Citi Premier Card 80,000-Point Welcome Bonus
It’s the final call for the best-ever intro bonus from one of the top travel credit cards.
New Citi Premier® Card holders can currently earn 80,000 bonus ThankYou® points after spending $4,000 on purchases during the first three months after opening an account. That’s the biggest sign-up bonus this card has ever offered and worth at least $800 in cash-back or gift cards and potentially over $1,400 when redeemed for travel.
Citi ThankYou points are extremely flexible and transfer to 16 travel partners. This gives you the opportunity to boost the value of your points depending on how you spend them and helps make the Citi Premier card well worth the $95 annual fee.
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Citi Premier increased welcome offer
Citi Premier® Card
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Rewards
3X points per $1 spent at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and on hotels and air travel, 1X points on all other purchases
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Welcome bonus
80,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
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Annual fee
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Intro APR
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Regular APR
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Balance transfer fee
5% of each balance transfer, $5 minimum
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Foreign transaction fee
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Credit needed
Pros
- Unlimited 3 points per $1 spent at gas stations
- No foreign transaction fees
Cons
- $95 annual fee
- No special financing offers
The Citi Premier’s increased welcome bonus gives you 80,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
This bonus is worth at least $800 in rewards — and possibly more depending on how you use your points. That’s more than what similar travel credit cards are currently offering, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
This elevated offer won’t last much longer, so here’s what you need to know about the card and its application requirements.
What are 80,000 Citi ThankYou points worth?
In addition to the large welcome bonus, purchases made with the Citi Premier card earn ThankYou points at the following rates:
- 3X points per dollar spent at restaurants
- 3X points per dollar spent at supermarkets
- 3X points per dollar spent at gas stations
- 3X points per dollar spent on air travel
- 3X points per dollar spent on hotels
- 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases
The Citi Premier card also has additional benefits outside of earning loads of ThankYou points. When you book a hotel stay through thankyou.com (Citi’s rewards portal), you can get $100 off a $500 stay once per year. The card also doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees and grants certain World Elite Mastercard perks. Some examples of these perks include a $5 monthly Lyft credit (after taking three rides in a month) and a $5 monthly DoorDash credit through Sept. 30, 2023.
Best ways to use the Citi Premier intro bonus
The value you get for your ThankYou points depends on how you use them.
If you want the easiest way to redeem ThankYou points, you can get one cent per point in value for the following redemptions made through thankyou.com when you have a Citi Premier Card:
- Book travel (hotels, flights, rental cars, activities, etc.)
- Gift cards
- Cash back (statement credit, direct deposit, check)
- Charitable contributions
Citi frequently runs sales for 10% off gift cards, which will net you slightly more value. But other than that, redeeming ThankYou points for cash back gives you the freedom to spend that value however you wish. Since you can get one cent per point in cash, it’s best to avoid redeeming your ThankYou points directly with retailers (such as Amazon), as these shops typically offer less value for your points than what you get with cash back.
For those who want to stretch their points’ value, transferring your ThankYou points to a travel partner is the way to go. Here are a handful of stellar deals you can book with Citi’s travel partners:
- Transfer 15,000 points to Turkish Airlines for a round-trip flight to Hawaii on United Airlines
- Transfer 50,000 points to Virgin Atlantic for a one-way nonstop business-class flight to Europe on Delta Air Lines
- Transfer 7,500 points (or less) to Avianca for one-way short-haul domestic flights on United Airlines
- Transfer 44,000 points to Etihad for a one-way nonstop business-class flight to Casablanca on Royal Air Maroc
These flights would typically cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, but you could book any of them with just the points you could earn from the Citi Premier’s intro bonus.
How to qualify for the Citi Premier’s welcome bonus
You aren’t eligible for the Citi Premier’s bonus offer if you have earned a new cardmember bonus from or closed any of the following cards during the past 24 months:
Bottom line
The Citi Premier is a top travel credit card and it currently has the highest welcome offer we’ve ever seen on the card. If you’re approved for the card, you can earn 80,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
This offering is ending soon, though, so if you’re ready to boost your travel rewards, you’re running out of time to apply for this deal.
Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.
