Author Topic: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?  (Read 2965 times)

Eilonwy

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how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« on: October 30, 2018, 04:48:05 PM »
I got the citi premier card recently, and earned the 60,000 points bonus. It was directly stated that this 60000 bonus was worth $600 dollars. However, I've discovered that it's actually not. If you get a statement credit, each point has half the value. Using them on amazon is easy, but apparently costs about an extra third. (I discovered that today, when my husband bought an $18 item and was charged 2500 points.)

The only apparent ways to get the full value is through their travel portal (not a useful option for me) or through giftcards (also not a very useful option.)

Does anyone know of any other way to get the promised value from this bonus?

hay_otsuka

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2018, 05:26:16 PM »
You can sell points to travel points  broker for around 1.3 cents($780) .

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Dave1442397

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2018, 05:32:34 PM »
You can sell points to travel points  broker for around 1.3 cents($780) .

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That's interesting. I just got that Citibank offer for the 60,000 points, but figured I'd never use them (I saw that you had to redeem them through their travel portal).

Eilonwy

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2018, 05:56:15 PM »
Huh. You learn something new every day! That seems like a remarkably slim profit margin for the point brokers, though.

kpd905

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2018, 06:12:01 PM »
If you have a mortgage or student loan you can call and redeem them for 1 cpp.  Though as mentioned, the miles brokers will get you more.  We ended up getting $1451 from two Citi Premier cards.  I think I cashed most of the first one out for a mortgage payment before I thought of using the broker.

Eilonwy

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2018, 05:45:19 PM »
I feel a little weird about doing the brokers, but I will if I can't get any decent answers from Citi. I happened across a booklet of points options today and there are dozens of possibilities, but they never give the redemption value. I'm going to try calling, but I'm not hopeful.

hay_otsuka

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2018, 06:56:26 PM »
Certain gift cards go on sale sometimes for sounds 9k per $100 . I have sold millions of points to brokers with no issues

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flipboard

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2018, 11:43:54 AM »
Are these ThankYou points? *If* you travel they can be worth significantly more than $600, as long as you do enough research on miles and where to transfer them. (IIRC 60k is enough for 1-way business USA-Europe which costs a lot more than $600 in real cash, or a round-trip USA-Europe which is usually more than $600 in cash.)

(Of course, long distance travel isn't necessarily a mustachian thing to do, but if you happen to have relatives overseas then...)

Dave1442397

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2018, 01:10:27 PM »
Are these ThankYou points? *If* you travel they can be worth significantly more than $600, as long as you do enough research on miles and where to transfer them. (IIRC 60k is enough for 1-way business USA-Europe which costs a lot more than $600 in real cash, or a round-trip USA-Europe which is usually more than $600 in cash.)

(Of course, long distance travel isn't necessarily a mustachian thing to do, but if you happen to have relatives overseas then...)

That's worth looking into. We have to go visit family abroad next summer, and if I can get the price of even one ticket out of this it would save quite a bit.

bacchi

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2018, 01:41:47 PM »
Are these ThankYou points? *If* you travel they can be worth significantly more than $600, as long as you do enough research on miles and where to transfer them. (IIRC 60k is enough for 1-way business USA-Europe which costs a lot more than $600 in real cash, or a round-trip USA-Europe which is usually more than $600 in cash.)

(Of course, long distance travel isn't necessarily a mustachian thing to do, but if you happen to have relatives overseas then...)

That's worth looking into. We have to go visit family abroad next summer, and if I can get the price of even one ticket out of this it would save quite a bit.

If you're not in a hurry, wait until they offer a transfer bonus.

The xfer bonus (+30%) that just ended was with Virgin Atlantic. The previous xfer bonus was with Flying Blue (KLM, Air France).

Eilonwy

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Re: how to get most value out of deceptive Citibank points?
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2018, 09:27:23 PM »
Well, this is kind of funny... we've impetuously decided to take a trip and used all the points in the travel portal. :-)