Link: Apply now for the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card
The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (review) is one of the most rewarding mid-range credit cards. While many people might be familiar with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), the Citi Strata Premier is an often overlooked competitor (or complement, depending on how you look at it).
In this post, I wanted to share eight reasons you should get the Citi Strata Premier if you don’t yet have it. In no particular order…
In this post:
70,000 Citi ThankYou bonus points
The Citi Strata Premier Card has an excellent welcome bonus of 70,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within three months.
Personally I value ThankYou points at 1.7 cents each, so to me that bonus is worth an excellent $1,190, making it one of the best credit bonuses out there. Since a lot of people don’t have this card, these are some easy rewards points to rack up.
Those 70,000 points can earn you at least $700 in rewards, or can be converted into airline miles of ThankYou partners at a 1:1 ratio.
See here for the general restrictions on applying for Citi cards, and also be aware of Citi’s 24-month rule.
Reasonable $95 annual fee
We’ve seen quite a bit of inflation when it comes to credit card annual fees in recent years as credit cards have continued to become more rewarding. It’s noteworthy that the Citi Strata Premier Card has an annual fee of just $95 per year, and there’s no cost to add additional authorized users.
There’s a lot of value in having a premium credit card, so paying a fee of under $100 per year is very reasonable, considering how much value you can get with the card.
The best 3x points bonus categories
Among credit cards with annual fees of under $100, the Citi Strata Premier Card almost unarguably offers the best bonus categories. The Citi Strata Premier offers 3x ThankYou points in the following categories:
- Airfare
- Dining
- Gas and EV charging stations
- Supermarkets
- Hotels
Of particular note is earning 3x points on dining, gas, and supermarkets, which for many people covers most everyday expenses. The card also doesn’t have foreign transaction fees, making it a great card for purchases abroad.
10x points on Citi Travel bookings
The Citi Strata Premier Card gives you a major incentive to book travel through the Citi Travel portal. You can earn 10x ThankYou points for hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through cititravel.com. Based on my valuation of points, that’s like a 17% return on that spending.
Now, it’s worth emphasizing that this won’t be for everyone. If you’re staying at a major hotel chain, you typically won’t earn points or receive elite perks on third party bookings. However, for someone who isn’t terribly brand loyal, or if you’re staying at an independent hotel, this could be very rewarding.
Annual $100 hotel credit
Once every calendar year, the Citi Strata Premier Card offers $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees. This is valid when booking through the Citi ThankYou portal. While there may be an opportunity cost to booking this way, many people will find this valuable, and in those cases, this alone can more than justify the annual fee.
Great Citi ThankYou transfer partners
The Citi Strata Premier Card is ideal if you want to earn points that can be transferred to airline partners. These points hold their value quite well, and can give you some amazing premium travel experiences.
For example, Citi ThankYou points can be transferred to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Avianca LifeMiles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Singapore KrisFlyer, Turkish Miles&Smiles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and many more. The opportunities to redeem these points for premium travel are endless.
Best of all, if you have Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, there is some overlap between partners. In many cases, you can transfer points to the same partners from multiple programs.
Maximize the Citi Double Cash
This is arguably the most compelling reason to get the Citi Strata Premier Card. The no annual fee Citi Double Cash® Card (review) is one of the best cards for everyday, non-bonused spending. The card offers 1x ThankYou points when you make a purchase, and 1x ThankYou points when you pay for that purchase, meaning you can earn up to 2x ThankYou points.
Rewards can be combined with those earned on the Citi Strata Premier Card, and you could then transfer those rewards to ThankYou transfer partners. If you have the Citi Strata Premier and Citi Double Cash you’d pay a single $95 annual fee, and you’d earn:
- 3x points on airfare
- 3x points on dining
- 3x points on gas
- 3x points at supermarkets
- 3x points on hotels
- 2x points on all other purchases
That’s incredible, and makes this one of the best credit card duos out there.
Get even more value with the Citi Rewards+ & Citi Custom Cash
There are two other incredible no annual fee complements to the Citi Strata Premier Card — the Citi Rewards+® Card (review) and the Citi Custom Cash® Card (review). Most significantly:
- The Citi Rewards+ offers 10% of your points back for the first 100,000 ThankYou points you redeem every calendar year; this includes ThankYou points earned on other cards, meaning that 2-3x points can potentially earn you the equivalent of 2.2-3.3x points back, when all is said and done
- The Citi Custom Cash offers 5x points on your top eligible spending category every billing cycle (on up to $500 of spending), with categories including drugstores, fitness clubs, gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, live entertainment, restaurants, select streaming services, select transit, and select travel
If you really wanted to maximize rewards, you could pick up all three no annual fee complements to the Citi Strata Premier, though even one or two could get you a long way.
Bottom line
The Citi Strata Premier Card is an excellent credit card that’s all too often overlooked by people. The card has a big welcome bonus, offers some of the best 3x points categories of any card, and perhaps most exciting of all is that this card allows you to really maximize the no annual fee Citi Double Cash Card, which is one of the best cards for everyday spending. The Citi Strata Premier and Citi Double Cash are one of the best card duos out there.
If you have the Citi Strata Premier, what has your experience been with the card?
Instead of an instant approval, they said watch my mailbox. Ten days later, I got a letter asking me to sign IRS form 4506-C - to release my tax records to Citibank.
"If you really wanted to maximize rewards, you could pick up all three no annual fee complements to the Citi Strata Premier, though even one or two could get you a long way."
The real TYP beefcakes are picking up multiple custom cash cards, so that you get 5x in multiple categories or 5x for > $500 in a single month.
Which, yes. You could also get with Citi Prestige, but:
1. This is for $0 AF and
2. They don't offer that card anymore and
3. This is for a lot more potential categories (including groceries)