Insider’s experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here’s how). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners, however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

The Citi Premier® Card is an especially lucrative choice because of its elevated welcome bonus offer of 80,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Based on Insider’s valuations, this bonus is worth around $1,280 in travel when you transfer your rewards to airline and hotel partners. Citi is an Insider advertising partner.

Review: Is the Citi Premier the best credit card for you?

The Citi Premier® Card offers a generous bonus of 80,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening, strong rewards, and many ways to use your points. If you’re looking for an all-purpose travel credit card with an annual fee under $100, the Citi Premier should be on your shortlist.

You can use Citi ThankYou points from this card in multiple ways, including redeeming for gift cards, merchandise, and travel booked through the Citi portal. You can potentially get even higher value by transferring your points to Citi’s airline and hotel partners, like JetBlue, Choice, Wyndham, and Air France-KLM.

With the Citi Premier® Card, you’ll earn 3x points at supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations, and on air travel and hotels, and 1x on everything else. So you can earn and redeem your rewards on everyday essentials if you’re staying close to home, or take the card on the road and get excellent value that way, too. This versatility is why the Citi Premier® Card sits at the top of our guide to the best Citi credit cards.

If you’re looking to really boost your Citi ThankYou Rewards earning, consider opening the Citi Premier® Card plus the other two cards in the Citi Trifecta — the Citi® Double Cash Card and Citi Custom Cash℠ Card. With this credit card combination, you’re guaranteed to earn 2x to 5x rewards for every single purchase and earn maximum points.

Before you decide if the Citi Premier® Card is a good fit, you’ll also want to consider cards that offer similar flexibility and earning opportunities. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a similarly strong bonus and options for earning and redeeming — you can check out our Chase Sapphire Preferred review for the full details.

Or if you don’t want to track bonus categories, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card comes with a hefty bonus and solid earning on all purchases (you can find out more in our Capital One Venture review).

We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.

How to earn points with the Citi Premier card

This is a rare card that offers bonus points in several popular categories that just about anyone can use. Cardholders earn:

• 3x points on air travel and hotels (including travel agencies)
• 3x points at gas stations (excluding gas purchases at warehouse clubs, discount stores, department stores, and convenience stores)
• 3x points at restaurants (including cafes, bars, lounges, and fast-food restaurants)
• 3x points at supermarkets (excluding discount superstores and warehouse clubs)
• 1 point per dollar on everything else

How to use Citi ThankYou points

Here’s where the Citi Premier® Card really stands out — you have many options for using your ThankYou points, whether you like to travel or prefer using points for gift cards and merchandise.

Transfer Citi ThankYou points to airline and hotel partners

When you have the Citi Premier® Card (or the Citi Prestige® Card
, which isn’t available to new applicants), you can transfer your Citi ThankYou points to over a dozen airline and hotel partners — mostly at a 1:1 ratio — to book award travel.

The value you’ll get per point is dependent on the partner you choose and how you use the miles — typically, redeeming for expensive, international premium-cabin award flights will get you a higher value than domestic economy seats.

If you collect Sears Shop Your Way points, they’re another transfer option at a rate of 1 Citi ThankYou point to 10 Sears points. Note that if you only have a no-annual-fee Citi ThankYou credit card, like the Citi Rewards+® Card, the only partners you can transfer to are JetBlue, Wyndham, and Choice, and the ratios are slightly lower.

Redeem Citi ThankYou points for travel, gift cards, merchandise, and more

You can redeem Citi ThankYou points for gift cards, statement credits, or cash back at a rate of 1 cent each, making the bonus of 80,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening worth $800 in rewards. You can also use Citi ThankYou points at the same value to make a charitable donation or book travel through the Citi portal.

It’s also possible to pay with points at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, but you’ll get a lower value when you redeem this way — as little as 0.5 cents per point.

Citi Premier card benefits

Annual $100 hotel discount

The Citi Premier® Card comes with a valuable benefit for travelers that can more than offset the annual fee. Once per calendar year, you can get $100 off a hotel stay of $500 or more (before taxes and fees) when you book through the Citi ThankYou travel portal.

Interestingly, you can get the discount whether you pay for the hotel stay with your card, Citi ThankYou points, or a combination of both.

Purchase protection

Additionally, the Citi Premier® Card offers purchase protection if an item is damaged or stolen within 90 days from your purchase date. You can receive up to $10,000 in coverage per incident (with a maximum of $50,000 in coverage per year).

Extended warranty

The card also offers extended warranty protection — you’ll get 24 additional months on manufacturers’ warranties of five years or less for eligible items purchased with the card.

Citi Entertainment

As a cardholder, you get access to the Citi Entertainment program, which offers presale tickets, preferred tickets, VIP packages, and more. You’ll need to provide the first six digits of your card number as the passcode to take advantage of Citi’s ticket benefits when you check out at Ticketmaster or Live Nation.

Fees and costs

The Citi Premier® Card comes with a 19.74% – 27.74% Variable APR, so this isn’t a good card option if you plan to carry a balance. If you plan to make a large purchase you want to pay for over time, you should check out the top 0% APR credit card offers first.

This card comes with a $95 annual fee, but you won’t pay any foreign transaction fees.

As with most cards, there are also fees for balance transfers, late or returned payments, and cash advances.

Comparison: Citi Premier vs other Citi cards

There are dozens of travel rewards credit cards to choose from nowadays, but many consumers prefer cards with flexible rewards programs. With flexible, or transferable, points, you aren’t tied down to a specific loyalty program, and you can redeem your rewards how you want.

*eligible 5% cash back categories on the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card are restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment

Citi Premier vs other travel credit cards

Citi Premier card frequently asked questions (FAQ)