Citi ThankYou Points Discontinues Mortgage, Student Loan Redemption Option

Citi has discontinued the option to redeem ThankYou points toward getting a check toward your mortgage or student loan payment. This has long been the steady way to get $.01 cent per point on Citi ThankYou points and has now been discontinued.

Some Citi cards, like the Premier, offer the ability to redeem directly at 1:1 toward a statement credit or direct deposit or regular check. At one point they began offering that ability even on some no-fee cards like the Preferred, then they corrected that. Even now, someone with just the Preferred card or AT&T card will not be able to get more than .5 cents per point when redeemed for cash, and the mortgage option is no longer around. However, many of us have the Premier card or Double Cash card or possibly others which enable the ability to combine points and then redeem for straight cash at 1  cent per point, even on cards like the Preferred or AT&T which don’t offer  that directly.

Hat tip to reader Selby

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Chris
Chris (@guest_1416122)
July 28, 2022 09:06

Yeah, only Citi TYP card I have is the Rewards+ (converted from a Preferred, which was converted from a Forward card years ago). Just checked and can only redeem for statement credit, direct deposit, or check by mail for $0.005/point. Looks like I may have to PC again to Double Cash so I don’t lose half my points as I’m not redeeming for GCs.

Jesse
Jesse (@guest_1416124)
July 28, 2022 09:09

If you have Double Cash and Rewards+ linked in one account then you get 1.1 CPP for direct deposits.

PT
PT (@guest_1416336)
July 28, 2022 16:47

When the only TYP card I had was Rewards+ (converted from Premier), I used it to cash out TYP at 1 cpp plus 10% bonus, so Im surprised at your 0.5 cpp rate. I think the Preferred was 0.5 cpp but since it was converted it should be 1 cpp.

RobotsRock
RobotsRock (@guest_1417304)
July 30, 2022 17:59
  PT

I wonder if there’s a grace period to get the best of both cards when converting from Premier to Rewards+ before it drops to 0.5 cpp. I have two family members doing the conversion in Q4 so there may be a strategy of downgrading from premier and cashing out on Rewards+ the next day at 1.1 cpp. Depending on timing in November/December this may allow cash out of 2k at $200 increased value within what I would guess is a 60 day period without having to get another card (Rewards+ resets in December cycle for 10% back for first 100k redeemed). Any data points would be helpful.

RobotsRock
RobotsRock (@guest_1418611)
August 2, 2022 07:04

To answer my own question from a response on another site, unfortunately there is no such grace period and it drops down to 0.5cpp immediately upon the change. So much for that strategy.

Lightspeed
Lightspeed (@guest_1415891)
July 27, 2022 19:13

 Chuck

Citi also killed the option to earn TYPs from checking accounts opened after July 18, 2022.

Accounts from before then are grandfathered in.

Andreww
Andreww (@guest_1416687)
July 29, 2022 11:18

Yeah but it looks like they are discontinuing paying with points online bill payments… Is anyone else seeing this on their checking account?

Danny
Danny (@guest_1418122)
August 1, 2022 14:34

I’m not sure what you can even do with those Checking Account TYPs anymore, since you can’t mix and mingle them with credit card TYP (for travel redemptions, etc)

TB
TB (@guest_1415807)
July 27, 2022 15:44

Its clear most of the noobs on this thread are non-MSers when everyone’s talking about the Rewards+ 10% rebate but nobody mentions the 100k TYP annual cap

Brandon
Brandon (@guest_1415992)
July 27, 2022 22:26
  TB

I hit the cap on two R+ cards annually…and zero MS. Pretty easy to do with the Sears TY promos though.

Matthew
Matthew (@guest_1416005)
July 27, 2022 23:07
  TB

The level of smugness it takes to call people who can’t afford something “noobs”

I hope the earth ends before I get to that level of treating people like shit

Ryan
Ryan (@guest_1416016)
July 27, 2022 23:51

MS doesn’t require massive amounts of wealth. You’re floating expenses on a CC that you liquidate for cash. Calm down, you self-loathing hobo

potatoslayer
potatoslayer (@guest_1416207)
July 28, 2022 12:12
  TB

@TB
Your comment really isn’t necessary. Do we need to spell everything out for you? I’m sure anyone who is going this route knows the limitations. Not every one does MS either, as it is subject to available resources which can dry up from time to time and comes with its own risks..

Some of us have other methods which are more efficient/profitable and don’t feel the need to use certain accounts for MS.

Don’t know the reason you felt it necessary to belittle others on assumptions. You don’t know the story of everyone who uses this site as a resource.

Brandon
Brandon (@guest_1415789)
July 27, 2022 14:37

Some data points –
– Citi AT&T Access More – no longer has mortgage/student loan redemption, and all of the check/direct deposit/statement credit options are still $0.005/point.
– Citi TY Preferred – same
– Citi Rewards+ – same
– Citi Sears TY – same

So…looks like they’re trying to shove people to get Premier cards? The lack of notice is troubling on this one.

Otto
Otto (@guest_1415805)
July 27, 2022 15:31

Change your Preferred into Double Cash or Custom Cash. Those cards have 0 AF and will get you 1cpp and then any linked cards can get the 1cpp as well. I don’t see any reason to keep the Preferred.

Brandon
Brandon (@guest_1415989)
July 27, 2022 22:24

Well there is one benefit – it still has the extended warranty and is the only $0AF that does I believe. That said, my wife’s AT&T Access More also has that…but I also weigh every year the AF on her card. Have debated the Premier, DC, and CC for a product change though on the TYP. In context the extended warranty is pretty big for me – I regularly benefit from this benefit on everything from cell phones to laptops to a living room chair.

Kimberly
Kimberly (@guest_1421139)
August 6, 2022 18:15

I believe the Rewards+ has the same extended warranty with no AF though, right?

potatoslayer
potatoslayer (@guest_1415761)
July 27, 2022 13:21

Was able to redeem for direct deposit. 10% back on the transaction through rewards+.

Jake
Jake (@guest_1415752)
July 27, 2022 12:59

You can directly redeem 1:1 with direct deposit now, it is easier and more convenient

Alex the Churner 🔗
Alex the Churner 🔗 (@guest_1443847)
September 12, 2022 22:01

Jake I am getting 0.5 with Rewards + for DD option

Jake
Jake (@guest_1443861)
September 12, 2022 22:15

Double cash card? You need to have Double cash card to get 1 cent.

Geogeo
Geogeo (@guest_1415749)
July 27, 2022 12:50

Hi everyone! I am currently a holder of the Citi premier credit card. The annual fee will be charged in early August. I am thinking of closing my account. But I wonder what is the best option to maximize my TYP (over 110,000).
I already have a Double Cash card, which I rarely used. So the downgrade-card-to-be for my citi premier seems going to be Reward+, which will keep my TYP from expiring with the extra benefit of an additional 10% when and if I decide to redeem my TYP to cash.
(I understand the points are most valuable when they are redeemed for mileage but without AA as an option I am not keen to do that).
Is my understanding correct?

yugi
yugi (@guest_1415913)
July 27, 2022 19:53

Get the Custom Cash instead. I already converted all of my Citi cards, except of Prestige and AT&T AM to those, and now I have 9 of them.

20201103
20201103 (@guest_1416100)
July 28, 2022 07:56

You have 9 what? Custom Cash?

yugi
yugi (@guest_1416297)
July 28, 2022 15:18

Yes

20201103
20201103 (@guest_1416462)
July 28, 2022 20:44

Thanks for DP.

Geogeo
Geogeo (@guest_1416445)
July 28, 2022 20:10

yugi could you please enlighten me of the pros of downgrading to custom instead of rewards+? I was suggested to go for rewards+ for it offers 10% extra…

yugi
yugi (@guest_1416526)
July 28, 2022 22:57

You only get up to 10k points back with R+, while with CC you can get 2500 points every month, equal to 30k per year. You can also convert DC to CC, to get additional 30k per year.

potatoslayer
potatoslayer (@guest_1415744)
July 27, 2022 12:26

Damn.

I had been transferring TYP to my Rewards + and getting a 10% bonus on the mortgage redemption. Did the 80000 point SUB with Premier and got 8000 bonus this way.

Guess I’ll have to find another trick.

TB
TB (@guest_1415753)
July 27, 2022 13:04

Lol… “trick”
People like to think of themselves smarter than they actually are

Matisyahu
Matisyahu (@guest_1415767)
July 27, 2022 13:29

Can’t you just have all your TYP earnings cards under the same TYP accounts and redeem all points earned via the Rewards + 10% bonus?

W.C.G.
W.C.G. (@guest_1415743)
July 27, 2022 12:25

I’ve got DoubleCash, Rewards+, and Custom Cash all combined into one TYP account. I can redeem for direct deposit or statement credit (I think both Custom Cash and DoubleCash have these options) and it’s effectively at 1.1 cpp because the Rewards+ 10% points refund kicks in on this combined TYP account.

Transferred some points from my wife’s Premier and those were able to cash out via direct deposit at 1.1 effective CPP as well

Jane
Jane (@guest_1415737)
July 27, 2022 12:10

I have redemption for statement credit with no minimum on Rewards+.