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Citi Prestige Retention Offer after new benefits

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Citi Prestige Retention Offer after new benefits

I picked up my Citi Prestige last year and have been very pleased with it thus far. When I signed up I was CitiGold ( through a fantastic 50k AA offer) and the fee was reduced to just $350. I weighed the costs and benefits of keeping the card a 2nd year in early June – if you’re weighing the decision it’s worth checking out. With the new benefits just being announced, I didn’t know whether Citi would still offer retention bonuses. I figured I’d wait and confirm my annual fee in one fell swoop. I received an email from Citi yesterday morning confirming the new benefits and called in afterwards to see if I had any retention offers attached to my account. Here’s my Citi Prestige Retention Offer after the new benefits have been announced:

If you’re unfamiliar with the new benefits:

  • New Metal Card
  • 4th Night Free Benefit is Changed
    • Can book online with discount taken at checkout
    • Taxes not included
    • Can still book via Citi Concierge
  • Thank You Cash back increases to $0.01

Annual Fee Confirmation

  • 37 days from the time the fee hits to get the fee back
  • $350 will be my fee because of my Citi Priority Status

Offers:

  • $200 statement credit after $4k each month for 3 months
  • $50 statement credit after $1500 after 7 months
  • 1 point for everything for 6 months max at 50k
  • lower apr 11.74% or balance

I took the extra point for 6 months

Confirming my annual fee of $350 and earning another point on all spend was enough to see the deal for me. This is what my earn structure will look like:

  • 4x points on Air Travel and Hotels
  • 3x points on dining and entertainment ( Freedom is still better)
  • 2x points on everything else

My strategy right now is to keep the card for another year.  At that point, I’ll have gone two years without signing up for any Citi Thank You cards and will be eligible for a new card sign up bonus. Depending on the public offers, I’ll either pull the trigger for Citi Premier, or downgrade the Citi Prestige and reapply.

 

 

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
    • Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
  • 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, 2024
  • $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.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

4 Comments

  • […] announced, but ultimately decided to keep it. The 4th night benefit, annual $250 flight credit, and increased category retention bonus was enough to keep me around for another year. Now, if I was going to keep the card, I wanted the […]

  • cj July 19, 2017

    i called back in march and they gave me 4x extra on travel up to 35,000 bonus points –so i got 7x on travel — point of referrence i spent about 20,000 on the card per year

    i think they base it on your spend

  • Varun July 18, 2017

    I received similar offers, except for the $50 credit one. In place of that I got a 1 extra point/dollar on all travel.

    I tried asking the agent (who was really friendly) about any other offers specific to travel (I was hoping to get a +4x on travel expenses) but no dice.

    I took the 1 extra point/dollar on all transactions. The fourth night benefit is still valuable to me so will take a call next year.

    • Miles July 18, 2017

      Varun – the +4x on travel would have been incredible… thanks for the input!

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