Citi extends sign up bonuses on Citi PremierMiles and Citi Rewards cards

30 June was supposed to be D-Day for quite a few credit card sign up bonuses, with more than six different offers set to expire. Now that 1 July’s come, we’re starting to see certain banks extend their offers, with little tweaks here and there.

Citi has been offering sign up bonuses on the Citi PremierMiles Visa and Citi Rewards cards since August 2018 and January 2019 respectively. These offers have been extended several times since their initial launch, and the good news is that Citi has extended them once more.

Citi PremierMiles Visa: Spend $7.5K, Get up to 30K Miles

The latest Citi PremierMiles Visa sign up offer is valid till 31 July 2019, and offers customers up to 30K miles when they spend $7.5K within 3 months of approval.

Here’s how the offer works.

New-to-bank customers

New-to-bank customers (defined as those who do not currently hold a principal Citibank credit card and have not in the past 12 months) have a choice of one of the following options:

The “true” sign up bonus in this case is 11K/6.4K miles, as the base miles and annual fee miles would be due to you anyway for spending/paying the annual fee, even if you weren’t a new-to-bank customer.

If approved for the card, you have until the third calendar month after approval (not including the month of approval) to complete your spending. For example, if you receive approval on 3 June 2019, you need to hit the $7.5K spending by 30 September 2019. Therefore, if you think you need a bit more time to hit the threshold, it’s better to apply early in the month. 

Does PayAll spending count?Here’s a rather vexing question: does spending on Citi’s PayAll service count towards the $7.5K needed for the sign up bonus? Some CSOs say yes, others say no. There hasn’t been an official communication from Citi on this issue, and the T&C are silent. My take is that it’s better to assume it doesn’t, unless Citi tells you explicitly, in writing. However, spending on services like CardUp does count. That’s because CardUp involves an actual transaction through the Visa/Mastercard network, while PayAll does not. PayAll payments and miles are processed internally through Citi on their back-end.

If you apply for a Citi PremierMiles Visa card through SingSaver as a new-to-bank customer, you’ll get $200 of NTUC/Grab/Taka vouchers (existing customers get $30)

Apply for a Citi PremierMiles Visa card (30K offer)
Apply for a Citi PremierMiles Visa card (annual fee waiver offer)

Existing customers

Existing Citibank customers also have a choice of sign up offers for the Citi PremierMiles Visa card. You can (a) opt to have your first year annual fee waived, or (b) pay the annual fee, spend $7.5K in the first 3 months and get:

• 9K base miles on the $7.5K base spend
• 4K bonus miles for meeting the spending threshold
• 10K miles for paying the $192.60 annual fee
• S$100 Kaligo e-voucher

The S$100 Kaligo e-voucher is only valid for stays of a minimum of 2 nights. This offer is valid for applications till 31 July 19, and the full T&C of this offer can be found here.

SingSaver is offering $30 of Grab/NTUC/Taka vouchers for existing Citi customers.

Citi Rewards Visa: Spend $3K, Get up to 22.8K Miles

The latest Citi Rewards sign up offer is valid till 30 Sept 2019, and offers new-to-bank customers up to 22.8K miles when they spend $3K within 3 months of approval. There is no equivalent offer for existing customers.

To max out this offer, be sure to spend the $3K on online merchants, or offline merchants with the following MCCs;

• MCC 5621: Women’s Ready to Wear Store
• MCC 5699: Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessory Shops
• MCC 5631: Women’s Accessory and Specialty Stores
• MCC 5651: Family Clothing Stores
• MCC 5611: Men’s and Boy’s Clothing and Accessories Stores
• MCC 5655: Sports and Riding Apparel Stores
• MCC 5641: Children’s and Infant’s Wear Stores
• MCC 5661: Shoe Stores
• MCC 5948: Luggage and Leather Good Stores
• MCC 5311: Department Stores

This will earn you 30K points on $3K of spend. This, combined with the 27K bonus points, yields a total of 57K points or 22.8K miles.

Although all the publicity materials show the Citi Rewards Visa card, the Citi Rewards Mastercard also offers the same sign up bonus. Pick either one- there’s no real substantive difference in terms of benefits. Remember: the monthly $1K cap on 10X points is applied on a card-level basis, so applying for both cards enables you to double your cap.

The full T&C of this offer can be found here.

Why earn points with Citibank?

Citi points are one of the most useful points currencies in Singapore, thanks to the sheer number of transfer partners available. Most banks offer just KrisFlyer, or at most, Asia Miles. Citi has 12 different transfer partners, including some with great sweet spots like Etihad Guest, British Airways Avios and Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles.

Citi Miles earned on the Citi PremierMiles card do not expire, while Thank You points earned on the Citi Rewards card are valid 5 years from the date of card opening.

The downside is that Citi points do not pool. If you’ve accumulated points on the Citi Prestige or Citi Rewards card, those points won’t be pooled with your Citi PremierMiles Visa and you’ll need to pay a separate conversion fee for each card.

Conclusion

Both the Citi PremierMiles Visa and the Citi Rewards cards are useful additions to anyone’s card strategies. The non-pooling of points is annoying, but the sheer number of transfer partners makes Citi’s currency invaluable for someone wanting to diversify their frequent flyer balance.

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