to an ATT Universal Rewards, it gets rebates on ATT products and 1 TYP for every dollar spent otherwise.

As far as the gifts go, they're more reasonable than what I've seen from other sites and the gifts come faster. I like that TYP are more universal. With Chase's leisure rewards debit card they say you get 4 points for every dollar you spend using the credit option, but for something like a 4GB ipod nano, it costs 80000+ points LOL
So it basically added up to be 200+ dollars for something that should be 149. And as far as I knew, it wasn't like I could combine points from my Freedom and Leisure rewards together to get stuff faster, and most of the gifts sucked.

The gift cards on the Thank You site are a lot better, as long as you're spending 10000 points, the ratio of your reward is usually like 1% of what you spend. But the other thing too is, you get even more bonus points for going through their website portal to shop at other online retailers. I accumulated 300 points after spending about $100 on iTunes in the App Store for the iPhone.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:42:02 GMT

mekmek86 wrote:
In all honesty, thank you points work a lot better for people with a family of Citi accounts. I had 12000 points and I didn't even know my checking account also accumulated them, I added that to my account and got an additional 9000 points that I may have accumulated over the past couple of years. And, it's only 9000 because I had a basic student checking instead of EZ that would have gotten me two or three times as many points.

My Citi Platinum Amex gives 5 TYP per dollar on EDS and 3 TYP per dollar on everything else for the first two years. I don't think having a family of Citi accounts would do anything to improve on that at the moment.

mekmek86 wrote:

Right now, I'm learning that the more you do with Citibank's products, like using your debit card, online bill pay, etc. you get more points per month. So stacking that with using a card that TYP allows them to accumulate even faster. Right now I have a Diamond Preferred Rewards card, which, when it switches to only 1 point per dollar will be pretty lame, and I'm also getting ready to change my Dividend card to an ATT Universal Rewards, it gets rebates on ATT products and 1 TYP for every dollar spent otherwise.

Personally, I refuse to use debit cards or any bank's billpay system, but thanks for the info. I'm sure it will help someone who doesn't have as many hangups as I do.

mekmek86 wrote:

The gift cards on the Thank You site are a lot better, as long as you're spending 10000 points, the ratio of your reward is usually like 1% of what you spend.

Yeah, I noticed that, too. That's why I said above that the best rate you can get on TYP is 1:1 in the form of gift cards in redemptions of 10K TYP or more.

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

creditninja9000 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:55:45 GMT

Eh, I feel like you misunderstood my point. I was simply writing that for the people here like me who don't run thousands through their cards every month or even year (I'm a student), but would still like to be able to obtain worthwhile rewards, more easily when possible. I work in a retail store and I can say that WELL over the majority actually using their debit cards, purchases large and small.

Using more Citi products doesn't increase the points you earn using your credit card, it increases the points you earn through the checking account in addition to those from your CC, separate accounts accumulate their own points that can all get deposited into a TYP piggy-bank lol. And the examples I gave were simply that, examples, you're not required to use them, but doing so gets more points. My main point is that having a family of Citi accounts and using the associated services maximizes the points we could earn by doing the the things we already do, just differently. Before, for me, it was like having a few TYP on the Citi card I just got, then having a few points on my BOA Amex, or a few dollars accumulated toward an Old Navy coupon by my store card, but never having enough to get something that wasn't useless. Having a Citi checking, credit card, and debit card gets me more points that all go to the same place, to get the same types of rewards I would have liked to get using different rewards systems. Now I can get them more frequently.

Last I only stated that account about redeeming rewards because a 1:1 ratio for redemption didn't make sense, even more so because your example didn't follow it. It's either your get back a max of 1% of the points you spend or a 1:100 ratio, which is what your example demonstrated.

Personally, I would agree with you on the bank's billpay system. But I've used it a couple times and actually used it back when I had Clout and 1FBUSA cards that didn't have online payment systems. I have found that they do electronic transfers most of the time. I think it's a good benefit to be able to see a list payee's and whether or not they were paid for the month as opposed to logging into multiple sites multiple times to make sure you're not forgetting one for that month.

Message Edited by mekmek86 on 08-10-2008 07:52 PM

Message Edited by mekmek86 on 08-10-2008 07:55 PM

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:41:48 GMT

mekmek86 wrote:

Last I only stated that account about redeeming rewards because a 1:1 ratio for redemption didn't make sense, even more so because your example didn't follow it. It's either your get back a max of 1% of the points you spend or a 1:100 ratio, which is what your example demonstrated.

Actually, no. It is a widely accepted concept that rewards points are "worth" one cent each. When you can redeem them for one cent, then you are getting a 1:1 redemption rate, which is exactly what my example demonstrated. $100 = 10,000 cents = 10,000 points.

At lesser redemption levels, you don't get a full penny for every point, so you get less than 1:1.

When the subject is redemption rates, rather than the return on purchases, 1:1 is entirely accurate and is actually a quite common way to describe the relative value offered by redemption rules of various points programs.

Message Edited by cheddar on 08-10-2008 09:41 PM

Re: Citibank World Mastercards

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:50:31 GMT

Order # Product Name Qty Points Status Date Shipped
8491655 $100 Toys"R"Us® 3 30,000 Shipped 12/04/2007
5744850 $100 Toys"R"Us® 2 20,000 Shipped 11/30/2006
5261305 $100 Macy's Gift 2 20,000 Shipped 09/11/2006
3626364 $50 Best Buy Gif 1 5,000 Shipped 12/22/2005
1372809 $100 Best Buy Gi 2 20,000 Shipped 09/27/2005

Here is order history with TYP. The Best Buy Gift Card @ $50 was 1.1 back in 2005. But now it is 6,000. So we would wait. But we "liked" to use these puppies at Christmas.

Now all the rewards are on the Wells.....rebates for the mortgage. Which we would pay anyway. So not bad, but this was a great way to save a little extra during the holiday!

TYP ROCK!