A lot of people don’t remember that Citi offers the ‘CitiBusiness ThankYou Card‘ (thanks to Rapid Travel Chai & Frequent Miler’s posts back in 2015 for reminding me about this card). This will probably be of particular interest as Citi has introduced a new rule concerning sign up bonuses. It’s not possible to sign up for this card online, instead you must head into a Citibank branch and request the card (they usually don’t even advertise it in branch).
Card Basics
- Sign up bonus of 20,000 Citi ThankYou points after $3,000 in spend (this might vary to 40,000 by region, share your DP in the comments)
- Card earns at the following rates:
- 3x points per $1 in quarterly rotating categories (you’re automatically enrolled, there is no points cap and the categories have always stayed the same):
- January-March: Advertising Services, Office Supply Merchants
- April-June: Computer Equipment Merchants, Software Merchants, and Telecommunications Merchants
- July-September: Airlines, Hotels and Car Rental merchants
- October-December: Restaurants and Entertainment
- 1x points per $1 spent
- 3x points per $1 in quarterly rotating categories (you’re automatically enrolled, there is no points cap and the categories have always stayed the same):
- No annual fee
- Earn an anniversary ThankYou Point bonus each membership year
- 0% Introductory APY for six months
- 3% foreign transaction fee
Anniversary Bonus
The anniversary bonus is as follows and is based on a card member year rather than calendar year.
- Year one: Receive a 1% bonus
- Year two: Receive a 2% bonus
- Year three onwards: Receive a 3% bonus
The bonus only applies to the base earning rate (1x points per $1 spent) and doesn’t include any bonus points (e.g 3x categories or sign up bonus). Basically at best you’ll get an extra 0.03 points per $1 spent. The points will automatically post at the end of the card member year.
Our Verdict
The sign up bonus on this card isn’t huge, but it does have no annual fee and rotating 3x categories (although most won’t be that interest for people, I do love the 3x on restaurants though and Q3 isn’t bad either). Now that we’re limited on not being able to get the Citi Preferred, Premier, Prestige if any of those cards have been opened or closed in the last 24 months (not in effect until August 28th, 2016) cards like this will become more attractive.
Let me know your thoughts about this card in the comments below, also let me know if any branch is offering a 40,000 point sign up bonus instead of 20,000. If that’s the case you might be able to get matched to the 40,000 offer.
Big thanks to reader @MatthewDW for helping provide information for this post.
Thanks for this info. Just to clarify, is this card subject to the new 24 month rule too? Do I have to get it before August 28 if I have other TY cards?
Yes, they just added the Business card along with the other TY cards.
If you just want the 3X bonus, you can product convert into the Biz TY card. I think I converted an AA card to get mine.
The business AA card right? Thanks for the info, Nick!
Will I receive sign up bonus for BUSINESS AA card if I had personal AA card within the past 24 months?
really? what’s the trick making this happen? I had an AAbiz closed in 2014 and now in 2018 without any option to PC it into, after several phone calls inquiring it each time. I know you retired recently though
So by year 3, it becomes a 4% cash back on everything card? 1% + 3% anniversary bonus?
No, it would become a 1.03% card. Spend $1000, receive 1000 base points. 3% bonus equals 30 points, 1030 total.
Updated to make this clearer.