Citi Premier Card Review

Citi Premier® Card Review Summary

The Citi Premier® Card is a good credit card for travel and dining rewards, giving 3 points per $1 spent on air travel as well as 3 points per $1 spent at hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. It is worth the $95 annual fee for people with good credit who can take full advantage of the bonus rewards.

In addition to ongoing bonus rewards on eligible travel and dining purchases, Citi Premier offers a generous initial bonus: 60,000 points for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. Those bonus points are worth around $600, depending on the redemption method.

However, Citi Premier does not offer 0% introductory interest rates, and it does have a high regular APR. As a result, I only recommend applying if you plan to pay the bill in full every month. I also recommend using the card mainly for purchases that will produce 3 points per $1 spent, as all other purchases get you just 1 point per $1, which is average for a rewards card.

Citi Premier Card Highlights

Initial Bonus

Spending at least $4,000 within 3 months of opening an account will score you 60,000 bonus points. That bonus is worth $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com. That’s one of the biggest initial bonuses on the market. Need I say more?

Up To 3 Points Per $1 Spent

Citi Premier’s regular rewards are simple. It gives you 1 point per $1 spent on most purchases. The exceptions are purchases from restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel providers, and hotels, which get you 3 points per $1. Plus, for a limited time, you can earn a total of 10 points per $1 spent on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) when you book on the Citi Travel portal through June 30, 2024.

The bonus rewards rate is above-average, but the base rewards rate is not. As a result, some people pair Citi Premier with a card that has a higher minimum rewards rate in order to boost their overall earnings. “I use Citi Premier when I dine out, get groceries and book travel, but I use a card that gives 2% cash back for all my other purchases,” WalletHub user Stephen Bishop told me. “That way, I’m earning 2% or 3% back on every purchase.”

No Foreign Transaction Fees

You never want to see a travel rewards credit card that charges foreign transaction fees. Fortunately, you don’t need to shield your eyes when gazing upon Citi Premier, as it does not charge any such pesky fees, which can drive up the cost of both international travel and purchases made through merchants based abroad.

This enables you to take full advantage of Visa’s and Mastercard’s low exchange rates, which in turn will allow you to save up to 9% on currency conversion relative to exchanging hard currency at a local bank or airport kiosk.

Citi Premier Card Lowlights

$95 Annual Fee

Each year is accompanied by a $95 membership charge, which must be paid promptly to avoid interest charges and, ultimately, to keep your account in good standing. Whether it’s wise to foot this bill depends on how much you spend each year — the rewards you earn need to outweigh the cost — as well as the availability of more cost-effective options.

If you can comfortably qualify for the card’s initial bonus, the card is likely to be worthwhile for several years. But I recommend setting a reminder to reevaluate yearly, before your account anniversary date, so you don’t end up paying for a card you never use.

High Regular APR

You should try to avoid carrying a balance from month to month with the Citi Premier® Card, as its regular APR promises to be quite pricey. It’s advertised as 20.99% - 28.99% (V), depending on your creditworthiness. That means it ranges from above average for someone with good credit to well above average for someone with fair credit, according to WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Landscape Report. Considering that you need at least good credit to get approved for this card, neither extreme is very user-friendly.

I suggest setting up automatic payments for your full statement balance after opening an account. This way, you’ll never miss a due date or have to deal with interest charges, as long as there’s enough money in your linked bank account.

No 0% Intro Rates

Many of the best credit cards on the market, even those ostensibly designed for rewards, offer interest-free financing for a period of months after account opening. Some offer 0% on new purchases or 0% on balance transfers, whereas others offer both. The Citi Premier® Card is not one of them. It won’t give you any sort of reduced introductory interest rate. Rather, its unfavorable regular APR will be in effect from the very beginning.

Fortunately, if you’re able to qualify for the Citi Premier Card, you should also be able to get a credit card with a 0% introductory APR when the need arises. One option I recommend right now is the Wells Fargo Reflect® Card.

Other Things To Consider About Citi Premier

Earnings Are Unlimited & Points Don’t Expire

Earning limits and expiration dates for rewards are among the sneaky credit card-company tricks that have been significantly diminished in the wake of the Great Recession. However, some cards still bury such caveats in their fine print, so it’s important to point out that Citi Premier is not among them. This serves to simplify things and reduces the pressure to redeem strategically.

Numerous Redemption & Transfer Opportunities

You can redeem Citi Premier points for gift cards, cash rewards, and travel booked through Citi. In addition, you can “Shop with Points” on Amazon.com, swap your earnings for merchandise, make a mortgage or student-loan payment to any lender, or transfer your rewards balance to one of Citi’s hospitality partners (none of which is a domestic airline, by the way).

You can find more information in our review of the Citi ThankYou Rewards program. Travel, statement credits, and gift cards tend to provide the best value, though.

Citi Cardmember Benefits

Having any Citicard in your pocket provides a number of semi-exclusive benefits, such as ticket opportunities through Citi Entertainment and access to a concierge service. These features could prove to be a big help, but many cardholders never use them.

Citi Premier Card Compared To The Competition

Citi Premier® Card Review Methodology

This Citi Premier® Card review is based on WalletHub’s proprietary 100-point credit card rating system. By using a consistent methodology to evaluate the Citi Premier® Card and all other cards, WalletHub’s credit card experts make it easy for people to compare their options and find the best credit cards for their needs.

The WalletHub rating system uses 16 key metrics grouped into seven categories: Fees, Rewards, Two-year Cost, Interest Rates, Approval Requirements, Special Features, and Reviews. Each metric has a maximum number of points allocated to it, based on the metric’s importance as determined by our editors. The points are added up to create an overall rating for the Citi Premier® Card out of a maximum of 100 points, which is then converted to a 5-point scale.

Ratings for each category reflect how close Citi Premier is to WalletHub’s definition of a 5-star credit card, which is based on market conditions and what we believe are reasonable terms. We compare Citi Premier to that standard to give a numerical approximation of how reasonable and competitive its terms are compared to other cards.

To learn more about how WalletHub rates credit card offers, check out our full credit card review methodology.