Citi Premier Card review 2024: Low annual fee travel card earns high on everyday expenses

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The Citi Premier® Card * The information for the Citi Premier® Card has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. boasts wide potential to both earn and use your points, especially when transferring points to Citi’s airline loyalty partners for international travel. Read more in our full Citi Premier Card review.

Citi Premier Card basics

• Annual fee: $95.
• Welcome bonus: 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
• Rewards: 3 ThankYou® points per $1 at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. Plus, through June 30, 2024, earn 10 ThankYou points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on the Citi Travel portal.
• APR: 21.24% to 29.24% variable APR on purchases and balance transfers.
• Other perks and benefits: Get $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) each calendar year when booked through Citi’s travel portal.
• Does the issuer offer a preapproval tool? No.
• Recommended credit score: Good to excellent.

Citi Premier Card review

The Citi Premier Card is a strong travel rewards card with a reasonable annual fee of $95 that earns unlimited points on every purchase. With this card, you’ll earn across a wide range of popular categories at a rate of 3 ThankYou® points per $1 at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. Plus, through June 30, 2024, earn 10 ThankYou points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on the Citi Travel portal. There’s also a solid welcome offer of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

Although it does charge a modest $95 annually, there’s a perk that can compensate for it: a $100 annual hotel credit off a single stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through thankyou.com.  

Citi’s ThankYou points can be redeemed for cash back, gift cards, online shopping or travel. Points can also be transferred to one of Citi’s program’s airline or hotel loyalty transfer partners. The redemption value of the points generally range between $0.01 – $0.015 per point, with the best value typically found by transferring your earnings to one of Citi’s transfer partners and booking flights or hotel stays through that loyalty program. Some of these partners include JetBlue, Emirates Skywards, and Choice Privileges. 

Pros

• Generous rewards across a wide swath of everyday categories.
• Annual credit of $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through thankyou.com.
• Unlimited points that never expire as long as your account is open and in good standing.
• A 1:1 points transfer rate at more than a dozen airline partners.

Cons

• There’s an annual fee.
• The best value from your rewards are for those who can take advantage of the point transfer partners.
• No travel protections, such as baggage insurance, trip interruption or car rental coverage.

Citi Premier Card rewards

The Citi Premier Card has a welcome bonus of 3 ThankYou® points per $1 at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. Plus, through June 30, 2024, earn 10 ThankYou points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on the Citi Travel portal. The card earns an unlimited 3 ThankYou® points per $1 at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases. Plus, through June 30, 2024, earn 10 ThankYou points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on the Citi Travel portal.

Citi has several options for redeeming ThankYoupoints, including redeeming points for cash, gift cards, using them at participating online retail partners like Amazon.com or for travel through Citi’s travel site. Citi also allows you to redeem points for $10 worth of purchases at either CVS and Walmart when you use your card to pay.

You can also transfer points to one of Citi’s airline or hotel loyalty transfer partners, which include JetBlue, Emirates Skywards and Choice Privileges. The points have a redemption value of 1 cent to 1.5 cents per point, depending on where and how you choose to redeem them. Generally the best redemption values can be found by transferring points to one of Citi’s travel transfer partners.

Citi Premier Card rewards potential

Using government data and other publicly available information, we estimate that a household in the U.S. that would be in the market for this card has an annual income of $84,352 and $25,087 in expenses they are likely to be able to charge to a credit card. Here’s an example of how you could earn ThankYou points with this card based on typical expenditures annually:

SPENDING CATEGORY	SPENDING AMOUNT	POINTS PER DOLLAR	POINTS EARNED
Groceries	$4,492	3 points	13,576 points
Dining	$3,526	3 points	10,578 points
Travel	$2,941	3 points	8,823 points
Gas	$2,228	3 points	6,684 points
Other	$11,900	1 points	11,900 points
TOTAL	$25,087		51,561 points

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That comes to a grand total of 51,561 ThankYou Points in rewards annually, not including the welcome bonus in the first year. Assuming a redemption value of 1 cent per point, that’s worth around $516 in rewards annually. However, transferring your rewards to one of Citi’s travel transfer partners is likely to yield even greater value. 

How the Citi Premier Card compares to other rewards cards 

Citi Premier Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is comparable to the Citi Premier in that they both have an annual fee of $95 and have similar welcome bonuses, with the Sapphire Preferred offering 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening. Though the Chase Sapphire’s annual $50 Chase Travel hotel credit is less than the Citi Premier’s $100 hotel booking credit, the Sapphire Preferred card offers greater rewards potential for booking travel through the issuer. The Sapphire Preferred earns 5 points per $1 on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3 points per $1 on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), 2 points per $1 on all other travel purchases and 1 point per $1 on all other purchases.

The Chase Ultimate Rewards® points earned on the Sapphire Preferred are worth one cent per point when redeemed for cash back, but worth 1.25 cents when redeemed for travel booked through the issuer. Chase’s travel portal offers a wider range of travel redemption options than Citi and includes car rentals, airfare, hotels and cruises. Additionally, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a generous range of travel benefits that the Citi Premier Card does not, such as trip delay reimbursement, travel accident insurance, baggage delay insurance, and more.

Citi Premier Card vs. American Express® Gold Card

The American Express® Gold Card (terms apply, rates & fees) comes with a higher annual fee ($250) than the Citi Premier, but has the perks to back it up. The Amex Gold Card earns 4 Membership Rewards points per $1 at restaurants, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S., 4 points per $1 at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1 point), 3 points per $1 on flights booked directly with airlines or through American Express travel and 1 point per $1 on other eligible purchases.

The Amex Gold Card comes with an up to $120 annual dining statement credit in $10 monthly increments to be used at participating partners such as GrubHub as well as an up to $120 annual Uber Cash credit in $10 monthly increments. Those perks alone can just about cover the annual cost of the card, if fully maximized. The card must be added to your Uber account to receive this benefit. Enrollment is required for select benefits. 

The American Express Gold also has a welcome offer of 60,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $6,000 on eligible purchases in the first six months of card membership.

Citi Premier Card vs. Citi Double Cash® Card

The no-annual-fee Citi Double Cash® Card has an uncomplicated rewards structure of 2% cash back on purchases — 1% when purchases are made and another 1% when they’re paid off, plus, for a limited time, 5% total cash back on hotel, car rentals and attractions booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through 12/31/24. With no annual fee and no different categories earning at different rates, the Double Cash is a straightforward way to earn rewards on your spending. 

However, there’s one important difference that may be meaningful to you: Although you can transfer rewards to travel loyalty partners with both cards, only the Premier card offers transfers with all of Citi’s eligible partners, while the Double Cash only allows you to transfer rewards to the JetBlue True Blue, Wyndham Rewards and Choice hotel programs and at a lesser rate than the typical 1:1 transfer value of the Citi Premier card.

However, the Citi Double Cash comes with a 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months. After that, the standard variable APR will be 19.24% to 29.24%. An intro balance transfer fee of either $5 or 3%, whichever is greater, applies to transfers completed in the first 4 months. After that, the fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5) making it a good option if you need to move high-interest debt from another card. Ultimately, if you’re seeking a travel card, the Citi Premier has better earning and redemption options than the Citi Double Cash. If simple rewards and an intro APR offer are more meaningful to you, then the Double Cash is the better pick.

The Citi Premier Card is right for you if:

• You want a flexible travel rewards card that’s not tied down to one specific airline or hotel brand.
• If you can take advantage of the annual hotel credit .
• You regularly spend in the restaurant, supermarket, gas station, air travel and hotel categories.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

^{For rates and fees for the American Express® Gold Card please visit this page.}

^{*Blueprint uses credit ranges derived from FICO® Score 8, which is one of many different types of credit scores. If you apply for a credit card, the lender may use a different credit score when considering your application for credit.}