What was once my favorite credit card seems to no longer be open to new applicants.
In this post:
Citi Prestige closes to new applicants
The $495 annual fee Citi Prestige Card disappeared from the product page on Citi’s website recently. This created a lot of speculation as to whether the card was being discontinued, or what exactly was going on. Well, we now have an official answer.
Citi has confirmed that the Citi Prestige has been removed from the Citi card product offering “for the foreseeable future,” though Citi remains “committed to servicing existing Citi Prestige customers.”
As a Citi spokesperson explains:
For the foreseeable future, the Citi Prestige Card is removed from the Citi card product offering. Citi remains committed to servicing existing Citi Prestige customers and encourages customers interested in applying for a new Citi card to visit CitiCards.com for our full suite of card options, including the Citi Premier Card and the newly launched Citi Custom Cash Card.
What should we make of the Citi Prestige’s disappearance?
Initially when applications were taken down, many wondered if it was just an outage for a few days, which does sometimes happen. While Citi hasn’t confirmed that the card will be discontinued permanently, it’s clear that we’re talking about the card not being available for an extended period of time, at a minimum.
If you ask me, there are a couple of most likely explanations for Citi Prestige applications being taken down:
- The plan could be to discontinue the card permanently, because Citi couldn’t make money on the product, and/or didn’t want to compete in the premium card space
- The plan could be to refresh the card significantly, and the card is closing to new applicants until that happens; we’ve seen major refreshes to both the Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve, which are the biggest competitors
It has seemed pretty clear for a while that Citi has been pushing people towards the Citi Premier® Card (review) over any other product. The card offers some fantastic spending bonuses, and is offering a solid welcome bonus of 60,000 ThankYou points after you spend $4,000 within three months. Plus, for a limited time, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spend on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.
While updates have been made to the Citi Premier in recent years and months, we haven’t seen much movement on the Citi Prestige, which leads me to believe that Citi may have given up on the card a bit.
How I feel as a current Citi Prestige customer
I’ve had the Citi Prestige Card for years. Back in the day it was the single most valuable credit card out there. Why?
The card offered a fourth night free hotel benefit, which worked at virtually all hotels and on virtually all rates, and was even eligible for points accrual with major hotel groups. That benefit alone saved me thousands of dollars per year. Go figure that benefit was cut back significantly in 2019, and I haven’t found value in that perk ever since.
So, why do I continue to have this $495 annual fee card without that perk? The card has a $250 annual travel credit, which is more or less worth face value. The way I view it, the card really costs $245 out of pocket, after subtracting that.
Now the primary perk of the card is earning 5x ThankYou points on dining, which has historically been a big category for me. I’d say that at this point the Citi Prestige is more or less breakeven for me, and I’ve certainly gone back and forth about whether the Citi Premier or Citi Prestige makes more sense. At this point, those without the Citi Prestige have had the decision made for them. 😉
Bottom line
The Citi Prestige Card will no longer be accepting applications from new cardmembers for the foreseeable future, though existing accounts will continue to be serviced.
It’s unclear whether the Citi Prestige will ever make a comeback. It’s possible that the card will be refreshed and relaunched, and it’s possible that the card will just never open to new cardmembers again. Personally I think the latter scenario is most likely, as consumers will instead be encouraged to get the excellent Citi Premier Card.
Even as an existing Citi Prestige cardmember, I’m kind of lukewarm towards the card, so I don’t necessarily view this as a huge loss.
What do you make of the Citi Prestige closing to new applicants?
Citi Prestige is one of the only cards accepted where hospitality suite membership has been canceled with those issued through AX. My tally used as a second cardholder was $940 for 2021. Especially valuable at PDX where can be used in restaurant with to go capabilities. Not planning to give this card up until they drag it out of my hands. Lol Mi
Yeah, well, I have half a million points on the Prestige, so I am keeping the card to keep the points. Also it is $250 in travel credit plus $100 off for Citi Gold so it really is $145.
I was disappointed that this card removed the travel insurance and also altered the travel benefits. I get Covid, but they removed incentives and are charging the same $495 fees. I called them out on it, so they offered to reduce my APR. I just kept it for another year to see if things go back to normal, so I am keeping on eye on things, but if I don’t see improvement, it isn’t worth the $495 annual fee at this point.
I bailed on the Prestige when they dumped the travel insurance and changed the 4th night. Signed up for CSR and haven’t looked back, although I’m starting to wonder with the fee increases (and decrease in travel) if any of these cards are worth what they’re charging.
I wonder how many existing customers they actually have. I bailed when they removed all the travel insurance coverages.
I use Amex or Chase for travel insurance coverages.
Citi still has extended warranties and good x5.
Covid made me missed out on 4th night benefit for 2 years in a row so that's a big negative.
But with CSR, Amex Plat, Prestige in my wallet. I'm keen on downgrading to CSP than the Premier.
Eh. Another day, another death spiral at Citi. They shut down most of their APAC banks, they never invested in their IT to make investment accounts show up consistently in the app. Their phone tree is a case study in customer avoidance. Heck, when the entire brokerage industry went $0 fees, they apparently missed the memo and only offered it to clients with $1M+ assets.
Whatever, I’m spending down my TYP balance and I’m out.
I doubt if they’re discontinuing the Citi Prestige entirely . They updated the design of the card, atleast for those who have it on apple pay to look a lot more like the newer designs of their other cards like the premier, rewards+ and custom cash.
I dont see why they would do a redesign and then discontinue the card. Im guessing an overhaul is coming in a while, and possibly a fee increase too.
The limitation of the 4th night free to twice and the elimination of the 1.25 booking through citi in April, really cut the appeal. I plan to use it until Jan, get the $250 credit, and cancel or change.
Value proposition really improves if you are Citigold. Fee is only $350 a year. $250 is straight cash back with travel credit so for $100 you get 5x points on travel and dining, cell phone protection, the normal suite of premium travel access (priority pass, global entry fee…). Plus with Rewards+ those 5x categories are really 5.5x.
I know the customer service is probably the weakest of the big three credit card issuers (Amex,...
Value proposition really improves if you are Citigold. Fee is only $350 a year. $250 is straight cash back with travel credit so for $100 you get 5x points on travel and dining, cell phone protection, the normal suite of premium travel access (priority pass, global entry fee…). Plus with Rewards+ those 5x categories are really 5.5x.
I know the customer service is probably the weakest of the big three credit card issuers (Amex, chase, Citi), but with the custom cash making grocery a 5x (or 5.5x) category I actually find Citi has best value for me by far (at least as long as I can hold onto my prestige).
If Citi is really shutting down the Prestige card, they may just remove $250 travel credit as well. They have removed so many of the perks in the past.
Citi Prestige was the card that got me started on points/mules and premium cards. Now with 4 premium cards I couldn't justify the high annual fee any longer. Recently downgraded to the Citi Premier. In addition to 4th night free which I saved probably $3k with over the first couple years, I got several hundred benefit from the now defunct Citi Price Rewind feature.
RIP Citi Prestige
One of the most valuable and unsung benefits of this card is that it extends warranties 2 years on all purchases (even if the item only had a 30 day or short warranty to begin with). Most cards only double the warranty up to 1 year. That perk in itself is worth the annual fee to me.
The Citi Premier and AT&T Access (and I think the AA co-brand cards) all also provide the 2 year extended warranty for a much lower (or no) AF.
I applied for the card in December and still find it tremendously valuable. Even with the 4th night free perk being devalued to twice a year and no longer being able to earn hotel points, I'd still say it's among the most valuable credit card perks. No matter what promotion a hotel loyalty program is running and what other co-brand card you might pay with, I can't imagine very many situations where the points you...
I applied for the card in December and still find it tremendously valuable. Even with the 4th night free perk being devalued to twice a year and no longer being able to earn hotel points, I'd still say it's among the most valuable credit card perks. No matter what promotion a hotel loyalty program is running and what other co-brand card you might pay with, I can't imagine very many situations where the points you earn would be worth more than just straight up getting hundreds of dollars off a hotel stay.
Yes if you stay at high priced hotels, it's still a very valuable benefit.
For the past year, retentions had offered nothing to people who called, they were very quick to close the card. It's been clear it's a dead card for awhile
In addition to the $250 travel credit, CitiGold and Private Client get $100 off the AF. That makes the math work out better, I think if not for that I’d probably ditch it.
Finally. It took OMAAT almost 3 weeks to cover this, despite this question has been raised several times here.
For a Citi credit card affiliated blog, this silence is way too long.
However, I do appreciate the (late) coverage of this topic especially your opinion as a card member yourself.
I personally think Citi will be coming out with a new $500+ AF card (invite only?). What will they call it or will...
Finally. It took OMAAT almost 3 weeks to cover this, despite this question has been raised several times here.
For a Citi credit card affiliated blog, this silence is way too long.
However, I do appreciate the (late) coverage of this topic especially your opinion as a card member yourself.
I personally think Citi will be coming out with a new $500+ AF card (invite only?). What will they call it or will Prestige holders get converted or get to keep the old card is TBD.
Remember Prestige got converted from the Chairman card.
Funny enough, I think the Chairman card also lasted 7-8 years. Maybe Citi will 'refresh' their cards every 8 years?
I have to believe that this is a restart moment. With CC debt going way down across the country the past year these companies are chomping to add more card members (why we are seeing such incredible sign up bonuses). I've been using Citi Prestige for years and am lazy....so I'm hoping this is the case...rolling out a new and improved.
Feels like Citi gave up on this card years ago
I guess the way to go with Citi these days is to pair the Premier with the Custom Cash (and to use the latter mostly for restaurant spend each month to get the 5X you'd have gotten with the Prestige before transferring over the cashback to become ThankYou points in the Premier account).
I had it back when it first came out and the benefits really were great. It made me think that those level of perks were not sustainable.
Once the benefits were gutted, it really wasn’t worth it anymore. I product changed to Rewards plus and then applied for the Premier.
Even with the changes to the fourth night free, I've still made use of the fourth night free at boutique hotels or foreign hotel brands (mostly in Europe) at least once or twice a year.
I just got the Citi Double Cash (after being denied last year due to too much available credit with Citi), this year they upped the max exposure so I finally got it even with a sub $10k credit line. I'd...
Even with the changes to the fourth night free, I've still made use of the fourth night free at boutique hotels or foreign hotel brands (mostly in Europe) at least once or twice a year.
I just got the Citi Double Cash (after being denied last year due to too much available credit with Citi), this year they upped the max exposure so I finally got it even with a sub $10k credit line. I'd be upset if I had to do another card shuffle over this. I spend a lot of money on travel and dining and right now I find thank you points to be the most valuable for me (for reasons I care not to explain on a public forum.. that's how things get killed)