Citi has changed the bonus verbiage on the Citi Strata Premier card. Previously it stated:
Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi Premier® or Citi Strata Premier℠ account in the past 48 months
Now it states:
Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new account bonus for a Citi Premier® or Citi Strata Premier℠ account in the past 48 months or if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a new account bonus in the last 48 months into a Citi Premier® or Citi Strata Premier℠ account
Only really an issue if you product change an existing card to the Citi Strata Premier.
In what situations would the added verbiage be applicable? Does Citi typically provide bonuses for product changing to the Strata Premier?
Upgraded Points fleshes it out further in this post: https://upgradedpoints.com/news/citi-strata-premier-card-bonus-restrictions/
In my case, I received the Premier bonus in 10/2021, thus making me eligible for the Strata Premier bonus until 11/2025. I also have a Custom Cash, which I received the bonus for in 12/2021.
With this change, it sounds like if I upgrade my Custom Cash to a Strata Premier, I would reset my Strata Premier bonus eligibility to 48 months after 12/2021, pushing my eligibility date back to 01/2026.
In my case, I might as well wait until November and submit a fresh application.
Would really like to pick up the Strata Premier but concerned that I will be locked out of the rumored Strata Elite for 48 months
I’ve never seen Citi attach the SUB to a product change. Wonder if this was just an option that was selectively available by a rep that was taken away.
That is not how I am reading it. I think they are saying if you earn a SUB for a Rewards+ card, for example, and then after a year convert it into a Premier, you are shut out from a Premier bonus for the next few years. You are not getting a SUB to product change, but you got it on a card that you then product changed.
Good catch — Personally, I’ve preferred to product change down (not up) to Double Cash or Custom Cash after 1 year (for the sign-up bonus) on premium cards with annual fees like this Citi Strata Premier and the American Airlines ones, so should still be good there.
Man, 48 months really is a long time. 4 years. What else takes that long… Oh no.
*presuming there will be another card/election, of course.
Citi is getting tougher on approvals for the bigger bonus cards (Premier, AA Platinum, etc). I guess if you were denied multiple times for the Premier, but could open a Rewards+, that would be a way to eventually get a Premier.
On the AA cards (this is anecdotal so take it as such), over a year ago, I was surprised when P2 was denied for an AA card (nearly same financials that I had used and got approved, she had a pre-existing bank/card relationship, had not opened too many accounts, etc.). Citi’s reasoning was just a ‘nope,’ then a ‘sorry no recon possible,’ almost as if she was blacklisted or there was a macroeconomic reason. A year later, hardly anything had changed on her end, tried again, approved. Odd stuff. ‘Tougher’ indeed. But also indiscriminate.
Product changed AND got a bonus for doing so.
I’ll bite – how? Was this evident in online banking or explicitly stated prior to the conversion?
I read it as if you got a bonus on the card you PC’d from in the last 48 months. So got a Custom Cash bonus then upgraded to a Citi Premier a year later etc.