Citi Partners With Wonder For Gift Card Redemption's + $5 Bonus

Citi has partnered with the Wonder gift card app to let cardholders redeem their Citi ThankYou points for an increased range of gift cards. You’ll only receive 0.8¢ per point in value though. Here is how it works:

Download and open the Wonder app for iOS or Android
Choose your favorite local store or national brand
Select the amount of points you want to use for a statement credit
Your eligible Citi credit card will be charged for the full purchase amount
The selected amount of points will be deducted from your ThankYou member account and you will receive a corresponding statement credit to your Citi credit card account in 24-48 hours

Contents

1 $5 Bonus
2 Referral Program
3 Why I Prefer This System
4 Our Verdict

$5 Bonus

When you download the iOS app you’ll currently get $5 off your first purchase of $10 or more. Their Android app isn’t live yet, but clicking the app link on the home page will bring up the following promotion:

Referral Program

At some stage Wonder also offered a referral program, you’d get $10 when the person you referred spent $25 or more. I asked on Twitter but it doesn’t seem like this promotion is active anymore. If it is, let me know in the comments and I’ll let you share your referral links.

Why I Prefer This System

Usually when you redeem for gift cards, you’re given the same rate as you would for redeeming for cash back/statement credit. This doesn’t make any sense, as I could redeem for cash and then use my credit card to make the purchase and earn rewards on that purchase. That’s basically what Citi is doing, except making it a bit easier. Obviously in most cases it doesn’t make sense to pay full price for gift cards anyway, but Wonder is location based so presumably they might have some smaller retailers that it isn’t possible to purchase gift cards for.

Our Verdict

I think most people will get far more value out of either transferring their Citi ThankYou points to travel partners, or redeeming them for travel directly. The 0.8¢ rate frankly sucks, Citi could have made this launch somewhat interesting by offering at least 1¢ in value but they haven’t. I’ll probably download Wonder, get the $5 bonus (not using Citi TYP) and then completely forget about the app and this partnership.