The Citi Premier card is one of the most rewarding travel credit cards on the market thanks to its generous bonus points earning and trio of features that automatically add value to your travel fund.
Between the ThankYou points you earn with each purchase and the automatic perks this card offers – like travel statement credits, airline fee credits, and waived foreign transaction fees – you’ll find yourself with more money to spend on flights, hotels, and adventures before you’ve even pulled out your wallet.
In this article, we’ll explore each of these unique value-adding benefits and show you just how easily the Citi Premier card can help pad your travel budget.
4 Ways to Compensate for Your Travel Budget with the Citi Premier Card
1. Earn ThankYou Points With Every Purchase
The Citi Premier Card provides users with the opportunity to earn ThankYou Points on every single purchase through its rewarding earning structure. In addition to a substantial 60,000 point sign-up bonus for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months, cardholders will be able to maximize their rewards through lucrative bonus categories and a consistent 1x earning rate on all other purchases.
When it comes to travel, the Premier Card earns 3x points per dollar on airfare, hotels, car rentals, public transit, and more. Ensuring all trips, vacations, and business travel are booked using this card means automatically accruing a significant return. Mealtime spending is also highly rewarded, with 3x points for every dollar spent dining at restaurants, coffee shops, fast food joints, and other culinary destinations.
Whether indulging in a nice sit-down dinner or needing fuel for the day with a coffee, each swipe of the card translates directly to bonus points.
By diversifying spending across gas, dining, travel, and groceries where higher returns are unlocked, and supplementing with every day 1x earnings on other costs, Citi Premier cardholders can maximize their rewards simply by using the card for all expenditures. Every transaction, large or small, contributes directly to a growing points balance.
2. Get an Annual Travel Credit Automatically
Citi Premier automatically applies a $100 statement credit to each card member per year for a hotel booking made through ThankYou.com. This helps offset the $95 annual fee.
Here is how it works:
To receive the credit, a cardholder simply needs to book a qualifying hotel stay of $500 or more before taxes and fees. The $100 credit will be posted to the account within two billing cycles of the hotel charge.
This effectively makes the first-year annual fee only $95 after using the benefit. It incentivizes booking through Citi’s travel portal where they can earn additional merchant fees. Cardholders can maximize the annual fee value with a single large or multiple smaller hotel stays.
Read this blog post to learn more about travel credits.
3. Use Points Flexibly on Travel
ThankYou points earned with the Citi Premier card can be redeemed in different ways. Cardholders have the option to use the points directly through the ThankYou Portal for a 1 cent per point value on flights, hotels, and more. This provides easy booking options without blackout dates.
The points can also be transferred to any of Citi’s 19 travel partners, such as JetBlue and Singapore Airlines. As highlighted in this review of the Citi Premier card, partners may allow redeeming points for premium cabin flights or luxury hotel stays at higher values than the standard redemption rate. This flexibility unlocks the potential to maximize the value of points earned through industry-leading transfer ratios and award charts.
4. Travel Worry-Free With No Foreign Transaction Fees
The Citi Premier card makes international travel more affordable and convenient by eliminating foreign transaction fees on purchases made abroad. When traveling outside the US, cardholders can pay with their Citi Premier without incurring any extra costs beyond the standard exchange rates.
Whether booking flights and hotels for a family vacation to Europe, shopping in London, or dining in Paris, every swipe of the card is simply charged as a normal purchase. There are no unanticipated penalties or markups associated with paying in foreign currency. This allows seamless budgeting and makes it easy to leverage bonus points on travel abroad through the 3x travel and dining categories.
For many travelers, foreign transaction charges of 3% or more can severely diminish the value of rewards when redeemed overseas. Without these fees on the Citi Premier, every point earned can be fully utilized at maximum worth. To learn more about foreign transaction fees you can visit https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/how-can-you-avoid-exchange-rate-risk-currency-conversion.
Bottom Line
Summing up, the Citi Premier Card provides a straightforward and rewarding way for cardholders to earn ThankYou Points simply by using the card for everyday spending. With lucrative bonus categories and a consistent base earnings rate, any cardholder can accumulate substantial rewards with natural expenses over time.
Whether booking travel through the generous signup bonus, redeeming points for premium flights, or saving up for a big trip abroad, Premier Card empowers maximizing the value of purchases big and small.
When combined with perks like annual statement credits, the $95 annual fee is easily offset. The Premier is an excellent single-card solution for earning bonus rewards on spending without having to track categories or change payment habits.