Much like Thanos decimated the Avengers with the snap of his fingers in Infinity War, Citi too has just annihilated nearly all of their major benefits from most (if not all) of their credit cards.
Citi Announces The Surprise Annihilation Of Most Of Their Credit Card Benefits. Is This The Final “Deal-Breaker”?
When I logged into my Citi account, I got the following pop-up message on all three of my Citi credit cards.
The Official Citi Pop-Up Notice:
What This Means To Citi Card Holders
As you can see, MAJOR benefits (which are still standard from most other card issuers like American Express and Chase) are to be removed from Citi cards beginning September 22, 2019.
Curiously, this includes many beloved benefits like Citi Price Rewind and the once industry-leading Citi Trip Delay Protection.
It also includes benefits that are – and should be – standard benefits of any self-respecting “travel credit card” like Car Rental Insurance, Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance, Baggage Protection, Medical Evacuations, Worldwide Travel Accident Insurance, etc.
For Citi to completely annihilate their card benefits is, to me at least, completely insane.
Will Any Citi Benefits Remain?
It looks like Citi is trying to put a positive spin on this by calling out the remaining “low-hanging fruit” benefits of their cards.
Is There Any Hope, Or Is This A Complete Deal-Breaker For Citi Credit Cards?
With the final sentence of the paragraph above, Citi states they will announce “exciting new card benefits”. In light of the current annihilation, I’m not holding out much hope for what those will be.
The Bottom-Line: Citi Announces The Surprise Annihilation Of Most Of Their Credit Card Benefits. Is This The Final “Deal-Breaker”?
I have always been a fan of Citi, even after benefit cut after cut after benefit cut. But this sure seems like a deal-breaker to me.
My Citi Prestige doesn’t renew until next year, so I have some time to see what Citi’s “exciting new card benefits” are gonna look like, but they better be pretty damn amazing for me to keep that card.
Why would I ever use their cards to purchase travel or any large big-ticket item without the benefits they are getting rid of? My Chase Sapphire Reserve sure is looking a whole lot better now. Even on dining.
Why Citi, why?
