My Citi Credit Card Strategy (2023)

My Citi Credit Card Strategy (2023)

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There are lots of aspects to maximizing your credit card rewards, including taking advantage of the best welcome bonusesspending categories, and card perks. Admittedly some of us take maximizing credit cards to the extreme, by having dozens of cards.

Sometimes I think it’s interesting to break down a card strategy by issuer, so in this post I wanted to share my current Citi credit card strategy. Citi has several great credit cards, especially those that earn Citi ThankYou points.

Here’s a rundown of what you need to know to be approved for a Citi card, a summary of my strategy, and then which Citi cards I’m most interested in applying for. In separate posts I wrote about my Amex card strategyCapital One card strategy, and Chase card strategy.

How many Citi cards can you have?

There’s no formal limit to how many Citi credit cards you can have. I “only” have three Citi credit cards, though I know plenty of people who have a lot more Citi cards than that. Typically the limiting factor with Citi is the total amount of credit you’ll be extended, rather than the number of cards.

The other big restrictions involve the application process, as I’ll explain below.

Restrictions on applying for Citi cards?

There are a few major restrictions to be aware of when applying for Citi cards…

Citi 8/65 day rule

This is pretty straightforward. Citi will approve you for at most one card every eight days, and at most two cards every 65 days. If you are considering applying for multiple Citi cards, you’ll want to pay close attention to the timing. Note that this doesn’t factor in cards that you apply for with other issuers.

Citi 48-month rule

Citi has the 48-month rule for earning welcome bonuses. If the card you’re applying for mentions the 48-month rule in the application, then you’re not eligible for the bonus on the card if you’ve closed that card in the past 48 months, or have received a new cardmember bonus on that card in the past 48 months.

As you can tell, the timeline here refers specifically to when you earned the bonus on a card, rather than when you applied for the card. Furthermore, it also refers to when you actually closed a card — having a card open doesn’t necessarily make you ineligible to earn the bonus in the future.

Make sure you’re familiar with Citi card application restrictions

Which Citi cards do I have?

At the moment I have the following three Citi credit cards:

I have the first two cards in order to be able to maximize my Citi ThankYou points, while I have the last card for lounge access, so let me discuss that in a bit more detail.

How do I use my Citi cards?

There are two main reasons that I have Citi credit cards:

  • One I have for the ongoing perks that it offers
  • Two I have for the return on spending that they offer

Let me explain why I have the three Citi cards that I do in a bit more detail.

The Citi AAdvantage Executive Card is about lounge access

The Citi AAdvantage Executive Card has a $595 annual fee, and is worth it for the lounge access perks it offers:

  • The primary cardmember receives a full Admirals Club membership, which would ordinarily cost significantly more than the card’s annual fee
  • You can then add authorized users at the cost of $175 total for the first three (so potentially under $60 each), and $175 for each additional after that; they also get Admirals Club access, and are able to bring up to two guests or their immediate family into Admirals Clubs when flying American or an eligible partner airline the same day

As someone who flies American frequently, I find Admirals Club access to be worthwhile, especially at this cost. There are other perks that help justify the cost on this card as well, like the ability to earn up to 20,000 Loyalty Points per year, without spending a dime on the card.

The Citi AAdvantage Executive is the best card for Admirals Club access

The Citi Prestige & Citi Double Cash are about ThankYou points

In general I like to earn transferable points currencies for my credit card spending whenever possible, since they offer the most flexibility. Within each points currency “ecosystem” (whether it’s Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, or Chase Ultimate Rewards), there’s the possibility to build up a portfolio of cards so that you can maximize your points earning.

When it comes to earning Citi ThankYou, I have the Citi Prestige Card and Citi Double Cash Card.

The Citi Prestige Card is no longer open to new applicants, but here are the basics of the card:

  • The card has a $495 annual fee, but offers a $250 annual travel credit, which to me is more or less worth face value; that means the card is really costing me $245 per year
  • The card offers 5x ThankYou points on restaurant purchases, making it one of the best cards for dining; I spend quite a bit on dining, so this is a big category for me
  • Having this card allows you to unlock the full value of the Citi ThankYou program, as you can transfer all Citi ThankYou points to airline & hotel partners if you have this card
The Citi Prestige offers a $250 annual travel credit

Then you have the no annual fee Citi Double Cash Card, which I consider to be one of the best cards for everyday spending. The card offers 1x ThankYou points when you make a purchase, and 1x ThankYou points when you pay for a purchase. Earning a total of 2x ThankYou points after paying your bill is an excellent return on spending, and makes this card a keeper.

Should I replace the Citi Prestige with the Citi Premier?

As mentioned above, the Citi Prestige Card is no longer open to new applicants. The other popular “premium” card earning Citi ThankYou points is the Citi Premier® Card (review). I keep going back and forth as to whether I’m better off with the Citi Premier or Citi Prestige.

For a bit of background on the $95 annual fee Citi Premier Card, which I consider to be incredibly well rounded:

While the Citi Prestige has a $495 annual fee, it also offers a $250 annual travel credit, so I consider the card to really “cost” me $245 per year. That’s $150 more than I’d pay on the Citi Premier. Is that worth it to essentially earn 5x points on dining rather than 3x points? I’ll have to do some number crunching there…

I like earning ThankYou points for airline mileage transfers

Which Citi cards do I most want?

Admittedly I don’t have the most robust portfolio of Citi credit cards (at least compared to the Chase cards I have), but ultimately I can only have so many credit cards across all issuers. There are a couple more Citi credit cards that it would be nice to have:

I actually had the Citi Rewards+ Card in 2020, but the account was closed on me due to lack of activity. Oops.

Bottom line

I currently have three Citi credit cards, which allow me to maximize my Citi ThankYou points and get American Admirals Club access.

I maximize my ThankYou points by having the Citi Prestige Card and Citi Double Cash Card — the former earns me 5x points at restaurants and the latter earns me 2x points on everyday spending.

Then I have the Citi AAdvantage Executive Card, which is ideal for Admirals Club lounge access.

How does this compare to your Citi credit card strategy?

Conversations (14)
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  1. iamhere Guest

    Could you have a summary article of which cards you use for what major categories? Most people are not in the points and miles business and have a simple strategy revolving around a few cards depending on their lifestyle.

  2. Ommpah Guest

    If you are CitiGold you get 145 back per year too on the AA and fhr Prestige cards.

  3. tipsyinmadras Diamond

    Citi cutting all of the travel protection features (rental car coverage, trip/baggage delay insurance) in 2019 made their cards non-starters

  4. Steve Guest

    Apparently I'm the only one on the planet who values the extra two years warranty of the Prestige. Hopefully that means they won't drop it since Citi has paid to fix the family's Apple computers and cellphones more than a few times including replacing the batteries.

    Only insurance you can buy for $100 (I'm grandfathered with an AF of $350) that covers virtually everything you buy.

    1. Ozzi Guest

      Since I was planning to buy Dyson hairdryer and vacuum, I did some research about the cards' extended warranty policy. Just so you know that Citi Premier does provide an extra double years of warranty.

    2. Zzz Guest

      Premier and even rewards+ (last I heard, anyway) have the two year extended warranty benefit, too

  5. Mantis Guest

    No custom cash?
    Prestige definitely not worth it anymore.
    Downgrade your Prestige to Rewards+, then sign up for Premier with SUB.

  6. ECR12 Guest

    5x on the prestige is presumably replacing 4x amex gold for you. Since you value the currencies equally, $150/.017 = $8,832. If you spend $735 a month on dining keep the prestige. It’s an Easy keep for me withou any value accounted for the very rare use of 4th night free.

    1. Zzz Guest

      Prestige is also much better than Amex gold for international dining

    2. tipsyinmadras Diamond

      Amex Gold earns 4x in dining globally

  7. John G Guest

    I wouldn’t cancel the Prestige. 5x on airfare is helpful on a card other than Amex because lots of foreign airlines don’t take Amex- same with restaurants overseas.

    I exclusively use my prestige overseas when dinning. I probably spend $15-20k dinning out a year traveling so up to 100k a year in thank you points justifies the out of pocket cost for the card.

    1. Rick Guest

      I would never use the Prestige for airline travel because the card has zero travel protections. This is why I cancelled the card.

    2. Kyle Guest

      I book pretty much all my airfare with Prestige. Living in the edge I guess.

  8. Ethan Guest

    For me, the 4th night free benefit (twice/year) is the clear reason not to cancel the Prestige or product change to the Premier. You should be able to extract a lot of value from this benefit, Ben.

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

iamhere Guest

Could you have a summary article of which cards you use for what major categories? Most people are not in the points and miles business and have a simple strategy revolving around a few cards depending on their lifestyle.

0
Ommpah Guest

If you are CitiGold you get 145 back per year too on the AA and fhr Prestige cards.

0
tipsyinmadras Diamond

Citi cutting all of the travel protection features (rental car coverage, trip/baggage delay insurance) in 2019 made their cards non-starters

0
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