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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!!!
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
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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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