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MMMondayMemo: Citi’s 24 month language
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 Citi’s 24 month language
Why are we talking about Citi’s 24 month language?
Over the weekend I applied for a CitiBusiness Aadvantage Platinum card without the 24 month language. What I found was that quite a few people didn’t realize why it was such a great deal. It was offering 50k after $3k spend, but that’s not the allure. The allure was the removal of a very restrictive policy Citi has employed around the “24 month language.” So let’s take a moment to look at that language and why this deal is attractive…
What is Citi’s 24 month language?
It limits your ability to earn a bonus if you have opened or closed any card in the last 24 months that would earn the same type of bonus points earned off your new card application.
Here is a screen cap from the Aadvantage Platinum Select card. As you can see in the last line it says ” bonus miles are not available if you have had an —- opened or closed in the past 24 months.
The language is also in the Citi Thank You based cards.
It’s not if you’ve earned a bonus of this specific card/product – Citi has created a once in a ‘card family’ bonus every 24 months ( from opening or closing)
If you’ve recently been approved for a Citi Prestige…you can still get a Citi Premier, but you won’t get the signup bonus. If you got an Aadvantage Platinum bonus, you won’t get an Executive bonus, and so on and so forth.
This differs from Chase’s 24 month policy because it includes closing cards as well
If you picked up a Thank You Points earning card 3 years ago and just closed it today. You’d have to wait 2 years from today to receive a sign up bonus on any Thank You Point earning card. Chase would allow you to sign up tomorrow and receive a bonus because more than 2 years have lapsed since you received your bonus.
So when a card application doesn’t have the 24 month language it’s a big deal
When the CitiBusiness Aadvantage Platinum pops up without this language it means that you can get the bonus points EVEN if you’ve earned bonus points 6 months ago. This is great for those of us who sign up for cards more often than not.
The CitiBusiness AA card doesn’t get reported on your personal credit report either so it doesn’t affect your 5/24, AND as you can see in the above graphic, you can still receive a bonus on the Citi Aadvantage Platinum if you’ve received a CitiBusiness bonus because business cards are separate. That’s pretty awesome.
Now, what I’d love is if a Citi AA Executive card popped up without the language and offered a 100k reasons to sign up. You know, circa 2014 😉
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
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.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
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.
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