Citi Updates Prestige and Premier Cards with New Spending Bonuses

Citi Updates Prestige and Premier Cards with New Spending Bonuses
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By Mark Jackson on June 04, 2020


The Citi Prestige and Citi Premier credit cards have undergone many changes over the years, including benefits slashed from the Prestige (RIP, American Airlines lounge access). Due to the coronavirus, many credit cards have undergone positive changes, and now Citi is updating its two signature credit card products to compete. Here are the details of the changes.

Citi Prestige and Citi Premier Coronavirus Spending Bonus Changes

Citi Prestige Changes

Citi Prestige credit card

From now until August 31st, 2020, Citi Prestige will offer 5 ThankYou Points per dollar spent in the following categories, up to 7,500 points (which means $1,500 in spending):

  • Retailer Website Orders
  • Online Drug Stores
  • Online Drug Store Orders

We value ThankYou points at 1.5 cents per point, so that’s like 7.5% back on your spending in those categories. The Citi Prestige card already rewards 5 points per dollar on airfare, and 3 points per dollar on hotels and cruises. Citi Prestige’s $250 travel credit is also now temporarily able to be used at grocery stores and restaurants, from May 1st-December 31st, 2020.

Citi Premier Changes

Citi premier credit card

The $95 per year Citi Premier card also made some permanent changes to its spending categories, detailed below:

  • 3 ThankYou Points per dollar spent at supermarkets
  • 3 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on restaurants, including takeout and curbside pickup

You’ll continue to earn 3 points per dollar on flights, hotels, travel agencies, and gas on the card. This now makes this card a strong contender as the best card in its category for spending bonuses. Even with recent changes, I don’t think the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is competitive, except for better transfer partners.

Overall

It’s great to see positive changes made to the Citi Premier and Citi Prestige credit cards. Credit card companies are now making benefits stronger for existing cardmembers to deter the customers they already have from closing their cards. With consumer spending down (and debit card spending up), it’s so important for credit card companies to make their existing customers happy so that they continue using the cards they already have.