Citibank offering up 2 miles per dollar with Citi PayAll (buy miles from 1 cent each)

Citibank has launched a new targeted promotion for Citi PayAll that runs from 26 August 2020 to 28 February 2021. Citibank customers can earn 25-31% more ThankYou points or Citi Miles on PayAll transactions made during this period, subject to a minimum spend. 

Citi PayAll’s Bonus Miles/Points Promotion

This offer is available for the Citi ULTIMA, Citi Prestige, and Citi PremierMiles cardholders. Registration is required, and can be done by sending the following SMS to 72484:

CPABM <space> last 4 digits of your Citi credit card number (e.g CPABM 1234)

Registered cardholders will need to spend at least S$3,000 on Citi PayAll per calendar month for a minimum of 4 months during the 26 August 2020 to 28 February 2021 promotion period. The months do not need to be consecutive; you could qualify by charging S$3,000 in September 2020, October 2020, December 2020, and January 2021, for instance. 

If they meet this requirement, they will receive a bonus on the usual miles/points earned with their Citibank credit card: 

	Base Earn Rate	Bonus Earn Rate	Total Earn Rate
Citi ULTIMA	1.6 mpd	0.4 mpd	2.0 mpd
Citi Prestige	1.3 mpd	0.4 mpd	1.7 mpd
Citi PremierMiles	1.2 mpd	0.3 mpd	1.5 mpd

Bonus miles/points will only be awarded up to S$180,000 of spending during the campaign period, a threshold I think few will breach. The bonus component will be credited to your account within 8 weeks from 28 February 2021. 

The following Citi PayAll transactions will be eligible for this promotion. Remember, Citibank recently added additional payment categories, including insurance and general invoice payments. 

The full T&Cs can be found here. 

What’s the effective cost per mile?

Citi PayAll charges a flat 2% fee for all payments, so the here’s what that means for the effective cost per mile:

	Earn Rate	Cost Per Mile
Citi ULTIMA	1.6 mpd 2.0 mpd	1.25 cents 1 cent
Citi Prestige	1.3 mpd 1.7 mpd	1.54 cents 1.18 cents
Citi PremierMiles	1.2 mpd 1.5 mpd	1.67 cents 1.33 cents

These are extremely competitive prices to buy miles, even with all that’s going on. I’d give it some serious thought, especially if I held an ULTIMA card.

For instance, KrisFlyer miles can be converted into Shangri-La Golden Circle points at a ratio of 12:1. Golden Circle points can be used for F&B credit at a rate of 10 points= US$1 or US$1.25 (for Jade/Diamond members), so long story short…

A Citi ULTIMA member with a Golden Circle Jade membership (it’s free with the AMEX Platinum Charge) could get some good value on dining, albeit in a convoluted way. 

This does not stack with other Citi PayAll promotions

Citibank is currently running two other promotions for Citi PayAll, but neither is stackable with this bonus promotion. 

• Citi PremierMiles cardholders can currently earn 1.5 mpd for Citi PayAll income tax payments made by 31 August 2020
• Citibank customers can earn up to S$250 in CapitaVouchers for scheduling Citi PayAll payments by 30 November 2020

As mentioned, tax payments made with the Citi PremierMiles card up to 31 August 2020 do not count towards the S$3,000 spending, and registration for the promotion automatically renders you ineligible to receive the CapitaVouchers. 

Conclusion

If you have bill payments to make or rent to pay, this offer may be right up your alley. The ability to generate miles from just 1 cent apiece creates some interesting use cases, even in the current COVID-19 situation. 

Once again, this promotion is officially targeted, so if you didn’t get an SMS/eDM but register nonetheless, you run the risk of getting no bonus.