Citi ThankYou Points Discontinues Mortgage, Student Loan Redemption Option

Citi has discontinued the option to redeem ThankYou points toward getting a check toward your mortgage or student loan payment. This has long been the steady way to get $.01 cent per point on Citi ThankYou points and has now been discontinued.

Some Citi cards, like the Premier, offer the ability to redeem directly at 1:1 toward a statement credit or direct deposit or regular check. At one point they began offering that ability even on some no-fee cards like the Preferred, then they corrected that. Even now, someone with just the Preferred card or AT&T card will not be able to get more than .5 cents per point when redeemed for cash, and the mortgage option is no longer around. However, many of us have the Premier card or Double Cash card or possibly others which enable the ability to combine points and then redeem for straight cash at 1  cent per point, even on cards like the Preferred or AT&T which don’t offer  that directly.

Hat tip to reader Selby

View Comments (43)

  • Yeah, only Citi TYP card I have is the Rewards+ (converted from a Preferred, which was converted from a Forward card years ago). Just checked and can only redeem for statement credit, direct deposit, or check by mail for $0.005/point. Looks like I may have to PC again to Double Cash so I don't lose half my points as I'm not redeeming for GCs.

    • When the only TYP card I had was Rewards+ (converted from Premier), I used it to cash out TYP at 1 cpp plus 10% bonus, so Im surprised at your 0.5 cpp rate. I think the Preferred was 0.5 cpp but since it was converted it should be 1 cpp.

      • I wonder if there's a grace period to get the best of both cards when converting from Premier to Rewards+ before it drops to 0.5 cpp. I have two family members doing the conversion in Q4 so there may be a strategy of downgrading from premier and cashing out on Rewards+ the next day at 1.1 cpp. Depending on timing in November/December this may allow cash out of 2k at $200 increased value within what I would guess is a 60 day period without having to get another card (Rewards+ resets in December cycle for 10% back for first 100k redeemed). Any data points would be helpful.

        • To answer my own question from a response on another site, unfortunately there is no such grace period and it drops down to 0.5cpp immediately upon the change. So much for that strategy.

    • If you have Double Cash and Rewards+ linked in one account then you get 1.1 CPP for direct deposits.

  • @chucksithe

    Citi also killed the option to earn TYPs from checking accounts opened after July 18, 2022.

    Accounts from before then are grandfathered in.

    • I'm not sure what you can even do with those Checking Account TYPs anymore, since you can't mix and mingle them with credit card TYP (for travel redemptions, etc)

    • Yeah but it looks like they are discontinuing paying with points online bill payments... Is anyone else seeing this on their checking account?

  • Its clear most of the noobs on this thread are non-MSers when everyone's talking about the Rewards+ 10% rebate but nobody mentions the 100k TYP annual cap

    • @TB
      Your comment really isn't necessary. Do we need to spell everything out for you? I'm sure anyone who is going this route knows the limitations. Not every one does MS either, as it is subject to available resources which can dry up from time to time and comes with its own risks..

      Some of us have other methods which are more efficient/profitable and don't feel the need to use certain accounts for MS.

      Don't know the reason you felt it necessary to belittle others on assumptions. You don't know the story of everyone who uses this site as a resource.

    • The level of smugness it takes to call people who can’t afford something “noobs”

      I hope the earth ends before I get to that level of treating people like shit

      • MS doesn't require massive amounts of wealth. You're floating expenses on a CC that you liquidate for cash. Calm down, you self-loathing hobo

    • I hit the cap on two R+ cards annually...and zero MS. Pretty easy to do with the Sears TY promos though.

  • Some data points -
    - Citi AT&T Access More - no longer has mortgage/student loan redemption, and all of the check/direct deposit/statement credit options are still $0.005/point.
    - Citi TY Preferred - same
    - Citi Rewards+ - same
    - Citi Sears TY - same

    So...looks like they're trying to shove people to get Premier cards? The lack of notice is troubling on this one.

    • Change your Preferred into Double Cash or Custom Cash. Those cards have 0 AF and will get you 1cpp and then any linked cards can get the 1cpp as well. I don't see any reason to keep the Preferred.

      • Well there is one benefit - it still has the extended warranty and is the only $0AF that does I believe. That said, my wife's AT&T Access More also has that...but I also weigh every year the AF on her card. Have debated the Premier, DC, and CC for a product change though on the TYP. In context the extended warranty is pretty big for me - I regularly benefit from this benefit on everything from cell phones to laptops to a living room chair.

    • Okay, so it sounds like they still do NOT allow TYP redemptions for 1 CPP across the board. But most people are able to get 1 CPP since they have either the Premier or the Double Cash or possibly other cards. I'll clarify this further in the post.

  • Was able to redeem for direct deposit. 10% back on the transaction through rewards+.

  • You can directly redeem 1:1 with direct deposit now, it is easier and more convenient

  • Hi everyone! I am currently a holder of the Citi premier credit card. The annual fee will be charged in early August. I am thinking of closing my account. But I wonder what is the best option to maximize my TYP (over 110,000).
    I already have a Double Cash card, which I rarely used. So the downgrade-card-to-be for my citi premier seems going to be Reward+, which will keep my TYP from expiring with the extra benefit of an additional 10% when and if I decide to redeem my TYP to cash.
    (I understand the points are most valuable when they are redeemed for mileage but without AA as an option I am not keen to do that).
    Is my understanding correct?

    • Get the Custom Cash instead. I already converted all of my Citi cards, except of Prestige and AT&T AM to those, and now I have 9 of them.

  • Damn.

    I had been transferring TYP to my Rewards + and getting a 10% bonus on the mortgage redemption. Did the 80000 point SUB with Premier and got 8000 bonus this way.

    Guess I'll have to find another trick.

    • Can't you just have all your TYP earnings cards under the same TYP accounts and redeem all points earned via the Rewards + 10% bonus?

  • I've got DoubleCash, Rewards+, and Custom Cash all combined into one TYP account. I can redeem for direct deposit or statement credit (I think both Custom Cash and DoubleCash have these options) and it's effectively at 1.1 cpp because the Rewards+ 10% points refund kicks in on this combined TYP account.

    Transferred some points from my wife's Premier and those were able to cash out via direct deposit at 1.1 effective CPP as well