The Citi Premier® Card is a core card of the Ultimate Citi ThankYou Points Wallet. It offers generous rewards on travel spending, dining and grocery stores. While the Premier offers great rewards, it lacks many of the travel insurance protections common among travel credit cards. The Citi Premier card carries an annual fee of $95.
The Citi Premier® Card offers a long list of 3x bonus categories, including hotels purchases, air travel, restaurants, supermarkets and gas stations. Plus, until 6/30/2024, you can earn 10 total points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions, excluding air travel, booked through the Citi TravelSM portal. The card earns 1 point per dollar spent on other purchases. Points are earned as ThankYou Points, which can be redeemed for cash back or transferred to travel partners for additional value.
The Citi Premier® Card is notably light on the travel benefits that you might expect from a premium travel credit card; it does not include essentials like trip delay protection, auto rental collision damage waiver, or extended warranty benefits. The card does include $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more when you book through thankyou.com.
Citi Premier® Card at a glance
Here’s what you need to know about the Citi Premier® Card.
Rewards
- Restaurants – Earn 3x points
- Supermarkets – Earn 3x points
- Gas stations – Earn 3x points
- Air travel and hotels – Earn 3x points
The Citi Premier® Card’s earns ThankYou Points, which can be redeemed for a variety of redemption options. The two most relevant redemption options for most people will be cash back at 1 cent per point and transfers to travel partners.
Benefits
- Annual $100 hotel credit when booking a $500 stay through thankyou.com
Other important terms
- $95 annual fee
- No foreign transaction fee
Citi Premier® Card welcome bonus
Citi Premier® Card rewards
The Citi Premier® Card earns its rewards as ThankYou Points. The card offers increased earnings in categories targeted to frequent travelers, plus bonus rewards at supermarkets. Here is what the Citi Premier® Card will earn you on your purchases.
Hotels and car rentals booked through Citi Travel: 10x total points on hotels and car rentals booked through Citi travel. Limited time offer ends 6/30/2024
Restaurants: 3x ThankYou Points at restaurants, including cafes, bars, lounges and fast food restaurants.
Supermarkets: 3x ThankYou Points at supermarkets.
Gas – 3x ThankYou Points on purchases at gas stations.
Air travel and hotels – 3x ThankYou Points on purchases at airlines, hotels, and travel agencies.
All other purchases: 1 ThankYou Points per dollar spent.
Citi ThankYou Points can be used for cash back statement credits at 1 cent per point. However, you can often get more value out of your ThankYou points by transferring them to travel partners like airlines and hotels. All the details on the best uses of Citi ThankYou points are in our Guide to ThankYou Points.
Citi ThankYou Points card synergies
When you hold multiple Citi cards that earn ThankYou Points, you can choose to combine your ThankYou Rewards accounts and earn a single pool of points. This feature of the ThankYou Rewards program means that holding multiple Citi ThankYou Points cards will enable you to both earn more points on your purchases and give you more options when you redeem your points.
Here’s a quick overview of how these ThankYou Points synergies work.
Earning ThankYou Points across cards
Citi offers four cards that earn ThankYou Points to new cardmembers. You’ll earn the most points from your spending by using the card that earns the most points for your purchase. For example, at grocery stores, you might choose to use the Citi Premier® Card over the Citi Double Cash because you’ll earn 3 points per dollar rather than 2.
Here’s an overview of how many points the four ThankYou Points cards earn in their respective bonus categories.
| Citi® Double Cash Card | Citi Custom Cash℠ Card | Citi Rewards+® Card | Citi Premier® Card | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  | |
| Restaurants | – | Up to 5x | – | 3x |
| Drugstores | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Gas stations | – | Up to 5x | 2x (on the first $6,000 spent across bonus categories) | 3x |
| Supermarkets | – | Up to 5x | 2x (on the first $6,000 spent across bonus categories) | 3x |
| Streaming (Select providers) | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Travel – Citi Travel Portal | 5x Hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024. | – | 5x Hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024. | 10x Hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024. |
| Travel – Air Travel | – | Up to 5x | – | 3x |
| Travel – Hotels | – | Up to 5x | – | 3x |
| Travel – Cruise line and travel agency | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Select transit | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Home improvement stores | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Fitness clubs | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Live entertainment | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Everywhere else | 2x (1% as you buy, plus 1% as you pay.) | 1x | 1x | 1x |
All of the cards in the table above earn ThankYou® Points, even though some are marketed as cash back cards.
The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card earns 5% cash back in the one eligible category where you spend the most each statement cycle, on up to $500 of spending. Other purchases earn 1%.
Redeeming Citi ThankYou Points with multiple cards
The key to maximizing the value of your ThankYou Point redemptions is holding multiple ThankYou Points cards and earning your ThankYou points in a combined ThankYou Points account. When you combine your ThankYou Points accounts, you get access to the best redemption options available from each of your cards. Here are the ThankYou Points redemption options that vary between cards.
| Citi® Double Cash Card | Citi Custom Cash℠ Card | Citi Rewards+® Card | Citi Premier® Card | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | |
| Cash back rewards (Including statement credits, direct deposit, and check by mail) | 1 cent/point | 1 cent/point | 0.5 cents/point | 1 cent/point |
| Point transfers to airlines and hotels | Select partners only Lower transfer ratios | Select partners only Lower transfer ratios | All transfer partners Best transfer ratios | |
| Redemption bonus | – | – | 10% bonus on up to 100,000 points redeemed per year | – |
The table above doesn’t include some redemption options, like gift cards and pay with points. This is because the redemption options either do not vary across cards (gift cards) or because the value of the redemption is less than the cash back redemption value.
Citi Premier® Card benefits
The Citi Premier® Card is notably light on benefits. The card offers no travel protections, extended warranty, cell phone protection or other benefits common on premium credit cards. Here’s what the Citi Premier® Card offers.
$100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit – Enjoy $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees, through thankyou.com, once per calendar year.
How to apply:
A few notes on applying for Citi credit cards
- Citi has limits on the number of applications you can submit. You can only apply for one personal card every eight days and no more than two cards every rolling 65 days. Business cards are subject to the same eight-day limitation, but you can apply for no more than one business card every 95 days.
- You can get a new customer welcome bonus on Citi cards multiple times, but Citi has rules on how often you can earn a welcome bonus.
- ThankYou Point welcome offers are typically not available if you’ve received a new account bonus on the same card in the past 48 months.
- Welcome bonuses on AAdvantage cards are only available if you have not received a welcome bonus for the same card within the past 48 months.
- There is no limit to the number of Citi cards you can hold.
- You can check your application status on the Citi website or by calling 1-866-606-2787.
Should you keep the card after the first year?
The Citi Premier card has a $95 annual fee. You should only keep a card after the first year if you receive ongoing value in excess of the card’s annual fee. Here are the benefits that might make this card worth keeping after the first year.
- Increased earnings on hotel, air travel, gas station, restaurant and supermarket spending.
- Point transfer opportunities to airlines and hotel partners.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Citi Premier Card offer cash back rewards?
The Citi Premier Card earns its rewards as ThankYou Points.ThankYou Points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards, including cash back and transfers to airline partners.
Does the Citi Premier Card offer travel protection like trip delay insurance?
Unlike many other travel credit cards, the Citi Premier does not offer benefits like trip delay insurance and lost luggage insurance.
