A few days ago we reported on the fact that the Citi ThankYou Premier card was having a number of changes made to it. The most important change was that travel categories would earn 3x ThankYou points and those categories will be greatly expanded (including gas), whilst dining & entertainment purchases would earn 2x ThankYou points.
We also speculated that the annual fee would be reduced to $95 per year from $125, this speculation was based on what somebody had heard from a customer service representative. Miles 4 More pointed out on twitter that this has now actually been confirmed on the Thank You Premier application page:
Annual Fee: $125 (fee waived for the first 12 months). On 4/19/2015, this fee will be reduced to $95 on all accounts.
A $30 difference might not seem like a big change, but the way the bonus is structured you’d really be paying this annual fee twice (although there are reports of this being waived). It’s clear that Citi is positioning this card to compete with the Chase Sapphire Preferred & Barclaycard Arrival+, whilst the Citi Prestige will aim to compete with the American Express platinum card.
I still think the Prestige needs to either increase the benefits, or decrease the annual fee to become competitive but it does seem like they are grabbing some market share from American Express at the moment (which is why you might be seeing those massive 100,000 & 150,000 point bonuses from American Express).
If Citi can add American Airlines as a transfer partner (extremely unlikely) then I think you’ll see both of these cards talked about more often. Keep in mind it might be possible to get a 50,000 point sign up bonus on the Citi Prestige card at the moment.
Competition is a beautiful thing for consumers, so let’s hope that this ends up in better offers and benefits for all the above mentioned cards.
