[Update 4/17/19: Today Citi sent some people an email on their AT&T card indicating that this option will be default-enabled beginning May 30. Apparently, this option is already live when you actively link your Citi and Paypal accounts, and beginning soon, some (?) Citi cards will have it enabled by default unless you specifically opt out.]
Today, Citi and PayPal announced an expansion of their agreement that will allow the use of ThankYou points to be used within Paypal checkout to pay for all or part of their purchases when shopping online at millions of merchants that accept PayPal in the United States. This functionality is slated to launch in 2018.
Now for the unexciting part: Citi has clarified with Doctorofcredit that the redemption rate with Paypal redemptions will be “the rate will be akin to that for other partners such as Amazon.” In other words, .8 cents per point.
If it would be one penny per point, it would be a useful option for those who don’t want to redeem for travel. Anything less than a penny probably isn’t worth it since you can get mortgage checks and gift cards at a 1 cent-per-point valuation. Also, Citi Prestige cardholders will be able to redeem at 1 cent-per-point directly as cash, beginning on July 23, 2017.
Hopefully, Citi and Paypal will run promotions to encourage people to use their ThankYou points on purchases, similar to the Amazon deals we see. Also, a reader pointed out that the Paypal and Amazon redemption options can be useful for someone who has small, orphaned point balances. Using Paypal or Amazon redemption, you should be able to redeem any amount.
Chase also just announced a partnership with Paypal to enable redeeming Ultimate Rewards points at Paypal checkout, among other things.
I didn’t know where to post this as this is the most recent TYP post I found in the search. Anyway, I just discovered that I am able to redeem for a statement credit or Direct Deposit for $.01 per point (with no minimum) for my Citi Preferred account. Previously, this was only available for the Premier and/or the Prestige.
Are you talking about the no AF Diamond Preferred Card or am I missing something.
Confirmed – I see this option for P2’s account who has a TY Preferred card. Makes cash out option work 1.1 cpp for the first 100,000 points cashed out when you also have a Rewards+ card on the account.
me too
Did you confirm that you get the 10% back when redeeming for cash? I just noticed this change today and decided to do a test redemption of $5 worth to make sure that I get it credited back.
Their terms say
Get 10% Points Back For the first 100,000 ThankYou Points you redeem per year
Amazon Shop with Points
Gift Cards
Travel Rewards
Select and Credit
Other Redemptions*
*Points Sharing is not eligible for the 10% Points Back feature
Update — got email saying that I earned points for my redemption, so it is indeed 1.1c per point (actually 1.111111… since you get an extra 10% for redeeming those points, and those points, etc.).
i thought it was AA miles for a moment. I was like BOOM BABY
Please note that thy points can be redeemed with a 10 percent kickback via the new citi rewards plus card up to 100k per year. Ie. Picking up a 100 dollar giftcard for 10k points will yield 1k points being deposited back to your account.
so any TYP card is eligible?
Seriously, who falls for these redemptions? Huh? 20% less than it’s nominal value? Duh.
The large majority of people using these cards will fall for these. Can you really see Mike from your speech class in college getting 1-1.5cpp on TYPs? No, of course not. He was too busy getting drunk 3 days a week and got a 2.80 GPA. He pays 22% interest on his Citi TY Preferred, but raves to all his friends how he gets free stuff from Citi when he uses paypal and amazon on his card. He has no idea how much his rewards add up to, but he loves Citi because they reward him and he doesn’t have to learn anything about rewards.
It’s actually good when they come up with shitty redemption options since people will waste their points which lowers citi’s cost per point meaning they don’t need to cut benefits to make more money
Fuck PayPal
+1
I don’t understand why they would even have this feature. Why would anyone not just redeem for 1 cent per point for cash? Same thing goes for UR points for amazon. Are they trying to trick some people who don’t really understand this to waste their points?
ThankYou points cash redemption is .5 cents per point so this is better. (Prestige cardholders will soon be able to get 1 cent per point. As can Chase.)
That said, I’m in total agreement with you that most people should figure out how to redeem for more, either with mortgage check or gift cards.
You can pay bills with TYP if you have a Citi checking account already at 0.65 cents per point.
That’s absolutely what they are doing. You need to realize you are small subset of the population: somewhere around 2%. You are more knowledgeable, informed and thrifty and use money to your advantage. Features like this are big hits for the 98%. They are easy to use and they don’t have to worry about the “headache” of getting their points into cash – all they have to do is shop on Amazon or PayPal, which is a large portion of online shopping. As a community, we need the 98% to use low-value rewards and pay interest for us to continue so next time don’t think of it as a negative, but a positive.
damn it citi how low can you go?
Any minimum? I have 900 useless TY points from the checking account that is now closed.
Oh, good point. This option should help for such scenarios. I know on Amazon you can redeem any amount, so should be the same.
I’ll add that to the post.
I am glad this is going into effect immediately, so I can rush out and redeem my 5,000,000 points through PayPal instead of waiting on the new cash reimbursement rate through Prestige. What better rate could I possibly expect than $0.008!!! Label me ‘super-duper triple excited!!!’ Citi once again just blows us away with their creativity, vision and ability to ‘Get IT done!’ /s
I am so curious – when Citi or any program launch this kind of no-value programs to their customers how many “dumb” customers actually take the bait and redeem their points? What’s gain for Citi to push this type of programs?
I imagine Citi does quite well out of these sub par redemption, but I wonder if the people redeeming would just have orphaned points otherwise.
Good point, but I would suspect that it’s actually in Citi’s interest to get people to redeem these orphaned points. If you never redeem them because it’s too “difficult”, then eventually you realize that and get a different card. They probably generate a lot of goodwill by making it so easy.
They are still a liability