Citi Sears Mastercard – $150 Sign Up Bonus & Great Ongoing Spend Bonuses + 5%/3% Categories

This isn’t a new offer, but I somehow missed it increasing back to $150 so here’s a friendly reminder.

The Offer

Direct link to offer  (another link)

  • Get a sign up bonus of $150 when you spend $1,500 or more within 30 days from account opening

 

Card Details

  • Card earns at the following rates until December 31st, 2017:
    • 5% back in points on eligible purchases made at gas stations*
    • 3% back in points on eligible purchases at grocery stores and restaurants*
    • 2% back in points on eligible purchases made at Sears & Kmart
    • 1% back on all other purchases
  • No annual fee

*These categories have a combined limit of $10,000 in spend, after that they will earn 1% back in points

Our Verdict

$2,000 spend in 30 days is quite a lot and I’m surprise that is the requirement for this store card. $150 isn’t the best cash sign up bonus but it isn’t terrible either. The main reason to get this card is they often send out targeted promotions offering 10%/5% back on popular categories with decent caps. For example here are some recent targeted spending bonuses:

That’s why it’s listed as one of the best store credit cards.

The bonus categories aren’t actually that interesting as there are other cards that earn at higher rates:

Some people have had success at getting other versions of this card converted to a Citi ThankYou point earning card (no bonus categories but it means it earns ThankYou points during promotions). It’s also possible to do this with this card via secured message.  You can read our full review of this card here. Before asking any basic questions or applying make sure you read through these things everybody should know about Citi cards.

Hat tip to reader @VM4827

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44 Comments
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bo dong
bo dong (@guest_663981)
October 27, 2018 17:55

recently opened this card…then called and converted to thankyou points version.
hopefully can receive some lucrative spending offer in the future.

Keith
Keith (@guest_663987)
October 27, 2018 18:17

Good move as Sears will not be around very soon.

Lee
Lee (@guest_650649)
October 2, 2018 22:11

I opened this card in July in hopes of converting it to a ThankYou Points earning card. I SM’d in August asking to change it and was told to call in. I ignored that and then SM’d again today with the same result. I called in and after 20 min and 5 transfers, was able to convert the card to earn ThankYou Points. I was told it will earn 1 point per $1 spend. I’m hoping to use it enough to start getting the spending offers.

FindingMyPossible
FindingMyPossible (@guest_653929)
October 8, 2018 10:12

Thanks for the DP! Was just thinking of opening this card but didn’t want to use a HP if I couldn’t convert it.

escot
escot (@guest_602847)
June 6, 2018 13:14

Looks the current offer is for a very meager $20 statement credit after $30 spend…. Will pass until the $150 or better comes back. ?

Yuriy
Yuriy (@guest_579234)
April 8, 2018 22:01

Is it possible to convert to a cashback one? TYP are less valuable than $$ since they aren’t redeemable 1:1 – do people just try messaging to change to either one of the two and hope to get something?

Also – wanted to confirm: These offers that they send around will accrue TYP/$$ if you convert to the TYP/$$ reward program? i.e. the original card is giving you say 30,000 SYW points in the current bonus offer – but if you converted, you’d be getting 30,000 TYP or $300 depending on a TYP or cash program?

Thanks for the info y’all!

Yuriy
Yuriy (@guest_583623)
April 18, 2018 22:20

It would be great to have a post dedicated to the best redemption options using ThankYou points – I think the best appear to be airline partners as most of the pay with points are less than 1 cent per point on redemption… How do most people redeem their TYP? Thanks for the insight as always!

James
James (@guest_579168)
April 8, 2018 19:13

I just got approved, but for a $1008 CL -_-

Ben
Ben (@guest_564776)
February 27, 2018 17:57

Does converting this to a TYP-earning card have an impact on the Citi 24-month clock?

Julie
Julie (@guest_559956)
February 12, 2018 12:31

Confirmed 2/6/2018 that you can convert this card from SYW points to TY points via secure message request. Here is my response I received:

“We will unenroll your account from Shop Your Way and enroll you in the
ThankYou program in then 24-48 hours. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. ”

Don’t bother calling customer service to make this request. I tried that first and was told it wasn’t possible. I did confirm online that my account shows I am now earning TY points. This was a new card for me with no spend on it before I made the request so can’t confirm if points already earned transfer over to TY points but I would assume they would.

I opened this card hoping I will also receive some of the same lucrative 10X bonus ThankYou point promotions that my husband has received in the past. He’s had his Sears Citi card for many years and has received some great bonus offers like earn 10X TY points for gas/groceries/restaurants up to 60K points per month. That was Oct-Dec 2017.

Larry Ordway
Larry Ordway (@guest_579531)
April 9, 2018 15:49

I secure messaged asking to convert to a cash back card. They replied and said they wanted to talk directly to me. Well, what a waste of time. They had no idea what I was asking. I have secure messaged them again to see if I can get any satisfaction.

Farley
Farley (@guest_583151)
April 17, 2018 20:46

Do you still earn rewards in TY points after the enrollment? Say, 5% gas.

Couplecocktails
Couplecocktails (@guest_623538)
July 29, 2018 13:44

@farley.. I am curious too about the above. Anybody have an idea? I just got the SYWR Card. Gonna try contacting citi through secure message and change to thank you points. However, I wonder after switching to thank you points, will I still get the 5%,3%,2%,1% promotion.

Stefan Krasiwski (Rapid Travel Chai)
January 22, 2018 14:24

I have been looking at this card since a FTU attendee mentioned the TYP targeted offers to me in November. Product changing from other Citi cards has not worked for me, so I will give this one a try and see if I can onward convert to the TYP-earning version.

Gemma
Gemma (@guest_552121)
January 18, 2018 17:24

i have this card and am a longtime kmart/syw user. this card is ok…. it somehow “broke” my syw account and had to be linked to a whole new syw account to redeem the points…it was a hassle. syw/sears/kmart’s IT leaves much to be desired. also, when i signed up it had a spend 500, get 100 bonus, so this is a really high spend, just like the doc says for a kind of lame-ish card

TomT
TomT (@guest_551973)
January 18, 2018 13:10

The $150 bonus is after $1,500 of spend within 90 days, not $2,000 of spend within 30 days.

Bhanna
Bhanna (@guest_552219)
January 18, 2018 20:16

Yea, it is 1,500 in 90 days from the day you get approved. You can call and they will expedite the card free of charge, so you can start spending right away… But the trick is you actually need to wait three days before they can expediate the card to you…

I applied today, and got approval for $4,500 … score of 750ish, with 14/24