Questions and Answers

Late last year, I signed up for the Citi Hilton card and received their 75K bonus and use this card for gas and groceries at 3pt/$1.

I now received an email for a Hilton Amex with a 60K bonus and 5pt/$1 on gas and groceries. I assume I should sign up for this and stop using the Citi card.

Am I missing something with this strategy?

Which Citi card do you have? The Citi card with an annual fee does come with Hilton Gold status while the free Hilton Amex does not though you can achieve Gold status with enough spend on the card. The Hilton Surpass card from Amex also has an annual fee and Gold status.

So it all depends on your travel patterns and your need for HH points. I have the Amex product because I can earn points quickly by using the card at gas stations and grocery stores.

Just keep in mind that for now, sign-up bonuses are once per lifetime at Amex. 60K is pretty good on the free card though.

I currently have the Citi Visa Signature with HHonors, and no annual fee. I travel enough where I earn gold status through my stays.

So Amex as a whole only allows 1 signup bonus, or per each branded card? I also have Amex Delta Gold and Platinum and was able to get the 110K bonus between the two.

It’s one signup bonus per card type per lifetime. So you could get one bonus with the free card and one with the Surpass. Keep in mind that the free cards do incur foreign transaction fees, if that makes a difference.

[QUOTE=”Woodrow, post: 26922, member: 1994″]I currently have the Citi Visa Signature with HHonors, and no annual fee. I travel enough where I earn gold status through my stays.

So Amex as a whole only allows 1 signup bonus, or per each branded card? I also have Amex Delta Gold and Platinum and was able to get the 110K bonus between the two.[/QUOTE]

Citi’s annual fee card comes with annual
Free nights that should more than offset the fee for it. Also the Surpass card pays out higher points per spend which depending upon your spend should aslo offset its annual fee. Bottom line depending upon your spending patterns you should have one or both of the annual fee cards.

Now if you don’t have an Amex currently sing up for the free card, earn the sign up bonus and then Upgrade to the annual fee card and earn that bonus as well. Which cards you keep depends on your spending habits.