Citi Prestige 75,000 Points Vs Citi Premier 50,000 Offer – What’s Better?

At the moment Citi is offering increased sign up bonuses on two of it’s Citi ThankYou points earning cards:

• 75,000 points after $7,500 in spend on the Citi Prestige card
• 50,000 points after $4,000 in spend on the Citi ThankYou Premier card

Unfortunately Citi has a rule that states: “Bonus ThankYou Points are not available if you have had a ThankYou Preferred, ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige card opened or closed in the past 24 months”. That means if you open one of these cards you won’t be eligible for the other. It also means a lot of people won’t be eligible for either of these bonuses as they have opened or closed one of these cards in the last 24 months. We discuss this rule in some more detail here. I thought it would be interesting to compare these two cards to see what is the better offer.

Key Differences

• Annual fees:
  • Citi Prestige: $450 ($350 for some customers)
  • Citi Premier: $95 and this is waived the first year
• Card benefits. The Citi Prestige comes with a number of card benefits that are not included on the Premier:
  • $250 air travel credit each calendar year
  • Priority Pass Select Membership (good for two guests and immediate family)
  • Fourth night free on hotel bookings when you book through Citi (based on the average nightly rate).
    • Instant discount when you book online
    • Statement credit when you book via the Citi Concierge
  • $100 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck Credit
• Minimum spend requirement:
  • Prestige requires $7,500 spend within three months
  • Premier requires $4,000 spend within three months
• Citi ThankYou Premier earns 3x on gas stations & cruises (this is included in the travel category, not the case for the Prestige)
• Insurance. Citi Prestige offers the following insurance:
  • Up to $500 of necessary personal and business items if your baggage is delayed for more than 3 hours
  • Offers primary insurance up to $100,000 outside of the U.S. and secondary insurance within the U.S.
  • Trip Cancellation/interruption insurance of up to $5,000 per person per trip.
  • Trip Delay Reimbursement:  Valid if your flight is delayed 3 hours or more
• Points valuation. Points are worth 1.25¢ towards flights on both cards but
  • Worth 1¢ when redeeming for cash with Citi Prestige
  • Worth 1.25¢ when redeeming for all travel with Citi Premier (e.g Hotels)
• Card Stock. Not sure how I missed this before but:
  • Citi Prestige is METAL
  • Citi Premier is not METAL
• Relationship Bonus.
  • Prestige offers 15% relationship bonus for CitiGold/Account Priority & 25% for Citi Private Bank
  • Premier offers no relationship bonus

They also share a lot of similarities:

• Can transfer points to 11 airlines & 1 hotels. They also sometimes offer transfer bonuses.
• Both cards earn at the following rates:
  • 3x on travel (this includes gas stations on the Premier card and only flights & hotels on Prestige)
  • 2x on dining and entertainment
  • 1x on all other purchases

What Card Should You Pick

I don’t think there is a clear winner either way and one card would be great for some people and terrible for others. The Prestige has the much higher annual fee and minimum spend requirement, but it does come with a higher sign up bonus and the annual fee is somewhat offset by the air travel credit of $250 (also keep in mind this is every calendar year so you could potentially use it for 2017 & 2018 and only pay the annual fee once) and other card benefits (priority pass membership, fourth night free and greater insurance coverage).

If your somebody that travels a lot (especially for work with reimbursable expenses) and you can meet the minimum spend requirement then I think the Prestige probably makes more sense. In saying that the Premier also provides great value and it’s an ‘easy’ 50,000 points without having to worry about maximizing travel benefits. Both cards are listed under our best credit card offers. Let me know in the comments what card you prefer and why.