Update 8/30/21: Citi has now sent out an email to those who used the Preferred 1% cashout indicating that it was a mistake and won’t work going forward.
Update 7/23/21: Readers now reporting that Preferred is back down to .5%
Update 5/31/21: Citi Preferred now has this option as well. Seems to only be available for some readers unfortunately. Hat tip to reader Eric (YMMV, based on reader’s comments)
Original Post:
Citi Premier cardholders can now cash out ThankYou points at one cent per point using the Cash Rewards or Statement Credit options.
Go to ‘More Ways to Redeem’ > ‘Cash Rewards’ or ‘Statement Credit’. Using the Cash Rewards option you can get $50 for 5,000 points or $100 for 10,000 points. Using the Statement Credit option, you can get $10, $15, $20, etc.
Back in 2017, Citi added the option for Prestige cardholders to cash out ThankYou points at 1-cent-per-point, and now they seem to be implementing the same for Premier cardholders. Other Citi cards get just .5 cents per point when cashing out ThankYou points. There were always creative ways of the getting the 1 CPP with mortgage payments, but this makes everything easier, and only requires the $95 Premier card.
Perhaps this is to make up for the negative change of losing the 25% travel center bonus which was just implemented. It is odd that we haven’t heard anything yet from Citi directly about the change.
Hat tip to philonous03 and TheFascination
Update: You can redeem down to the point now as well (e.g 2,541 points = $25.41 – before you had to redeem in increments.
DP: Just redeemed 95k points at 1 cent per point. Used it as a credit to my account, but had the option to DD or check by mail.
One cent-per-point cash out option is back. I got a direct deposit to my bank account.
I have both a citi ty preferred and citi sears ty and am stuck at .5 for redemption.. If I convert the preferred to premier OR open a new premier (for the 80k) will i then be able to convert at 1:1?
I believe you’ll be able to do so, either by transferring your points or pooling them, but have to verify
My 2 citi cards are already pooled into one TY account so wonder if I convert it would “auto pool” Still need definitive answer b4 i convert..searscard has very been good to me for years but i see the writing on the wall with the promos they are throwing now..
Premier SUB is pretty sweet right now. I would just go for that and link it.
I think so. I had a Rewards+ with 0.5 cpp cashback. Then I signed up for Premier and linked the TY accounts together. Now all my points are 1 cpp cashback including those earned with Rewards+.
i just applied for new for the 80k rather then conversion although conversion was offered with free first year.. Got further processing required tho.. remembered costco went to citi so ive got 3 cards with them now but its been 10+ years..had to unfreeze EXP– but only did 4 days.. hope thats enough bc it says 7-10 processing…. also remembered i had a citi premier 10+ years ago so who knows
I cashed mine out and it’s been six business days and still have not seen it in my account. Their site says it will take UP TO 5 business days. I might have to call them on Monday. It could just be Citi being SHITI
I also still see the 1.0 cents per point cash out rate on my Rewards+ card.
Can anyone with the Premier Card confirm they see the 1.0¢ per point cash out rate in their account?
I have a Premier and Rewards+ linked together. I see 1cpp for all 3 cash back options.
Thanks for confirming, Otto!
My first statement just closed, and I was able to cash out at a penny a point. I also have the Rewards+ and Premier cards on the same TY account, and I also received the 10% point refund that I normally get on Rewards+ card for the Premier card. I’d already gotten that on my Custom Cash card, which is also linked to the same TY account. Definitely pays to have the Rewards+ card if you have one of the other TY cards.
Confirmed – still 1.0cpp.
Great, thanks Burton!
I’m seeing the Pay with Points option for $0.008 per point on my Premier on legible purchases in the following categories: Entertainment, Grocery, Gas, Dining, Drug Stores, Clothing and Department Stores, Utility
Update: in the app if I select gift cards, then on the thank you rewards site I can select cash as a redemption type. There I see statement credit, direct deposit and check by mail options all paying out at $0.01 per point
I just went to redeem my TYP on my Preferred card and saw that they lowered it to $.005/point from the $.01/point I reported to you a couple of months ago.
I see that
Ben alerted this to you a couple of weeks ago but you must have missed his comment. I wonder if it was a mistake when they changed it in May or if they will offer that same rate from time to time.
Added, thanks
Same here.
same happened with me, early June, had the 1 cent per point option, now it is down to half a cent per point, citi playing games
Between May 23, 2021 and July 2, 2021 you redeemed ThankYou Points for one or more
cash rewards. Our records indicate you received a larger cash reward based on what the
redemption value should have been at the time you redeemed.
We have corrected this issue going forward but we will not make any changes to your
prior order(s), so please enjoy the extra cash rewards you received.
We apologies for any confusion.
Double Cash & Rewards+ WORKS=2.19% CASHBACK:
Confirmed that you can transfer cash from Double Cash to ThankYou points, then cashout those points with a linked Rewards+ for the 10% bonus ThankYou pts. I did a statement credit as the test, but deposit to bank account will optimize to get the highest cashback. (If doing the statement credit, note the above combo lets you apply it to the Double Cash or Rewards+). After a few redemption cycles of sweeping the extra bonus pts into the next redemption, you will achieve over 2.19% cashback every time.
Not too shabby for non-category cashback with no fees or income/investment/deposit/direct deposit requirements. It isn’t uncapped due to Rewards+ $1000 rewards cap on the 10% bonus, but still allows for plenty of non-category spend.
Still like Altitude Reserve for 3% non-category cashback for mobile pay (or 4.5% redeemed for travel), but the above works as a total no-fee cashback solution, especially for ordinary card-not-present usage.
Let us know when you try it with direct deposit!