Instead of just applying for credit cards without reason, a majority of people in the credit card community like to have a system, and apply for cards very methodically. The most important cards are the system that you use to make your everyday purchases. These purchases overtime will add up to a great deal of money or points that makes it very rewarding.
The worst thing is when credit card issuers offer the same rewards on different cards, which makes it difficult to justify holding on to the different tiers of cards. Of course, you want to earn the most reward points in that category, right? Of course! Citi is making a few changes to a couple of their cards that may make you rethink your setup.
The News
If you happen to have, or have been interested in opening up a Citi Premier or a Citi Preferred card, you’re in for some news. Starting August 23rd, the reward structure of both of these cards will change.
Citi Premier: $95 annual fee
Starting August 23rd, the Citi Premier will change its reward categories to such:
- 3x: Air travel, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations
- 1x: everywhere else
In addition to the reward category changes there are some other changes as well. There will no longer be a 25% bonus when redeeming points through Citi’s travel portal (April 10th for existing, August 23rd for new customers)
Finally, there will be a $100 credit once a calendar year for booking a hotel room of $500+ on ThankYou.com
Citi Preferred: $0 annual fee
Starting August 23rd, the Citi Preferred will change its reward categories to such:
- 2x: cable and streaming, live entertainment, restaurants
- 1x: everywhere else
Final Thoughts
These are some pretty big changes coming to the Citi Premier card. Citi was one of the only credit card issuers offering a reward category for live entertainment, so its sad to see it go. Additionally, it sucks that we are also losing “other travel” as a 3x category – nice to see that gas is still staying as 3x though. On the plus side, if you book a $500+ hotel room at least once a year, this is a way to “eliminate” the $95 annual fee on this card. On the Citi Preferred’s side of things, this is only positive change as more things will qualify for the 2x category.
Overall, I’m pretty sad to see that entertainment will no longer be a category as Citi has historically been the only major company offering that as a reward category. Still, this could still be a pretty valuable card if you have that hotel booking once a year. If you’ve traditionally used other cards, such as hotel cards to book these, then you’ll have to do the math to see which card is worth using for your bookings.
What do you think about these changes? Are you more or less likely to get/use the card now? Let us know down in the comment section below.
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