Citi Thank You Rewards Just Got Worse
I’ve written in the past about how I’m not a big fan of the Citi Thank You Rewards program. The main problem was that you had to pay a premium for lower dollar value rewards — e.g., 1500 points for a $10 gift card and 3500 pints for a $25 gift card. Since the earning structure is the same as other cash back cards, points should be worth a penny each. However, for lower dollar value rewards, you end up getting far less than a penny in return.
The upside used to be that $50 gift cards could be had for 5000 points — fair market value. Well… It seems that Citi has now reworked their price structure such that $50 gift cards now go for 6000 points. In other words, the argument that you can just save up your points for a higher dollar value no longer holds water.
Bottom Line: Citi Thank You Rewards are a ripoff, and you should be using a straight cash back card like the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card instead. Failing that, use something like the Driver’s Edge card. While this card is part of the Thank You network, you can convert your rewards straight into cash whenever you have work done on your car (this includes things like oil changes).
Hat tip to commenter Buddy Hall for bringing this change to my attention.
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I’ve always gone for the $100 gift cards myself, for the very same premium reason. Are $100 gift cards still 10000 points?
Comment by Daytonscott — Oct 5th 2006 @ 12:36 pmLooks like the new non-ripoff threshold is $75 (7500 points). Below that, you’ll pay a premium.
Comment by Nick — Oct 5th 2006 @ 10:29 pmI have worked in Citi Credit Card division for years. I worked in all dept. There is nothing you guys can say that will shock me more than Citigroup does. Since Lee Friburg took over the Citibank credit card division it has gotten to be a no brainer to go some where else with your buisness. Citi makes most their money off fees and Credit Potecter (which is not worth it). Part of my one job was to find a reason, any reason to increase customer intest rates to increase the bottom line. Also they have cut payroll in half as well as benafits to the employees, So with that in mind you are getting what you pay for. Citi credit card division now has about a 45% turn over rate, which means if you have a problem and call, the person on the other end of the line won’t know what your talking about let alone help you. But they do know their products to sell you something. Over half of the Operations Managers, including myself have left the company due to nonstop scandles by boardmembers and rapid decline of stuctural upper managment. It is all down hill from here…I am watching them sink them selfs.I could give you non stop horror stories on that place. And you think Congress is bad. What say you?
Comment by Buddy — Oct 7th 2006 @ 3:14 pmSigned up for Diamond Preferred rewards card. Citibank offer was we would recieve 10000 points after our first purchase. We made the purchase within the three month time limit. We inquired with citibank about our points. Citibank people first said it will rtake three monthjs for the points to post. Now they are saying you needed to spend $150 to get the points. There is nothing in the documnetation about $150 minimum purchase. These people will lie to keep from keeping their word. I cant help but wonder how many other people ahave nbeen cheated by citibank in this way. I reported them to the BBB. We’ll see what happens next.
Comment by Tim — Nov 15th 2006 @ 5:34 pmThe 5 points earned at grocery/gas/drug stores should make up for the premium.
Comment by Jim — Dec 17th 2006 @ 8:57 pmI just redeemed a $100 “gift certificate” to Carnival Cruise lines to use on our cruise that we have booked. Turned out just to be a $100 coupon off a new cruise. Do you think it said that anywhere on the web page? Nope. I’ll be cancelling my card.
Comment by chuck — Feb 23rd 2007 @ 10:54 pmWhich rewards card gives you 5 points for gas/groceries/drug? Cuz I have the professional card, and I get 3 points for gas/restaurants. Thanks!
Comment by matt — Mar 7th 2007 @ 11:04 pmThank you network has another trick up their sleeve: they make you wait arbitrarily when you ask for larger amount gift cards (e.g., $100) because they profit when you cash up your points with lower exchange rates with the smaller denomination gift cards.
I recently ordered $250 dollars as Office Depot gift cards. I had to break it to 2x $100 and 1x $50 gift cards. While the $50 already arrived, the $100 cards are still “in progress”. It’s been about three weeks already. I call TYN and they say there’s a 2-5 weeks wait time for them to arrive. That info only shows up *after* you complete the purchase. Who waits for five weeks to get a gift card? This is really ridiculous.
I knew how much the Citi cards sucked, and thus I stopped using my Citi Rewards card a while back. However, I had ~ $250 worth of points so I had to deal with the Thank You Network to get some cash. I would get statement credit, but that is a bad deal - you get much less than when you buy gift cards. And they converted my Rewards card to Business card which doesn’t allow statement credit. Smart, eh?
Comment by cengique — May 13th 2007 @ 9:24 pmI have been nothing but satisfied with Citibank diamond preferred rewards card. I was skeptical at first, so I requested my two $50 gift cards right away…and got them right away! I’ve been saving ever since. I see that some of the prices have gone up, but it only takes 25,000 points to fly anywhere in the US or Alaska…I’m excited about that. I tell all my friends about this card. Just wait for a good deal. Also, to check your points and add the card to get points yourself, go to http://www.thankyounetwork.com And if you have any questions, call a representative. There are NO charges
Comment by Jennifer — Jun 1st 2007 @ 7:22 pmI was at first very happy with the thank you network, when i ordered $300 in best buy gift cards and they arrived within 3 weeks of ordering. I didn’t think that was too bad. Now I’ve ordered $200 in Home Depot best cards, and I have been waiting 7 weeks for them to arrive. I call customer service, and they have no idea what happened, if it got lost, if it shipped or what. Instead they are sending me a “claim” form, which apparently takes 10-14 days to get here. It will probably be another 2 months before I see any gift cards in the mail, and by that time I will no longer need a weed whacker as it will be winter. Thanks Citi Cards.
Comment by Christian — Jun 1st 2007 @ 11:15 pmHi Jennifer - you have an uncanny knowledge of the Citi product. You also make some sly rebuttals to the previous complaints - you *do* get the points right away, cards *are* delivered quickly, customer representatives *are* waiting to help you out *free!*.
Wow. You are an excellent copy writer. How much is Citi paying you to troll blogs and add positive comments?
Comment by wtf? — Jun 27th 2007 @ 2:31 pmThe Thank You Rewards program used to offer points off of your APR as well, now that was a DEAL, because we had consolidated some debt onto one card, and had a high balance. They had different offers: 1 point for three months or six months, 3 points for six months, etc. It was worth much more than a statement credit to us.
The offers would sometimes disappear and reappear, but I haven’t seen any for at least a year or two, now. Wondering if I should try requesting that as a “custom reward”…
Comment by JW — Jul 8th 2007 @ 10:43 amwhat really makes me mad is that I ordered a $100 target card about 3 months ago, and when i did not recieve it after month of ordering i called them and they said they no longer offer that card. I asked why i was not notified, and they said they only take action when a customer complains. what’s worse is that they told me to get my points back i have to wait till they send me a claim, i have to fill it out, then send it back, then they will refund my points. so far its’ been 1/2 months and 2 calls, i have not recieved my claim forms. what do you think?
Comment by Rina — Jul 28th 2007 @ 3:30 pmI am very upset with both Citi thank You points and red Lobster restaurants.
Comment by Dan Diamond — Aug 9th 2007 @ 12:23 pm10,000pts, you can go to chili’s, apple bee’s Even Chris and Ruths. but they won’t give you a Red Lobster $100. Certificate. I wrote Red Lobster & Thank You Network, numerous times.
You have to buy 2-$50. Certificates at 6000 Points each. Yes this is a rip off.
Or a serious prejudice corporate blunder against red Lobster!
Dan
Whoever uses their “thankyou” points for gift cards is missing out on a much better deal on travel. I just used 20,000 points for an airline ticket that would have cost $398. That’s basically $200 for a $400 ticket. So why get $200 worth of gift cards when you can double your value on travel? This is a much better deal than other rewards programs, including frequent flyers…..
Comment by Stephen — Aug 22nd 2007 @ 10:04 amAnother benefit of Thank You Points: I use mine to pay down my student loans. The redemption levels have no “premium” (100 pts = $1), I stopped saving for vacations until I’ve paid off my student loan.
Comment by HubZap — Aug 29th 2007 @ 5:48 pmJust received notice that Citi is downgrading the Rewards card - again. Now instead of receiving 5 points for grocery/drug/gas I will receive just 2 points. I have never used this card for gas since I still get a 5% credit against the very next statement for all gas purchases on my Chase Rewards card (formerly Shell Rewards) and 1% on all other purchases. Given the “benefits” of the Citi card (lengthy wait for redemption, devaluation of the gift cards, etc.) I will switch to using the Chase card for ALL my purchases. As a former financial analyst with Citi(corp) Credit Card Services group, I too am not surprised at any of the complaints on this blog.
Comment by lynn — Sep 4th 2007 @ 11:44 amI signed up with Citi Rewards Diamond Preferred card about a year ago mainly because of 5 points for grocery/gas offer and only 55k points required for international travel. I specifically verified that over the phone, when signing up, cause I was comparing against another card/mileage I had at the time.
Guess what, now that I want to travel it turns out I need 80k points for a ticket to Asia that would cost up to $1600, then 5k points for each $50 over that price, up to $2000. But it gets worse: they can only book through expedia and the cheapest ticket there is over $3000!!! What a deal. My friend just got a ticket for $1400 for the same destination/time through a travel agent… I’ve switched to this card specifically for international travel and now cannot use the points (have 120k)! This is such a scam. Their excuse: the rules have changed many times since I’ve signed up. Nobody notified me, of course…
Advise for others thinking of this card: get your specific offer in writing and test it asap, before accumulating points that may turn out to be useless.
Comment by Lidia — Sep 10th 2007 @ 6:40 pmI have the same problem as Lidia trying to get two international tickets to Asia. It used to require 120K points, now is 160K. I called to complaint, multiple times to ThanksYou network and CitiBank. I finally got two managers on the phone with me and they each agree to give me 5000 bonus points so I would have enough to get the 2 tickets I originally have enough points to get. I finally got the tickets, even I have lost a few hundreds $ for not redeeming those points sooner. But now with their plan changing to give out 2 points only for grocery, I’m researching to switch to another cc.
Comment by Liz — Oct 2nd 2007 @ 11:08 pmThank You Networks is currently offering a falsely advertised “solar recharger” backpack. It’s advertised to recharge your computer on the go, along with mp3 players, cell phones, and related equipment.
Upon arrival, I read the one sheet of instructions, which CLEARLY states that the recharger is NOT intended to be used with computers. I called Thank You Networks several times, spoke with a supervisor twice. They have informed me that I have no recourse whatsoever. They will not take the backpack back, though they admit that the advertising is incorrect. I cannot get my points (over 11,000) back. The only thing I can do is send the backpack to the manufacturer and request a new backpack! Why would I want another one?
Citibank tells me that they have no control or influence over Thank You Network. They did say they would spot me a few thousand points, but it will take “2 billing cycles” for that to show up. I requested a different reward program and intend to change to the dividend card, if I like that. Otherwise, I will cancel my Citibank card and find something better. I seldom fly, so miles points are of no use to me.
By the way, I did try the charger on an mp3 player, since it was useless for anything else I own. It caused the mp3 player to malfunction. Fortunately God heard my petition and we were able to get the player to reset itself several hours later.
I heartily recommend that no one order any “gifts” from the Thank You Network. They don’t check them from quality or even truthfulness, and they take no responsibility for any, ANY, defects or problems. They don’t even take returns.
Comment by Tracey — Oct 5th 2007 @ 5:40 pmI’ve had Citibank for several years now and had been saving my points up to get something big. Over the years they rolled me over into a new rewards system that finally ended up at the Thank You network. I was planning on booking a cruise, talked to a representative who recommended getting gift certificates that I could use anytime. A few months later, I noticed that my balance was missing 18,000 points. Called them up and they said that those points had expired. I mentioned that I had just called a couple months previous and their customer rep recommended a reward that convince me to save up and little more… and made no mention of the points expiring. Furthermore, I received no notice, no message on their web site… they used to include reward points and expiration on their bills but no more. I pretty much got a “too bad,” a rude representative, and no acknowledgment that their system sucks. I have slowly been switching to an AmEx card and will close my account soon. I was a Citibank customer for 15 years but no more.
Comment by Tammie — Oct 9th 2007 @ 7:45 pmThe last straw for my citibank dividend “world” mastercard was a recent trip to europe where, upon returning, received a statement with foreign transaction fees totaling $75. This amount is 3% of the total foreign purchases made. I only later found out that my wife’s Capitol One card has 0% foreign transaction fees (Amex is 2%). This, along with the impersonal form letter replies and lowering of gas, supermarket, and drugstore purchase dividends makes switching a no brainer.
Comment by Bill — Oct 17th 2007 @ 10:34 amWell, I have had it with their constantly changing pricing structure for redeeming points, too. Can anyone recommend an alternative from personal experience?
Comment by Josh — Oct 19th 2007 @ 11:00 amI too got screwed by the ThankYouNetwork changing their flight policy. I used to be able to book a domestic flight for 25000 points. I live in a small city and am more than 2 hours from a major airport so this was a great deal being able to fly out of a small airport. Now, the same ticket would cost me well over 45000 points. They have eroded out the value of my points. Of course I was never notified or given the option of keeping the previous agreement.
Comment by Aaron — Oct 24th 2007 @ 11:38 amI have had the Citibank Platinum card for 3 years now and actually run a lot of my business expenses through the credit card. I have used the rewards with gift cards to certain stores. I always purchased the $100 cards for 10,000 points as the $50 where 6,000 points as of the last year or so.
I went to redeem a bunch of cards for Christmas and most of the retail stores no longer have $100 gift cards. You have to pay 6,000 points for the $50 cards. I basically gave away $120 dollars worth of cash in getting cards for Christmas.
I called Thank you Netwokr and they said it was up to the Vendors. I called Citibank and they said they have no control since they outsource the rewards to Thank you Network. I explained that they may need to reconsider then. She was very rude and said Look “You can get an Omaha steak gift card” for 9,000 points and a Sharper Image for 10,000. You know Sharper Image is about double the prize of items you can buy in other retail stores.
I am keeping the credit card until I make sure all reoccuring billing is off there but I am switching away. I feel it was basically the bait and switch that Citibank pulled.
Dean
Comment by Dean Johnson — Nov 12th 2007 @ 11:16 amAfter 9 years I have finally gotten rid of all association with citi cards, who seem to have thiker hands in everyone’s pockets these days, they resort to very underhanded tactics to continue to get monies not owed to them even after an account has been closed for a year or more. Two of my cards originally were not handled by CITI, then , you know who , came into the picture and both accounts became a huge pain in my arse, and ended up costing me a minimum of 60 bucksmore than I had charged on them. On one account, aftyer getting fed up with all the misc. charges I sent in a payment of 156.81 to pay the account off, someone on CITI’s end used white out to cover the written numbers and wrote above the box on the check 1,056.81, my bank confirmed it had been done on the CITI bank end, it cost me 290.00 in bounced check charges and even after I called and was told the account was closed and the matter was cleared I continued to recieve bills and then collections threats for additional charges they tacked on AFTER the account was settled and closed, Does the word CROOK apply here, I think so, I will make absoulutly certain that CITI is in no way involved in ANY financial dealing I may have in the future and will be certian to warn any and all listeners as to the nature of this beast.
Comment by K DeLong — Mar 29th 2008 @ 2:14 pm