Are You Eligible For The Citi Strata Premier Card?

Link: Apply now for the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (review) is currently offering an excellent welcome bonus, which is quite lucrative. The card is offering a bonus of 70,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within the first three months.

There are many reasons to get this rewards card, from the 3x points bonus categories, to the $100 annual hotel credit, to the overall value of the Citi ThankYou ecosystem.

Understandably there’s often some confusion about eligibility for the Citi Strata Premier Card, so I wanted to address that in this post, in hopes of maximizing odds of people getting approved.

Citi Strata Premier Card eligibility requirements

There are often questions about what it takes to get approved for the Citi Strata Premier Card, so in this post, I wanted to share the three main things to consider before applying for the card, to try and figure out if you’re eligible. Credit card issuers have all kinds of rules when it comes to approving people for cards, so let’s go over some of those.

Are you under Citi’s 8/65 limit?

Citi will generally approve cardmembers for at most one Citi card every eight days, and at most two Citi cards every 65 days. This is a rolling limit, so just make sure you observe that. This is specific to Citi cards — applying for cards with other issuers won’t count toward that limit.

Are you eligible for the welcome bonus (48-month rule)?

The welcome bonus on the Citi Strata Premier Card isn’t available to you if you’ve received a welcome bonus on this exact card or the Citi Premier Card (which is the predecessor to this card) within the past 48 months:

• Eligibility for the bonus is unrelated to having received a bonus on any other Citi card, with the exception of the Citi Premier Card
• The 48 months is based on when you received the bonus on a card, rather than based on when you opened the card

So as you can see, you are potentially eligible for the bonus on the card even if you’ve received a bonus on the card in the past.

What credit score do you need for the Citi Strata Premier Card?

There’s not a consistent rule as to what credit score you need in order to be approved for the Citi Strata Premier Card, as credit score is one of only many considerations when being approved for a card. In general, I’d recommend having a credit score in the “good” to “excellent” category if you’re going to apply for this card.

Personally, I probably wouldn’t apply if my credit score were under 700, and ideally, I’d hope to have a credit score of 740 or higher. That being said, people with scores lower than that have been approved, and conversely, people with scores higher than that have been rejected. There are lots of factors that go into approval — your income, your credit history, how much credit Citi has already extended you, etc.

Citi Strata Premier Card approval FAQs

To answer a few more of the frequently asked questions when it comes to Citi Strata Premier Card approval…

Is it hard to get approved for the Citi Strata Premier?

Among mid-range credit cards, I find the Citi Strata Premier to be one of the easier cards to be approved for. Of course this assumes you have good credit, including a good amount of credit history, and meet the eligibility requirements. But anecdotally I’ve found that people have better luck getting approved for this card than the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), for example.

How long does it take to get approved for the Citi Strata Premier?

Approvals on Citi credit cards can be instant, and you’ll often find that to be the case. However, in some situations a manual review may be needed, so don’t worry if you get a message stating that your application requires further processing time — it doesn’t mean you’ll be rejected. You can generally expect that you’ll get a final decision within a week or so of applying.

Which credit bureau does Citi pull from?

If you apply for the Citi Strata Premier, there’s not a single credit bureau that Citi always pulls from. It could be Equifax, Experian, or Transunion, depending on a variety of factors.

Is it bad for your credit score if you get denied for the Citi Strata Premier?

What are the negative impacts of applying for a credit card and getting denied? The only downside is that there’s a new inquiry on your credit file, which could temporarily ding your score by a few points. While everyone’s situation is different, personally, I wouldn’t consider that to be a big issue, as losing a few points temporarily shouldn’t have major implications.

Meanwhile getting approved for the card and using it responsibly could have a very positive impact on your credit score, by improving your total available credit, history of on-time payments, credit utilization, etc.

If you get denied for the Citi Strata Premier, can you apply again?

Yes, you can. If you’ve been denied for the Citi Strata Premier in the past, you could apply again. Just because you get denied once doesn’t mean you’ll be denied again, especially if aspects of your credit worthiness have improved (for example, if your credit score went up, the number of cards you opened in the past two years went down, etc.).

However, I’d wait six months (or so) between applications, and make sure that something has changed (for the better) about your credit situation.

Bottom line

The Citi Strata Premier Card is offering a great welcome bonus of 70,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within the first three months. This is an excellent bonus, and anyone who is eligible should seriously consider applying, in my opinion.

Fortunately the Citi Strata Premier Card shouldn’t be too tough to get approved for — just make sure you have a good credit score and are familiar with Citi’s eligibility requirements.

If you’ve applied for the Citi Strata Premier Card, what was your experience like?