Citi Rewards Visa to be discontinued on 15 October 2026

In 2015, Citi signed an expanded agreement with Mastercard to progressively migrate the majority of its credit and debit card portfolios to the Mastercard network.

Since then, its Visa cards have been living on borrowed time. It took a while, but in March 2020, all newly-issued cards under the Cash Back, PremierMiles and Rewards product lines made the switch to Mastercard.

Existing Visa cardholders were unaffected initially, resulting in an odd — though sometimes beneficial — situation where customers could hold both the Visa and Mastercard versions of the same product.

But Citi has now entered the final stages of phasing out its remaining Visa cards. The Citi PremierMiles Visa was retired at the start of 2026, and now it’s the Citi Rewards Visa’s turn to bow out.

Citi Rewards Visa announces 15 October retirement date

Citi Rewards Visa cardholders have been notified that their cards will be discontinued on 15 October 2026.

With the growth of our partnership with Mastercard, we are progressively converting the Citi Rewards Visa Card to the Citi Rewards Mastercard.

As you already have the Citi Rewards Mastercard, your Citi Mastercard will continue to offer you Citi Rewards card benefits, while your Citi Visa Card will be discontinued. The last day you will be able to use your Citi Visa Card will be 14 October 2026.

-Citibank

From this date, cardholders will no longer be able to make transactions with their Citi Rewards Visa, and any recurring payment arrangements will be cancelled — so take care if this is your card-on-file for telco or other subscriptions.

Any existing Citi PayAll arrangements will be transferred to your Citi Rewards Mastercard. That said, there’s really no reason why you’d have a PayAll arrangement on the Citi Rewards Card to begin with, given that the most recent offers have discounted the admin fee instead of boosting the earn rate, making it a very unattractive option.

If you paid the annual fee on your Citi Rewards Visa — why? — a pro-rated amount will be credited to your Citi Rewards Mastercard within three weeks from 14 October 2026. 

How are ThankYou points handled?

While you cannot make any transactions after 14 October 2026, it is possible that transactions made on or before this date only post from 15 October 2026 onwards. In that case, you still have to make payment for them — but you won’t earn any ThankYou points.

Given that transactions can take up to a week to post, it’s advisable to stop using your card by early October.

On 15 October 2026, all Citi ThankYou Points from the Citi Rewards Visa will be transferred to the Citi Rewards Mastercard. They will have the same points validity period as the ThankYou Points on the Citi Rewards Mastercard. 

Remember: Citi ThankYou Points earned on the Citi Rewards Card are valid for five years (plus a further three-month grace period) from the date of card approval or renewal, not from the date the points are earned!

Other FAQs

Citi has published a list of FAQs regarding the discontinuation, which can be found here.

Why does this matter?

While I’m not going to say it never happens, it’s rare that you’ll find a place which accepts Mastercard but not Visa (or vice versa). Therefore, cardholders should be fairly indifferent about the switch…right?

Maybe in the case of the Citi PremierMiles Card, but definitely not for the Citi Rewards Card. Cardholders earn 4 mpd on all online transactions (except travel and in-app mobile wallet payments), capped at S$1,000 per statement month — and both the Visa and Mastercard have their own bonus cap.

Therefore, by holding both, you could earn up to 96,000 miles a year (S$1,000 x 4 mpd x 12 months x 2 cards), which many cardholders did indeed. Sure, you’d have to pay two separate conversion fees when transferring points, due to Citi’s stubborn refusal to pool points, but that was a relatively minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. 

With the OCBC Titanium Rewards also combining its Blue and Pink cards into a single product in 2024, the discontinuation of the Citi Rewards Visa marks the end of the “one product, two bonus caps” hack in Singapore.

Conclusion

The Citi Rewards Visa has set its swansong for 15 October 2026, which will end the possibility of “dual wielding” both Visa and Mastercard versions for the additional bonus cap.

I’m sad to see this happen, but I suppose it was always an inevitability once Citi decided to go exclusive with Mastercard. I’m old enough to remember the days when the Citi Rewards Mastercard was the true oddfellow of the dynamic duo — and now it’s the sole survivor!