Citi Thank you Prestige Card Review – Do you Need it?

Citi bank’s thank you prestige card is an elite class card. Same category as American Express Platinum card. Though not as much feature rich as that one.

Prestige has earned good to excellent ratings by many rating agencies. This card belongs to thank you program launched by Citi bank. This card gives good amount of reward points for flying and is extremely beneficial for frequent flyers traveling in first/business class.

Pors – The main benefit of this card is rewards. By these rewards you can save up to 15% on all flights, if tickets are booked from Citi’s travel service.  Also you will get one free domestic or international companion ticket. This is the unique selling point for this card.

Cons – You need to have excellent credit and have to shell out huge amount of money in annual fees.

So huge annual fee can be an issue for most.  Also Annual Percentage Rate for this card is average. Following are Citi Thank you Prestige card’s salient features.

Features in Citi Thank you Prestige Card

• You will get 1 point for every 1$ you spent on purchase.
• You will get 1.3 points on every 1$ you spent at drugstore, gas station and supermarket. This is 30 percent more than many other cards.
• This is a charge card. That means you can spend any amount of money using this card. But you will have to pay all debates at the end of month.
• There is no foreign transaction fee for this card.
• Every year you will get one free domestic or international companion ticket.
• If you have this card then you will get airport lounge access for two people along with you.
• If you book tickets using this card then you will get 15% discount on ticket.
• You will get automatic gold status in Hilton Honors program.
• You will get personal concierge service.

This all was about rewards you will get with this card. Now let’s take a look at what you will have to pay to hold this card

• Annual percentage rate is 15.24 percent.
• Default rate is 29.99 percent.
• Annual fee is $500. According to me this is really huge. Paying $500 per year could not be issue for some people but it is really very high for less or medium frequent travelers.
• If you pay debates late, you will be charged up to $35.
• Returned payment is up to $35.
• Balance transfer fee is $5 to 3 percent.

Also other than these things you can earn one time points by creating your online account, for doing this you will get 300 points. Also if you sign up for paper less statement then you will get additional 300 points. You will get anniversary bonus points ranging from 1 percent to 5 percent.  This anniversary bonus points depends on time from which you are holding this card.

There is no limit on how much you can spend using this card, which naturally means that you can earn any number of points. And these points never expire, but for that you will have to do at least one purchase each year using this card. You can withdraw these reward points against many things like gifts, merchandise, travel etc.

So in overall, this card has some good points like

• Good reward points on purchase at gas station, drugstore etc.
• Many ways to redeem points.
• Amazing travel packs.
• The free companion ticket is an excellent gain, you can cover $200 -$300 from your annual fee with this ticket.
• Airport lounge access for three people is another great benefit that you can enjoy with family or co-workers.

This card is good for those who do not mind to pay $500 annually or want elite traveling facilities. Also if you want to add an additional user in your card then you will have to pay additional $175 each year.

Verdict on Citi Thank you Prestige Card

If you are a common man, living on a budget, do not apply for the card. You can better use the $500 annual fee. If you are frequent flyer, you may consider this one but, do compare benefit programs of the competing cards.

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