Citi Premier® Card review: Boosted travel rewards for everyday spending

As far as travel cards with a $95 annual fee go, it’s hard to beat the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card when it comes to ongoing value.

The Sapphire Preferred earns an elevated rate of 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, and it offers better travel redemption options — including a 25 percent travel redemption value boost through Chase Travel℠. 

The Preferred card benefits are also more valuable. While the Sapphire Preferred card’s hotel statement credits each account anniversary year (purchased through Chase Travel℠) falls short of the Premier card’s hotel savings benefit, the card stands out for its top-shelf travel insurance and an account anniversary bonus that matches 10 percent of your previous year’s rewards.

However, the Citi Premier’s 3X bonus categories can make a stronger case for everyday spenders. Although the Sapphire Preferred’s 3X points on select streaming services is useful, the Citi Premier’s 3X supermarket category isn’t tethered to online grocery shopping. Many cardholders will also probably find the 3X gas station category more valuable than the Chase card’s streaming service rewards.

With this in mind, the Sapphire Preferred is a much better option for frequent travelers, but the Citi Premier may be more lucrative for cardholders more focused on earning rewards on everyday spending.

If you prefer the Citi Premier card’s previous rewards on transit and entertainment, the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express includes 6 percent cash back on select U.S. streaming services and 3 percent back on transit in addition to its other stellar bonus categories.

The Blue Cash Preferred may also be a more valuable pick if you aren’t planning to take advantage of transfer partners and tend to lean on grocery purchases. In fact, the Blue Cash Preferred’s 6 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets (up to $6,000 per year, then 1 percent) is perhaps the best rewards rate for groceries available. Cash Back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit or at Amazon.com checkout.

The Blue Cash Preferred offers potentially more annual credits as well with up to $84 per year toward Disney Bundle streaming services ($7 per month on a $9.99 or more monthly payment, subject to auto renewal). However, these brand-specific credits may not be as practical as the Citi Premier card’s annual hotel credit.

Depending on your spending habits, the Citi Premier card’s varied category coverage may offset the Blue Cash Preferred card’s supermarket and streaming targets, especially if your dining and travel expenses outweigh your supermarket expenses or your grocery budget well exceeds $6,000 per year.

The most flexible option is probably the Citi Double Cash® Card since you can convert the up to 2 percent cash back (1 percent at purchase, then 1 percent upon payment) on all purchases to ThankYou points. There are no spending caps or bonus categories to worry about.

While the points earned through this card are “basic” Citi ThankYou points, which can’t transfer to travel partners, they’re boosted into "full-fledged" ThankYou rewards when they’re redeemed with your Citi Premier card.

The Citi Custom Cash® Card also happens to be one of the best partners for the Citi Premier. Its unique rewards program earns an incredible 5 percent cash back in your top spending category each billing cycle (up to $500, then 1 percent back). Since it only earns rewards in one of 10 categories, the Citi Premier covers some of the costliest categories — like dining, groceries, gas and travel — and allows you to earn stellar rewards in rarer categories like transit, select streaming services and live entertainment. Additionally as a Special Travel Offer through 6/30/2026, you can earn an additional 4 percent cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal

Even better, because the Citi Custom Cash earns “basic” ThankYou points that can go toward cash back, you can pool your points with the Citi Premier instead and redeem them for a higher value with transfer partners.

If you make a lot of small purchases at supermarkets and gas stations, then the Citi Rewards+ card will also make a great no annual fee partner. It only earns 2X points in these categories on up to $6,000 in purchases each year (then 1X points), but it rounds up all of your rewards to the nearest 10 points on each purchase. Plus, you can get 10 percent points back on the first 100,000 points you redeem each year.

This card is perfect for anyone who doesn't travel frequently and may not be able to rack up a lot of points with bonus travel categories (a common feature on similar travel cards). Instead, you can rest easy that you are earning points on everything from gas to groceries with no spending cap. 

Also, points don't expire. If you make this your primary credit card, you could earn enough by the end of year to help cover any holiday trips or save up your points for a big vacation down the road.

If you already have a Citi rewards card, you may want to consider carrying the Citi Premier. Not only can you pool points to boost your rewards potential, the Citi Premier's ThankYou points allow you to transfer to travel partners. Since some Citi rewards cards don't have this redemption option, adding this card to your wallet can give you more flexibility as well as the possibility to get more value for your points. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

The Citi Premier is a World Elite Mastercard, the network’s highest benefit tier. All World Elite Mastercards come with benefits like World Elite Concierge personalized travel assistance, exclusive hotel and travel discounts and privileges and partner perks like a $5 Lyft credit each month after three rides.

You’ll have the best approval odds if you apply for the Citi Premier Card with a good to excellent credit score (a FICO score of 670 or higher, or a VantageScore of 661 or higher).

You can also use Bankrate’s CardMatch tool to see whether you’ll be pre-approved without a hard credit pull dinging your credit score. 

Unlike some rival travel cards that pose a $95 annual fee, the Citi Premier card is made of plastic instead of metal. The only metal credit card that Citi currently offers is the luxury-level Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®*.

An eye-catching metal design can add to the experience of a premium rewards card, but it’s important not to judge a card by its coating. The value of the Citi Premier’s rewards rates, redemption options and streamlined perks may be worth the weight difference if they fit your needs better than a competing metal card’s features.

*The information about the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

Like many other credit cards’ rewards, ThankYou points earned with your Citi Premier Card don’t expire for the life of your account (meaning until it’s closed).

However, points that you buy directly expire one year after the end of the year (December 31) you received them. Meanwhile, points earned from an eligible Citibank checking account expire three years after the year’s end.* Points shared with you from another person’s account expire much sooner — 90 days after they were shared — so you may want to have a strategy for how to use points received outside your credit card spending. Regularly redeeming them for cash back might be a wise option since they can’t be transferred for max travel value.

*Citibank checking accounts opened on or after July 18, 2022, don’t earn ThankYou points. However, your checking account can still earn points if you opened it before that date.