Guide to Citi ThankYou Points

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ThankYou Points is the currency of the ThankYou Rewards program, offered on a handful of cards from Citibank. ThankYou Points is a transferable points currency that can be redeemed for cash back rewards, gift cards and point transfers to travel partners.

Here’s what you need to know and what you can ignore about ThankYou Points.

ThankYou Points at a Glance

Top tips for ThankYou Points

• You can redeem your ThankYou points for 1 cent each toward cash-back redemptions. There is never a reason to redeem for less than 1 cent each. This makes many redemption options (like Shop with Points) irrelevant.
• Transfers to travel partners are the most valuable use of ThankYou points. To transfer points to travel partners, you must hold a Citi Premier card or the (no longer available) Citi Prestige card.
• Getting a Citi Rewards+ card increases the value of your ThankYou points. Redeeming up to 100,000 points a year from a linked ThankYou Points account will get you a 10% point bonus.
• You can share up to 100,000 ThankYou Points each year with anyone you choose. You can also receive up to 100,000 ThankYou Points from others. Shared points expire after 90 days from when they were received.
• Be careful when closing ThankYou points cards if you still have points. Points are tracked by account and expire 60 days after you close that account, even if you have combined ThankYou Points accounts.

Best uses of ThankYou Points

Citi ThankYou points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards. But not all rewards have equal value. For most people, cash back redemptions are the easiest redemptions and transfers to travel partners have the opportunity to add the most value. Here are the only ThankYou Points redemptions worth considering:

• Cash back redemptions
• Gift cards during gift card sales
• Transfers to travel partners

Cash back redemptions

Citi ThankYou Points can easily be redeemed for cash back. And you have three option for redeeming your points for cash back:

• Statement credit
• Direct deposit
• Check by mail

Cash back redemptions for statement credits and direct deposits can be made with as little as one point. A check by mail requires a minimum $5 redemption.

Most of the time, redeeming for either a statement credit or a direct deposit will be best option for you.

Most Citi cards that earn ThankYou points are eligible to redeem points at 1 cent per point, so redeeming 10,000 points will get you a $100 cash back reward. If you hold only a Citi Rewards+ card, you can only redeem your ThankYou Points for 1 cent each toward gift cards. Redemptions of ThankYou Points for cash back rewards are at a value of 0.5 cents each.

If you hold a legacy ThankYou Points card such as the Citi ThankYou Preferred Card (no longer available to new cardmembers) you may only be able to redeem your ThankYou points at half a cent per point (10,000 points gets a $50 reward.)

Gift cards during sales

While gift cards aren’t usually a good use of Citi ThankYou Points, Citi does occasionally offer some gift cards on sales.

If you can get more than 1 cent per point out of a gift card redemption, using your ThankYou Points for gift cards might make sense. But if you’re redeeming your points for 1 cent each toward gift cards, you’re better off simply redeeming for cash.

At the time of writing, several gift cards to popular merchants like Apple, Adidas and Gap, plus “Happy” gift cards, usable at various merchants, were on sale for 10% off. Most gift cards were available in denominations starting at $25. During a sale, 2,250 points can get you a $25 gift card, giving you 1.1 cents per point of value.

Transfer to Travel Partners

Redeeming ThankYou Points for point transfers to travel partners is by far the best opportunity to increase the value of your ThankYou Points. 

If you take the time to search for awards through a travel partner, you may find award travel, a hotel stay or another redemption opportunity that represents good value for your ThankYou Points.

Here’s an example of a flight that I found that represents a better value than a cash redemption. I can book the Lufthansa flight below for 26,000 Avianca LifeMiles and $50.30 ($25.30 in carrier-imposed surcharges, plus a $25 ticketing fee.) If I would otherwise purchase the flight for the cash price of $650, but instead transfer 26,000 ThankYou points and book the flight through LifeMiles, I am getting a value of 2.3 cents per point.

While a point transfer to a travel partner can be a good use of points, we recommend you only transfer points if you have a specific travel redemption in mind. Not all point transfers happen instantly and award travel availability can change all the time. It’s typically not a good idea to transfer points to travel partners speculatively. Also, not all cards offer point transfers to all partners.

Card synergies

Sometimes holding one credit card can make the points you earn from another card more valuable. This is certainly true with Citi ThankYou Points. Holding the Citi Premier card unlocks transfers to most of Citi’s travel partners. And holding the Rewards+ card gives you a bonus 10% on your first 100,000 points of redemptions each year.

Citi Premier Card – Transfers to travel partners

When you hold the Citi Premier card, the points you earn from any ThankYou Points card can be transferred to one of Citi’s travel partners. Transfers to travel partners are by far the best way to get additional value from your ThankYou points. But transferring points to airline partners requires you to book travel through international airline partners that you may not have heard of.

But if you want to learn the how to use the transfer partners offered by Citi, the Premier card can be

Citi Rewards+ Credit Card – 10% bonus on redemptions

The Citi Rewards+ credit card synergizes with other cards by giving you a 10% rebate on your ThankYou Point redemptions. If you’re collecting ThankYou points, this card is an essential addition to your wallet. While the card won’t earn you many ThankYou points on purchases, simply having the card can get you up to 10,000 additional points per year.

If you’ve combined your Citi ThankYou Points accounts, whenever you redeem your points, you’ll receive 10% of the points back in your ThankYou Points account.

The 10% points back bonus applies only to the first 100,000 points you redeem each year, so you’ll earn a maximum of 10,000 additional ThankYou Points annually from the Rewards+ card.

In addition, the Rewards+ card offers the best credit card warranty we know about. You can use the card to get an extra two years of warranty coverage on most things you purchase on the card.

Combining ThankYou points accounts

Citi allows you to combine your ThankYou Points accounts. All you need to do is go to Combine My Account when you are logged in online. When you combine your accounts, you will be able to access all of your points for any redemption option offered by your ThankYou points-earning cards.

For example, if you held both the Citi Double Cash and the Citi Premier Card, you could earn 2% total rewards on all spending with the Citi Double Cash and then transfer those points to travel partners because they Citi Premier card enables point transfers to partners. If you held the Citi Rewards+ card, almost any ThankYou point redemption would trigger that card’s 10% point refund benefit. This means, if you redeemed 100,000 of your Citi Double Cash points for a cash back reward, you would get a 10,000 point refund from your Citi Rewards+.

Point sharing

Citi allows you to share up to 100,000 points annually with any person that has a Citi ThankYou Points credit card. You may also receive up to 100,000 points annually. 

Sharing points typically only makes sense if you are transferring points to someone who is going to then immediately transfer the points to an airline or hotel transfer partner. Points expire 90 days after they are received, so be sure that the person receiving points has a plan to use them before they vanish.

Points sharing is not eligible for the 10% points back reward from the Citi Rewards+ Card.

Redemptions options you can typically ignore

Transferable points programs frequently have redemption options that you should ignore because they offer less value than cash back redemptions. Here are the Citi ThankYou Points redemption options you should ignore.

Gift cards. Other than gift cards that are on sale, this redemption option can be ignored because you will typically get at most 1 cent per point of value. If you can get a $25 cash back redemption or a $25 gift card, it is a better deal to go with the cash back redemption.

Shop with points. Shop with points redemptions will typically only get you 0.8 cents per point of value. For example, 10,000 ThankYou Points is worth $80 toward purchases on Amazon.com. Not only are you getting poor value for your ThankYou rewards, but you are also giving up the credit card rewards you could earn on your purchase.

Travel redemptions. Your ThankYou Points are worth 1 cent per point toward travel redemptions on ThankYou.com. While this isn’t a bad value, you’ll be missing out on rewards you could be earning by purchasing travel on a travel rewards credit card or through a travel portal that offers bonus earnings. You will also likely miss out on the many travel insurance protections available through premium credit cards.

Charitable contributions. Your ThankYou Points are worth 1 cent per point toward contributions to select charities through ThankYou.com. This doesn’t represent any better value than redeeming for a cash reward and doesn’t provide any additional benefit to the charity beyond a normal cash contribution.

Frequently asked questions

Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.