New: Citi ThankYou Preferred Card 50,000 Point Bonus = $500 in Gift Cards

Citi couldn’t stay way, given all the other $500 value offers still hanging around. I love that this is the new standard for a simple credit inquiry, and that basically my wife and I can score at least $2,000 in free money a year, exempt from taxes, with as little as two credit applications per year. (We actually do much better than this…) We just refinanced a mortgage and got a new homeowner’s insurance policy, so I know it’s not hurting us in other areas either.

The Citi ThankYou Preferred Card has upped their game with a 50,000 ThankYou Point bonus broken down into two parts: You get 25,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $5,000 in purchases within 6 months of account opening, and you get an additional 25,000 bonus points after another $5,000 in purchases are made within the next 6 months after that. You do not need to qualify for the first 25,000 points to be eligible to earn the second 25,000 points. See below for details on how this is worth $500 in gift cards, airfare, or a check towards your student loan or mortgage. No annual fee.

This offer is both better and worse from their last 50,000 point promo back in June. The required spending is higher, although spread out over a much longer period. You basically have to spend $5k within 6 months twice, for an average of $833 a month. However, the last offer was for the Premier card with a $125 annual fee. This Preferred version has no annual fee.

Here’s a summary of your best values for ThankYou points, in case you don’t want to slog through all the many redemption options at ThankYou.com. In general, it takes 10,000 ThankYou (TY) points to redeem for a $100 gift card to retailers like Gap, Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, Bath and Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, Cabelas, CVS Pharmacy, Kohl’s, Land’s End, LL Bean, Sears, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Staples, and Walmart. Bolded are my favorites. So with 50,000 TY points, you could get five $100 gift cards from different stores.

Want something closer to cash? For a check mailed to you, it costs 8,000 points for $50. For a statement credit, it’s 7,500 points for $50. A check mailed towards your mortgage payment or student loan (made out to your lender) costs 2,500 points for $25. This works out to 1 cents per point. Otherwise, it may be better to redeem your points for a Walmart gift card and then sell it for cash at a site like PlasticJungle.com that offers you 90 cents+ on the dollar. I just checked, and a $500 Walmart gift card would net you $455 in cash or $477.75 in Amazon gift certificates.

Now let’s look at the advertised airplane ticket option. A good question is whether a flight booked through the ThankYou Travel Center costs the same as through any other travel site like Expedia, Orbitz, etc. I have some old ThankYou points lying around, so I went to the redemption site and found that the prices are very closely aligned to what is offered at sites like Expedia.com. I did a few quick searches for random flights, and the cost of the flight matched up with the cost in points in a 100:1 ratio. For example, the exact same flight below that cost $360 including taxes and fees on Expedia would cost 36,000 TY points. ThankYou Travel Center screenshot:

Expedia.com screenshot:

Quick recap. 50,000 ThankYou Points = $500 in gift cards, ($500 Walmart Gift can be easily sold for $450+ online), $500 to pay down your student loan, $500 to pay down your mortgage balance, or $500 in airfare at the same rates as available at Expedia.com.

Find more in Credit Cards, Deals & Offers | 9/23/11, 5:00am | Trackback

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