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MMMondayMemo: Keep your Thank You points alive
Each Monday Miles has decided to drop a tip, hint, tutorial, trick that maybe you’ve missed or haven’t heard before. If you’re an expert in this field, some of these may be things you already know, but there are a lot of beginners out there who are just getting their feet wet. This week the Monkey Miles Monday Memo focuses on Keeping your Thank You points alive.
I recently got a Citi Thank You Prestige. Needless to say I love the benefits and have already recouped the $350 ( reduced from $450 because of Citi Gold) annual fee I paid. The problem I had was that I already had a Citi Thank You Premier card and the annual fee had just hit. I called in to see what my options were and here’s how I ultimately kept my Thank You points alive.
Option 1: Cancel the card…get 60 days
I could cancel the card and transfer all the points to my Citi Prestige account; however, they will expire within 60 days if I don’t transfer them on to partner programs.
I don’t really want to do this because
- I lose the line of credit and it’ll affect my Utilization.
- I want the flexibility going forward to transfer to a program based on need not requirement
*Also…I wasn’t offered any retention offers
Option 2: Keep the card open and pay the annual fee…points stay alive
I don’t want to pay $95 for a card that basically has fewer and redundant features of the Prestige card.
Option 3: Downgrade to a Cit Thank You Preferred…points stay alive
This is what I Ultimately decided to choose:
- Avoid annual fee
- Keep line of credit open
- No new inquiries…or open/closing of accounts to restart clock on Citi Family Cards
- KEEPS MY POINTS ALIVE!!!!!
The winner!!! Downgrade and keep your points alive and flexible!!!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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