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Plastiq Payments Earn 5X Points (up to 7,500) With Citi Prestige Promotion

June 26, 2020 by Harlan 9 Comments

If you have a Citi Prestige card, there’s a promotion running through the end of August 2020. You can earn 5X points per $1 spent on “online purchases” – up to 7,500 Citi ThankYou points.

My friend Angie tipped me off that Plastiq payments are working to trigger the bonus points, so I took the opportunity to make a $1,500 auto loan payment. Plastiq is a bill payment service that allows you to pay most bills (and even individuals providing a service) with a credit card.

Details of the Citi Prestige 5X promotion

Sure enough, I earned 7,500 Citi ThankYou points for the payment. So while that’s great, a word of caution. Plastiq is increasing the payment fee from 2.5% to 2.85% on July 1, 2020.

If you wanna get in on this easy win, you only have a few more days!

Citi Prestige Plastiq 5X points

Roundup of Targeted Amazon Offers With 1 Amex, Chase, Citi, or Discover Point – Save on Holiday Shopping!

November 23, 2019 by Harlan 1 Comment

There are lots of targeted Amazon promotions out there now. Which is awesome, because Black Friday are Cyber Monday are next week! When you combine these deals with inevitable sale prices, you stand to save buku bucks this holiday season. Or you can do like I did, and stock up on dog food. 😹

With all of them, you’ll save either a percentage or dollar amount off your purchase – and you only have to use a single bank point to trigger the deal. This year, you can use 1 point from the following programs:

Amex Membership Rewards points
Chase Ultimate Rewards points
Citi ThankYou points
Discover It or It Miles points/miles

So if you have any travel rewards credit cards, dust ’em off and check if any of these deals are targeted for your Amazon account.

Save on Amazon shopping when you use a single bank point and get a targeted offer. I got several this year!

I’ll share the current promotions, tricks to get them to appear, and my usual bits and baubles. 🧿

Targeted Amazon promotions with 1 bank point – Holiday 2019

Citi ThankYou Points Are My Earn & Burn Currency of the Year! 60,000 UR = 100,000 TYP (Prestige Vs Sapphire Reserve Pt. 2)

March 2, 2019 by Harlan 10 Comments

I recently emptied my Citi ThankYou points account. Yup, I burned every single last point to stay at the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta. For my 4-night stay, I could’ve spent:

80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (because it’s 20,000 Hyatt points per night)
~131,000 Citi ThankYou points (with the 4th night free thanks to Citi Prestige)

I asked a friend which would be the better option. “Whichever is easier for you to replenish,” was her advice.

Within my Chase Ultimate Rewards portfolio, I spend most on my Sapphire Reserve for 3X, and sometimes my Freedom for 5X. Within my Citi ThankYou portfolio, I spend most on my Prestige for 5X, and sometimes my AT&T Access More for 3X. And the Prestige 5X category gets the bulk of my attention.

If I spend $10,000 on flights and dining:

On Sapphire Reserve at 3X, I get 30,000 points
On Prestige at 5X, I get 50,000 points

For my same spending, I get way more rewards. For the hotel stay above, the earn rate was actually equal (80/3 = 131/5). But for transfers to airline miles, that’s the difference between getting 1 award ticket instead of 2 for the same spend.

Match your spending to a 5X category and see what happens.

For views like this, just burn Citi ThankYou points if your 5X categories are similar to mine

If you buy a lot of airfare, and eat out often, you’d do well to earn 1.67 more points per $1 – they add up fast!

Citi Prestige Vs Chase Sapphire Reserve (again)

Citi Prestige Vs Chase Sapphire Reserve: Which Ultra-Premium Card Is Better? (Bonus Categories, Perks, Insurance)

March 2, 2019 by Harlan 18 Comments

Dang, this is hard. I’ll go ahead and say, “It depends.”

But I am going through it, y’all.

Both the newly refreshed Citi Prestige and ever popular Chase Sapphire Reserve have their place in this world. And I know which one I’m using a LOT more (Citi Prestige). But I can’t bring myself to downgrade my Chase Sapphire Reserve because I don’t want to lose specific perks.

As I look at them, side-by-side, I gotta say – it’s a total wash. Do I keep ’em both?

And while I’ll stick with Citi Prestige short-term, I think they’re both keepers. Let’s compare.

Citi Prestige vs Chase Sapphire Reserve – 2 excellent ultra-premium cards

The 5 Best Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners Are…

January 8, 2019 by Harlan 28 Comments

Citi ThankYou points are easier than ever to earn.

I plan to put airfare and dining on my Citi Prestige to earn 5X points per $1 spent, and use my Citi AT&T Access More card (not open to new applicants) to get 3X points for online shopping. Between these 2 cards, I’ll be flush with Citi ThankYou points this year.

And peeps with the Citi Premier can earn 3X points on all travel, including gas, and 2X points on dining.

In that light, I’m giving thought to Citi’s 15 airline transfer partners. But in my eyes, a solid 2/3 of them are total caca.

That means only 5 are worthwhile.

Man, I gotta get back to Hawaii this year. You can use Flying Blue or Singapore miles to get there cheap!

Let’s take a looky loo, shall we?

The 5 Best Citi ThankYou Transfer Partners

$3,000 or 225,000 Airline Miles From ONE Sign-Up Bonus – But They’re Not for Everyone

November 18, 2018 by Harlan 7 Comments

Update: This offer is no longer available. Check here to see the latest card offers!

Capital One shook things up this week when they announced mondo 200,000-mile sign-up offers on their Spark Miles and Spark Cash cards. And on the Spark Miles card, those rewards will become transferable to 12 airlines starting December 2018, which is stellar. It’s always good to have more options – especially with flexible rewards programs.

In fact, peeps looking for a single-card solution to most points dilemmas finally found their match. You can redeem the points for 1 cent each, and with the Spark miles card, transfer them at a 2:1.5 ratio to useful airlines like Air Canada, Etihad, and Qantas.

They’re excellent deals if you want a rewarding small business card without hassle. You’ll end up with $3,000 or 225,000 airline miles after the minimum spending is complete.

The required spending and opportunity cost are high with this one

But they’re NOT for everyone. I’ll explain why.

$3,000 or 225,000 Airline Miles After a Boatload of Spending

Only Days Left for Citi ThankYou Premier’s Incredible 60,000 Point Bonus (Easy $800 for Travel)

October 6, 2018 by Harlan 2 Comments

Update: This offer is no longer available. Click here for the best current offers!

If you haven’t jumped on this offer yet, time’s almost up. Citi will pull the chance to earn 60,000 Citi ThankYou points with the Citi ThankYou Premier card on October 11th, 2018. Each point is worth 1.25 cents toward travel (including airfare, hotel stays, cruises, and excursions), which makes this offer easily worth $800 after meeting the minimum spending requirement.

Even better, the annual fee is waived the first year. So you can see if you like the card for 12 full months before paying. Even then, Citi is excellent about retention offers for bonus points upon card renewal. I get them regularly.

This is also one of the few cards to earn 3X points on gas (and travel).

Citi ThankYou points helped me get to Prague. 60K is the best offer there’s been for the ThankYou Premier

I wish I could get this offer. You’re not eligible if you’ve opened or closed another ThankYou card in the last 24 months. Otherwise, there would be zero hesitation. This is the highest offer ever for this card.

Citi ThankYou Premier Bonus = $800

For Advanced Players: The Citi ThankYou Premier 60,000 Point Offer Is Easily Worth $900

August 11, 2018 by Harlan 12 Comments

Dang, I just checked my credit file, and it looks like I closed my last Citi ThankYou Premier card in June 2017. I still have my Citi Prestige card open (and can’t wait to see how they refresh it this month).

According to Citi’s rules, I’m not eligible to earn another bonus on a ThankYou card because I’ve opened OR closed a ThankYou card within the last 24 months. But man, if you’re eligible to apply for this offer, there is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t hop all over it – especially if you’re over 5/24.

I have some FOMO about this offer. Because this offer is an easy $900 toward travel.

I use Citi ThankYou points all the time – including for flights to Belgium to stroll the gorgeous river that runs through Bruges

Here’s my expert analysis. 🧐

Dat Citi ThankYou Premier 60,000 point offer tho

It Lives! 3X ThankYou Points on Plastiq Payments With Citi AT&T Access More Card

August 10, 2017 by Harlan 27 Comments

Also see:

A Ray of Hope for Plastiq 3X With Citi AT&T Access More Card?

I suspected this might be the case!

My statement closed last night and I just got the PDF. I can confirm all my rent payments made through Plastiq on my last Citi AT&T Access More statement earned 3X Citi ThankYou points. Even the ones made after July 22nd.

3X is alive and well

The only things that didn’t earn 3X coded as utility payments… which Citi has always said will earn 1X anyway.

The other payments are coding as “Misc Government Services.”

My test payment from August 1st earned 3X and coded this way

I’m not sure what this means, but it looks like 3X is alive and well!

Citi Plastiq 3X is still around

Link: Sign up for Plastiq

Reader Amar confirmed on August 8th that his mortgage payment earned 3X as well.

Further, I made a rent, mortgage, and HOA payment – all earned 3X.

Interestingly, a student loan payment I made on my new Citi Diamond Preferred also coded as “Misc Government Services.”

Effin’ Mohela, man

I made the payment this way to avoid paying interest until 2019. But that it coded the same way leads me to believe some student loan payments will earn 3X as well. Previously, these payments coded as “Education” (which makes sense).

Somewhere along the line, the coding changed. And while I’d say to keep an eye on it, it seems 3X is good to go – for now at least.

Just wanted to share the newest data point. Let me know if it works for you, too!

A Ray of Hope for Plastiq 3X With Citi AT&T Access More Card?

July 18, 2017 by Harlan 19 Comments

I just made my last round of rent, mortgage, and HOA payments through Plastiq with my Citi AT&T Access More card because Citi is removing those transactions from earning 3X starting next week.

But as I reviewed the transactions, I noticed they weren’t coding as rent like they had before. Instead, they’re coding as “Misc Government Services.” That gave me pause because of the language in Citi’s T&Cs:

Plastiq 3X With Citi AT&T Access More Card

Quoth Citi

But upon further review, I earned 3X in this very same category as early as this month. Which makes me wonder… will 3X live on for rent and mortgage payments with the Citi AT&T Access More card?

A history of Plastiq 3X With Citi AT&T Access More Card

Flight Review: Brussels Airlines Business Class JFK-BRU

July 8, 2017 by Harlan 7 Comments

Also see:

Back in August 2016, I booked round-trip Business Class flights from JFK to Brussels on Brussels Airlines using ~37,000 Etihad miles (transferred 1:1 from Citi ThankYou points). That was an incredible value. Now it’s 44,000 Etihad miles each way, which is still a cheap price for Business Class to Europe. But not nearly as awesome, obvi.

I took the flights in May 2017 – a full 9 months after booking. It’s the farthest in advance I’ve ever booked a trip. So I was looking forward to it for a long time.

Our bird to Brussels

As the date neared, I firmed up my intra-European itinerary. And booked positioning flights to and from New York.

Here’s a look at what Business Class on Brussels Airlines looks like.

Brussels Airlines Business Class seat

Gasp! Citi AT&T Access More Will No Longer Earn 3X for Rent & Mortgage Payments

June 13, 2017 by Harlan 14 Comments

I am in a slough of despond. Following this morning’s depressing news that you can no longer use Visa cards for Plastiq rent and mortgage payments, I received the following email from Citi:

Crying

As of July 22nd, 2017, “rental and real estate” payments will only earn 1 point per $1 spent instead of the current 3X points. This was definitely going to be my backup for Visa cards.

And, given that Citi Prestige is getting poopier on July 23rd, 2017, I am suddenly rethinking my entire relationship with Citi cards.