Citi offers welcome bonuses on all of its credit cards that earn ThankYou® Points.
Here are the current welcome bonuses on cards that earn Citi ThankYou® Points. Note that some cards are marketed as “cash back” cards, but all cards on this page earn ThankYou Points.
Citi Double Cash® Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of your Citi Double Cash® card account opening.
This bonus is marketed as cash back, but earned as Citi ThankYou® Points. This card enables cash back redemptions at 1 cent per point.
Annual fee: $0
Citi Custom Cash® Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn $200 in cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
This bonus is marketed as cash back, but earned as Citi ThankYou® Points. This card enables cash back redemptions at 1 cent per point.
Annual fee: $0
Citi Strata℠ Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 20,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months.
This bonus is awarded as ThankYou Points.
If this is your only ThankYou Points card, you won’t be able to redeem your points for cash back at 1 cent per point. Pair this with a Double Cash or Custom Cash for cash back redemptions or a Strata Premier or Strata Elite for point transfer redemptions.
Annual fee: $0
Citi Strata Premier℠ Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months.
This bonus is earned as Citi ThankYou® Points. This card also enables transfers to all of Citi’s travel transfer partners at the most favorable rates.
If this is your only ThankYou® Points card, you won’t be able to redeem your points for cash back at 1 cent per point. Pair this with a Double Cash or Custom Cash for cash back redemptions.
Annual fee: $95
Citi Strata Elite℠ Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months.
This bonus is earned as Citi ThankYou® Points. This card also enables transfers to all of Citi’s travel transfer partners at the most favorable rates.
If this is your only ThankYou® Points card, you won’t be able to redeem your points for cash back at 1 cent per point. Pair this with a Double Cash or Custom Cash for cash back redemptions.
Annual fee: $595
My take: Fair bonuses at every level, but great rewards ecosystem
I’d describe all of the current ThankYou Points cards’ welcome offers as fair, but not terribly exciting. They are competitive with similar standard offers on mainstream rewards cards.
Citi hasn’t been terribly aggressive about marketing limited-time bonuses on these cards, so I’d say that now is as good a time as any to pick up one of these cards.
But you’re probably not getting Citi ThankYou Rewards cards just for the sign-up bonuses. These cards are long-term keeper cards for most, since the ThankYou Rewards ecosystem allows you to earn perhaps more points from spending than Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One Miles or Amex Membership Rewards.
Certainly, I’d keep the three no-annual-fee cards in the long term, and if you have even a passing interest in transferable points, keeping the Strata Premier around will probably pay off more than the annual fee each year. (Personally, I’m highly intrigued by the Strata Elite, but I have so much going on in my miles and points world that I really don’t have the headspace to pick up that card right now.)
Bottom line: The suite of Citi ThankYou Points cards is probably one that you’ll eventually want to have in your wallet, so if you’re in the mood for a new card, getting one of these cards is not a mistake.
Are you eligible to earn these sign-up bonuses?
Citi restricts the ability to receive a new cardmember welcome bonus on its ThankYou® Points cards to one bonus every 48 months. Keep in mind that the terms refer to when you received the bonus, rather than when you earned the bonus or opened the account. Here are the rules:
You are not eligible to receive a new cardmember bonus on a specific card product if any of the following are true:
- You’ve received a new account bonus for the same card product in the past 48 months.
- You’ve received a new account bonus for a different card product that you then converted to the card product you’re applying for in the past 48 months.
So, for example, if you received a new cardmember bonus on a Citi Double Cash last year, and then converted that to a Citi Custom Cash card, you wouldn’t be able to receive a bonus on either the Double Cash or the Custom Cash.
Here are the terms from the Double Cash bonus, which are similar to the 48-month restrictions across all of these cards.
Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi Double Cash account in the past 48 months or if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a new account bonus in the last 48 months into a Citi Double Cash account.
Citi Double Cash® welcome offer terms
