Just like with the Platinum Card by American Express for Ameriprise Financial, it has already been another year that I’ve held the Citi Premier Card. As such, the one-year mark is when an important decision must be made about the card: keep it or cancel it before the $95 annual fees hits?
My Retention Offer for the Citi Premier Card:
Before making any “keep or cancel” decision, I’ve found it wise to always call the card company and see if there are any retention offers available.
I called Citi customer service at the number on the back of the card. I quickly got a representative, told her I was trying to determine if I should keep the card, and asked her straight-up if there were any retention offers available to me.
Immediately she came back and said, “yes, there are two offers”. After reminding me that the offers she was about to read aloud were based on a variety of factors (including, but not limited to: annual spending on the card, years of card membership, credit history, etc.), she came back with the following:
Offer #1: A $95 credit after spending $95 in the next 90 days, and an additional 500 bonus points for any month that I spend $500 or more for the next 16 months.
Offer #2: 5,000 Thank You points after spending $1,000 in the next 90 days.
Note: I had about $10,000+ worth of spending on this card during year the last year.
To Keep Or Cancel?
I actually find great value in this card and find it to be one of the “go-to cards” in my arsenal due to the wide ranging bonus categories it has.
In fact, the bonus categories even out perform the marquee Citi Prestige Card, however Citi recognizes this and may be changing this in the near future.
This is also a great card to add authorized users to because of the earning potential from the categories, the no foreign transaction fees, and because its free to do so.
Which Retention Offer Did I Choose?
By my math, I valued Offer #1 at $195, and Offer #2 at $50.
Obviously, I went with Offer #1 as I could now “eliminate” my annual $95 annual fee and add another 8,000 Thank You points (when bonused by the Premier Card’s point factor at 1.25) worth $100.
The best part of this particular offer is it now effectively turns my Citi Premier card into a 2x on all purchases card (eat your heart out Amex Blue Business Plus), at least for the months I can spend $500 on it! And it doesn’t stop there – 4x on travel and gas, 3x on dining and entertainment!
Here’s The Math:
$95 annul fee + $95 credit + 8,000 thank you points = $100 net gain.
The Bottom Line on My Retention Offer for the Citi Premier Card:
As you can see, retention offers can be more than worth a call if you are the fence about keeping or canceling your card.
In this case, I got another year of an effective a $0 annual fee courtesy of the retention offer for the Citi Premier Card and potentially another 8,000 Thank You Points worth $100. Put another way, I now have a “2x on everything card” and a “4x on gas card” for the next 16 months! Well played, Citi.
Of course, next year I’ll have to repeat this process. But for now, I’ll gladly reap the benefits.
Cheers!
