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.
Is there any 48 month related reason not to close this account (2 years old, was opened as a Premier) and sign up again in 2027 for a new bonus? Or should I PC it to a free card and hold so I don’t have a closed acct on my record 2 years before trying to open the card again?
You may want to PC to a Citi CustomCash card, which earns 5x (up to a limit each billing cycle) on similar categories* as on which the Premier/Strata only earns 3x (unlimited).
That way you may continue earning points which you’ll then be able to combine with your new Strata Premier card once you get a new one in 2027 or whenever.
And, FYI, while Citi terms say that you can’t outright apply for a second CustomCash card if you already have one, you can definitely convert another card (such as Strata Premier) to a second CustomCash card if you already have one, because that’s what I did a few months ago.
*The Citi CustomCash 5x categories are: Restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, live entertainment.
Select Travel includes airline, hotel, cruise line and travel agency purchases. Excludes timeshares, boat leases and rentals, campgrounds and trailer parks, and real estate agencies.
Select Transit includes car rentals, ferries, commuter railways, subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, bus lines, and motor home and recreational vehicle rentals. Also includes merchants that sell electricity for charging an electric vehicle. Excludes bike/scooter rentals, auto clubs and insurance companies.
In what situations would the added verbiage be applicable? Does Citi typically provide bonuses for product changing to the Strata Premier?
what nk3 said below
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.
I just recently accidentally opened a Strata without realizing I had already received a bonus in the last 48 months. I suppose that won’t reset the clock?
It may depend on whether they were planning to give you a bonus. You should verify that they agree that you don’t qualify for the bonus before assuming it won’t reset the clock. And if you do qualify for the bonus, you should probably act on it, because it’s not clear from the rules if being approved for bonus a but not collecting it counts in some way, since it’s such a rare case that they might not state it.
There’s lots of other things that Citi looks at that can disqualify you in some way.
And thus it’s possible that cancelling a card soon after you open it, possibly in combination with other things, may disqualify you not from a future bonus, but from a future application approval.
Citi only publishes rules for bonuses, not for getting approved.
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
You might be waiting a while, though I hope not–there’s been a lot of ‘talk’ out there.
In addition to a nice SUB, if Citi brings back Prestige-like benefits, including 5x dining/airfare and the 4th night free, that’s a keeper card, and it may justify closing Amex Platinum and Gold. Such a card may even be better than the CSR’s 3x (even at 1.5x value), though Chase still has Hyatt/United transfers, eh.
Sure, Citi doesn’t have its own lounges, but there are so many others out there already.
And Citi isn’t cheap about excise taxes like Amex. Huge plus if Citi actually adds American Americans as a transfer partner. One can dream.
You should apply for the Strata now and PC to the Elite when/if it comes out (assuming its benefits are what you expect). Yes, taking the Strata bonus now would likely preclude you from getting the initial bonus on the Elite, but there is no telling what that bonus would be, and the Strata bonus is pretty solid right now. In addition, if the Elite doesn’t come out for another year, let’s say, you would already have a year under your belt towards the 4-year wait until your next Strata eligibility.
…my refs to “Strata” above should have been “Premier” (with the exception of the last sentence)…I keep fumbling over the recent name change.
Thanks great advise! I have a lot of travel planned over the next year and it will be nice to take advantage of the 3x categories right now.
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.
Sometimes its targeted, like a mailer or pop-up; or, a rep offers it in-bank or over-phone, or you request it and they provide it; or, there’s nothing available at all.
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.
This could be a big issue — citi just gave me an offer to upgrade my reward+ to premier with first year annual fee waived, and my 48th month of getting the bonus of premier will be this November. Damn.
First, you didn’t state whether you accepted the upgrade offer, just that Citi gave it to you, plus how long you’ve had the Rewards+ card.
How long you’ve had the Rewards+ card matters a lot, since if you got the bonus on the Rewards+ card more than 4 years ago, there’s no issue here at all.
And, of course, if you didn’t accept the upgrade, it’s all irrelevant in your case.
Citi stupidly gave me that offer multiple times very soon after I downgraded my Citi Premier, which was just changing to Strata at the time, to a second Custom Cash card, which will give 5x instead of 3x on the category I used the Premier most (and not that much in recent years).
Why would I want to upgrade to a card which I had just downgraded?
Meanwhile, there is some value in the Rewards+ card, even if you don’t use it much: The Rewards+ card posts a bonus to your combined points after a points transfer, which no other Citi card does.
So that’s probably why Citi is trying to trick us into upgrading it to something that doesn’t earn any points bonus on points transfers.
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.
It is always variable, and there are weird nuances we do not know but trigger the denial algorithm. In the late 2010’s I was getting Citi cards left and right, often with nice bonuses. But starting around 2021, they seem to get much tougher. Often denying with 1-2 hard pulls in the last 6 months, giving reasons like “too much unused credit,” etc. I was denied a couple times for a Premier, even when trying to appease them (slowed velocity, used my cards more, reduced my credit limits to free up some space). I was able to recon one. Have since been denied for the AA Plat (and it was a hard no when trying to recon). I was approved for the Custom Cash a month after one of the Premier denials (but that has a lower SUB, of course).
P2 was approved for the Premier in 2022 (had not had a Citi card in years), but then was denied on subsequent AA attempts. And he has a much lower velocity, fewer cards, etc. Even Ben at OMAAT was denied for the AA Platinum.
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.