There are lots of aspects to maximizing your credit card rewards, including taking advantage of the best welcome bonuses, spending 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 strategy, Capital One card strategy, and Chase card strategy.
In this post:
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 received a bonus 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. It’s fine if you’re a previous cardmember of a product, but you just can’t have earned a bonus within the past 48 months.
Which Citi cards do I have?
At the moment I have the following three Citi credit cards:
- The Citi Double Cash® Card (review)
- The Citi Prestige Card (review)
- The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review)
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. Given the cost for authorized users, I have three authorized users on my account, so they can get lounge access as well, and find this to be one of the best value cards for authorized users.
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 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 card continues to offer a Priority Pass membership with credits at Priority Pass restaurants, which most other cards with Priority Pass memberships don’t offer
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.
Now, in all honesty, I don’t actually use the card for my everyday spending at the moment, as I instead direct that spending to the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review). However, there’s no reason to cancel the Citi Double Cash — it has no annual fee, and holding onto cards can help your credit score, by increasing your average age of accounts, and lowering your overall credit utilization.
Should I replace the Citi Prestige with the Citi Strata 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 Strata Premier℠ Card (review). I keep going back and forth as to whether I’m better off with the Citi Strata Premier or Citi Prestige.
For a bit of background on the $95 annual fee Citi Strata Premier Card, which I consider to be incredibly well rounded:
- The Citi Strata Premier has a generous welcome bonus
- The Citi Strata Premier has great bonus categories, as it offers 3x points on dining, gas and EV charging, groceries, airfare, and hotels
- The Citi Strata Premier offers a $100 annual hotel credit, which in and of itself could cover the card’s annual fee
- The Citi Strata Premier earns the same “premium” ThankYou points as the Citi Prestige, which can be transfered to airline & hotel partners
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 Strata Premier. Is that worth it to essentially earn 5x points on dining rather than 3x points, plus credits at Priority Pass restaurants? The answer is probably “yes” for now, but if the card cuts credits at Priority Pass restaurants, then it might be a different story.
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:
- The no annual fee Citi Rewards+® Card (review) interests me because it has an innovative “rounding up” feature on spending, and the card also offers a 10% rebate on redemptions, which can net you up to 10,000 ThankYou bonus points per year
- The no annual fee Citi Custom Cash® Card (review) offers 5x points on your top eligible spending category each billing cycle, on up to $500 of spending per billing cycle; potential categories include drugstores, fitness centers, gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, live entertainment, restaurants, select streaming services, select transit, and select travel
I actually had the Citi Rewards+ Card in 2020, but the account was closed on me due to lack of activity. Oops. While these cards would marginally help me optimize points, the reality is that I probably put enough effort into maximizing my spending, and they might be more trouble than they’re worth.
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?
I'm actually interested in the Citi ShopYourWay card. The spend categories and SUB aren't super exciting, but the targeted cash back offers are stellar. Figure I'll try my luck and worst case downgrade to another Custom Cash
I often wonder why a credit card issuer worked so hard and spend so lavishly to acquire new card members and then incentivize them heavily (by offering multiple x's points for certain category) to use the card frequently so that their credit card(s) occupy the "top of the wallet" status only for the same card issuer to make it TOUGH to use their cards overseas. This is my experience with Citi. I love the Citi...
I often wonder why a credit card issuer worked so hard and spend so lavishly to acquire new card members and then incentivize them heavily (by offering multiple x's points for certain category) to use the card frequently so that their credit card(s) occupy the "top of the wallet" status only for the same card issuer to make it TOUGH to use their cards overseas. This is my experience with Citi. I love the Citi Premier card because it offers 3x points on stuff I spend the most (travel, food, groceries) but whenever I bring the card overseas ALWAYS failed to work for charges >USD 100. I have set up travel notifications both thru the app and via live agent yet the card NEVER FAILS to decline whenever I attempt to charge something bigger than approx USD 100 in a single transaction. This is so maddening that I finally gave up using the Citi Premier entirely.
I still find the Prestige well worth it. Based on your own points valuations, for a card that essentially cost $245 if you spend at least ~$14,412 per year on dining you'll come out ahead over the next best card (you say you spend a lot on dining, although I don't know if you spend that much), not even considering that you'd be paying more in annual fees anyway if you downgrade to the strata...
I still find the Prestige well worth it. Based on your own points valuations, for a card that essentially cost $245 if you spend at least ~$14,412 per year on dining you'll come out ahead over the next best card (you say you spend a lot on dining, although I don't know if you spend that much), not even considering that you'd be paying more in annual fees anyway if you downgrade to the strata premier and pick up the AmEx Gold . Beyond that, the priority pass restaurants are hugely valuable to me, I probably get hundreds of dollars of value from that per year. Finally, although people who have been in this game a long time have lamented the weakening of the 4th night free benefit, I still find it very useful for inexpensive stays where giving up points with a hotel program isn't a huge concern for me. It may not be the jaw-dropping, save 1000's of dollars perk it once was, but I find it still helps me chip away at the annual fee significantly.
Ben, off topic, sorry. What Marriott lifetime status do you have?
With three or four wisely chosen cards, a person will likely capture about 95 percent of the points theoretically possible given the person's spending pattern. The incremental benefit of adding another card to the mix only adds about 1.5 percent. The next card even less. The juice ain't worth the squeeze.
How did you come up with 1.5%?
Many, many, many, many card combinations.
Citi has provided almost $400 billion in fossil fuel financing since the signing of the Paris Agreement. It’s the #2 bank for fossil fuel financing in the world. If you hold a Citi card, your money is funding a rapidly accelerating climate crisis.
Good to know, Ill double my spending on it. Thanks for the info
Me too
Go right ahead, and show your entitled attitude and science illiteracy in the process.
Go right ahead, and show your entitled attitude and science illiteracy in the process.
LOL, science illiteracy.
Your fart is also rapidly accelerating climate crisis.
You should never go near Starbucks ever again.
And stop paying tax too. Your tax money is funding all crazy stuff including Citibank.
Ouch!?
Have fun causing death and destruction with that bad attitude, ha!
Matthew, I get where you are coming from but with your attitude about it all then you should not even be on this blog because it is all about using your points for flights and hotel stays and not even including how it talks about the great cards Citi provides which you are against. Yes, the environment is important, but not the way you are going about it and hopefully you are not a part...
Matthew, I get where you are coming from but with your attitude about it all then you should not even be on this blog because it is all about using your points for flights and hotel stays and not even including how it talks about the great cards Citi provides which you are against. Yes, the environment is important, but not the way you are going about it and hopefully you are not a part of the group Extinct Rebellion. Do you own a car? Do you take flights? If so, do you carbon offset? Do you carpool? You should not own a car and take the bus or take the subway instead.
The “you’re a hypocrite” argument is a distraction from the hard work that needs to be done to ensure a healthy climate for everyone.
Ben: These are the three cards I have as well, but you've left out two more things I find genuinely useful. First, 4x AA miles on AA ticket purchases with the Exec card is great since nobody transfers to AA anymore (and 5x with the Amex Plat did zippo for me); and second, fourth-night free on independent hotels booked through Citi's portal is great since even after their absurd mark-up it's still a discount with...
Ben: These are the three cards I have as well, but you've left out two more things I find genuinely useful. First, 4x AA miles on AA ticket purchases with the Exec card is great since nobody transfers to AA anymore (and 5x with the Amex Plat did zippo for me); and second, fourth-night free on independent hotels booked through Citi's portal is great since even after their absurd mark-up it's still a discount with 10x Citi points on the spend besides. Every situation is different, I suppose, and for me with a cancelled Amex Plat, the 5x on airfare spend is useful.
I'm surprised you don't place some value on the Citi Prestige extended 2 year warranty. The added coverage for just our family's Apple products has more than justified the annual fee since Citi will cover battery replacement and phone/computer/iPads almost always need new ones at around 3-5 years.
I believe most citi cards offer this, not just the prestige. That said, the prestige is the greatest credit card ever created and getting rid of it would be a huge mistake IMO.