Up to 30,000 ThankYou Points for New Citi Rewards Credit Card Sign Ups ($192.60 Annual Fee, Waived in First Year)
Citi has extended its 10,800 miles sign-up bonus for the popular Citi Rewards card. Apply by 31st March 2021 and spend $3,000 in the first three months to qualify.
Note:
- Basic fee of S$192.60 inclusive of GST
(first year-waived)- Min. income S$30,000 (local/PR) or S$42,000 (foreigner) a year
- Age 21 and above
10,800 miles sign-up bonus
The sign-up bonus for the Citi Rewards card for those not currently holding a Citi credit card and having not held one in the last 12 months prior to application, is worth 10,800 miles, provided you have S$3,000 of spending to do in the next three full calendar months starting from the end of the calendar month of card approval.
For example, if you are approved for the card on 7th January 2021, the qualifying spend period is from that date until 30th April 2021 (three full calendar months from the end of January 2021).
***Get approved towards the beginning of the month (e.g. early January) to give yourself almost four months to meet the spend threshold.
Spend exclusions
As usual with these promotions, your S$3,000 qualifying spend must fall outside the following excluded categories:
Equal Payment Plan (EPP) purchases.
Refunded / disputed / unauthorised or fraudulent retail purchases.
Quick Cash / Ready Credit PayLite and other instalment loans.
Paywise / cash advance / quasi-cash transactions, balance transfers, annual card membership fees, interest or goods and services taxes.
Bill payments made using the card as a source of funds.
Late payment fees.
Any other form of service / miscellaneous fees.
The bonus points will be credited within two months from the eligible minimum spend being satisfied. Full terms and conditions relating to this offer for new Citi credit card customers can be found here.
Existing Citi customers
If you are an existing Citi credit card holder, or had a Citi credit card account which was terminated in the last 12 months prior to application, you unfortunately won’t be eligible for this sign-up bonus.
One exception is if you are a supplementary cardholder with Citi in Singapore, but not the main cardholder on any such account, you will be eligible for the sign-up bonus when you apply as a main cardholder.
How it works
Provided you are eligible, and you apply for a Citi Rewards card on or before 31st December 2020, which is subsequently approved within 30 days, you will be awarded 27,000 bonus Citi ThankYou Points once you’ve spent at least S$3,000 on the card in the qualifying spend period as defined above.
These are true bonus points, as you’ll also accrue Citi ThankYou Points at a rate of 1 per S$1 (or 10 per S$1 in eligible categories) for your first S$3,000 spending on the card as usual on top of that.
Remember that Citi ThankYou Points transfer to airline miles at a 2.5:1 ratio, which is why the 27,000 bonus is actually only worth 10,800 miles.
Unfortunately in October last year Citi amended the S$12,000 annual cap for bonus miles earning at the 4 mpd rate using this card with a S$1,000 monthly cap instead, meaning it no longer works very well for large one-off purchases.
This also makes it more difficult to channel all your S$3,000 minimum spend for the sign-up bonus in the 4 mpd category, without sacrificing some points here and there, as you’ll want to meet the minimum amount in the first three months to be eligible for the bonus.
Total earning can be up to 22,800 miles
That means you can actually do much better than Citi’s advertised “30,000 ThankYou Points (TYP)” welcome gift, by ensuring all your S$3,000 spend is in the 10X (4 mpd) category. For example:
3,000 TYP (S$3,000 x 1 on all spend)
27,000 TYP (S$3,000 x 9 bonus category spend)
27,000 TYP (welcome bonus)
57,000 TYP total (22,800 miles)
Bear in mind that’s the maximum you can achieve under this offer, as you may not be able to channel all S$3,000 spend in the 10X (4 mpd) categories.
It’s also important to remember the bonus remains 10,800 miles whatever you do, since you’d get 30,000 of those ThankYou points (12,000 miles) for S$3,000 spend even without a sign-up offer running.
Flexible points
Citi has one of the widest range of frequent flyer programmes for you to transfer your points into, including British Airways, Etihad Guest, Turkish Airlines and Qantas, making these very flexible points to accrue.
Given the card is fee-free, the bonus miles are effectively free too, though try to stick to the 4 mpd categories for as much of the qualifying spend as possible and revert to better cards for general spending, like the UOB PRVI Miles which earns 1.4 mpd locally for general spend.
A new fantastic use for Citi ThankYou points is a transfer to Qatar Privilege Club for a Business Class redemption on Qatar Airways from Singapore to Europe for 70,000 miles (e.g. Athens) or 75,000 miles (e.g. London), plus just S$68 in taxes and fees.
That’s at least 17,000 miles less than Singapore Airlines is charging with KrisFlyer miles for its Europe flights.