Citi Rewards+ Review
Update (Apr. 6, 2022) – There’s a new bonus for 20,000 ThankYou points and 5x on travel. Plus a 0% intro APR. Here are the details of this offer:
- Earn 20,000 ThankYou points when you spend $1,500 within your first 3 months or card membership.
- Plus, for a limited time, earn 5X points per dollar spent on air travel and hotels up to $6,000 in your first 12 months (1 point per dollar thereafter).
- 0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months. Then, the variable APR applies. Balance transfer fee of $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
- LEARN MORE
We have seen bonuses as high as 40,000 points in the past. Check out more details about the Citi Rewards+ card below.
HT: DoC
Citi Rewards+ Review (Jan 3, 2019) – Citi announced a new rewards credit card today. The new no-fee card is called the Citi Rewards+ and will offer a simple version of Citi’s ThankYou rewards program, but with a couple of twists.
Earning Rewards
The card offers 2X ThankYou points per dollar spent at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 each year (and 1X point per dollar after that), plus 1X point on every other dollar spent. Nothing groundbreaking, but decent for a no fee card, since it earn ThankYou points.
But there’s more. The card offers a unique option to earn extra points on each purchase. It will round up rewards on each purchase to the nearest 10 points. For example, a $2 purchase will earn 10 points, while a $33 purchase will earn 40 points and so on. This is an interesting option, that makes it a go to card for small purchases. I assume that any purchase under $10 should earn 10 points, even purchases less than $1. Theoretically that gives you 10X or 20X but for very small amounts.
Additionally, card holders will receive a 10% rebate on all redeemed points each year, up to a rebate of 10,000 ThankYou points.
Redeeming Rewards
ThankYou points earned with the Citi Rewards+ can’t be transferred to Citi’s 15 airline frequent flyer partners. The only exception is JetBlue. To transfer to other partners, you need one of the Citi’s premium cards as well, like Premier or Prestige.
While the value of each redemption option hasn’t been announced yet, Citi confirmed that each point will be worth 1¢ when redeemed for gift cards — meaning that 2,500 points are worth $25 in gift cards. Factoring in the 10% redemption rebate, points are effectively worth 1.1¢ each.
That’s not the best value you can get for ThankYou points, but decent if you just need to cash out. The best option should be to transfer them to travel partners if you have Premier or Prestige, but the 10% rebate probably won’t be triggered in that case.
Annual fee
No annual fee.
Guru’s Wrap-Up
Citi Rewards+ is an interesting card with a decent bonus, no annual fee and some unique options such as rounded up rewards and 10% rebate on redeemed points. It might not be worth signing up for it, but hopefully it will be an option to downgrade other Citi cards, once it becomes available on January 10th.
