I’ve written in the past about how I’m not a big fan of the Citi ThankYou Rewards program. The main problem was that you had to pay a premium for lower dollar value rewards — e.g., 1500 points for a $10 gift card and 3500 points for a $25 gift card. Since the earning structure is the same as other cash back cards, points should be worth a penny each. However, for lower dollar value rewards, you end up getting far less than a penny in return.
The upside used to be that $50 gift cards could be had for 5000 points — fair market value. Well… It seems that Citi has now reworked their price structure such that $50 gift cards now go for 6000 points. In other words, the argument that you can just save up your points for a higher dollar value no longer holds water.
Bottom Line: Instead of using the Citi ThankYou Rewards you could try using a straight cash back card like the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Visa Card instead.
Hat tip to commenter Buddy Hall for bringing this change to my attention.
“…don’t get the payment don’t deserve late fee reversals. No one takes responsibility for anything anymore because the society in it self have that attitude. If someone wants change start with yourself first and others will follo”
Dear Dear an apologist for the exploiting bourgeois classes. Oh the poor, poor Banks!!! Listen to this guy. don’t deserve the late fee reversals. Late fees are sheer exploitation. It’s parasitic!! Jack does not understood why credit cards were issued in the first place ( they were issued in response to the ever diminishing wages and benefits and lack effective demand)
It doesn’t start with “yourself” “jack” it starts with class struggle!
“Wow…everybody on hear complaining cracks me up. First of all you are getting stuff for free…citi could just take it away and not give anythin”
So sad how cosumers like this are lead astray. These rewards programs are nothing but customer recruitment and marketing techniques to impoverish the workers of the world and find new and clever means to create profit out of debt.
What do you really get for these points? DEBT and high interest rates. So CUI BONO? The Financial Oligarchy.
It was these same banks that received several trillion dollars in the ‘bail out’and you are still paying for it with a regressive tax system. Debt is a way of enriching the 1/10 of 1% of the billinaires/multi millionaires who own this country.
Terms and Conditions is just a mechanism for legally ensuring their right to exploint you. Wake up. Stop being a compliant consumer and live your life more simiply. Socialism and Communism is the answer. It is necessary not an option.
I agree with Jessica, most people that have the cards, never bothered to read the fine print, as they signed the dotted line of terms and condition.
When people complain is because they are majority of the time wrong and clueless about the terms and conditioins. When people don’t make the payments and complaints about that they did not get a statement, heads up oblivious, there is no requirement to send out a statement, infact you know you have a credit card, you pay it every month, one month the statement does not reach you, card member call to complain they did not receive statement and states that no one has not sent out one. Welcome to the real world, when the postal workers are being laid off due to hardship, the postal service sucks. So now it is your credit card co’s fault that you did not receive a statement. Listen, there is no recourse on the postal system after a statement once it is generated, and mailed. What’s next hand delivery. The credit card bill is the same date every month. Call in payment, do it online, via bill pay or your credit card website. Don’t call a credit card company to complain when they will help you and offer to reverse a late fee and then offer to set up auto pay to avoid future late fees, and all one will say is that they will continue to make payments as they choose, and then they call and complain about the same thing month after month. People who does not act proactively when it comes to they bills and continues to pay the old fashion way which in these days is less secure, through mail and the bill don’t get to them or to the credit card company don’t get the payment don’t deserve late fee reversals. No one takes responsibility for anything anymore because the society in it self have that attitude. If someone wants change start with yourself first and others will follow.
Wow…everybody on hear complaining cracks me up. First of all you are getting stuff for free…citi could just take it away and not give anything. Second, citi has ti make money too…ya know to pah the reps that answer your phone calls and help you with your accounts. Thirdly, if you would read your card agreement then maybe you would know what’s going on and then you wouldn’t get cs reps telling you that there is nothing they can do. As far as the point values for redeeming…those are based on how much the item actually costs citi, hence a $100 store giftcard is cheaper than a $100 prepaid visa card. If you would buy the items in a store it would cost you more to get a visa card than to get the store giftcard. And the $50 giftcards for 6000 points are only for certain accounts, most accounts do get $50 for 5000 points. So, why don’t you people read theterms and conditions before signing up for something.
Screw this reward point system….. 30,000 dollars spent and only 2082 reward points…. cant even buy myself 15 dollar earbuds with this system’s reward points… but w/e doesnt matter for me i hate banks, banksters and their whole system designed to enslave people while they build themselves nice houses and have jets that fly anywhere they want and eventually take over the world because we cannot pay back Our Debt!!! Genius, goes to show how low the human race really is…. enslaved by the few…. Pathetic!!!!!
I have had some bad experience with thankyou.com lately. In the past I’ve redeemed for games and things for the house (lawnmower and tools) but now I see they’ve cut a lot of the vendors that would allow you to earn double digit points per dollar. In addition, I just had to fight to get 15k points reinstated to my account as I closed my primary checking account due to fraudalent activity and this resulted in my thankyou account being closed as well, even though i had other citi checking and savings accounts. I will say that once I discovered this, I received excellent customer service from my in bank service rep and she facilitated the contact with thankyou via telephone. Bottom line is, I don’t think there a scam but the value just isn’t there anymore… might be time to jump ship 🙁
I have just converted Driver’s Edge to Thank you points. i have roughly 150,000 points and had my eye on a Mac pro laptop. One that trades for about 170,000 points would cost over $500 if I bought the point difference. The computer retails for $1199. Another outrageous example is another Mac Pro laptop that trades for ca. 290,000 points would cost over $3000 if I bought the difference in points. It retails for $2199.
I griped to Citi and threatened to take my business elsewhere. Actually, I use my Discover card for better rewards on a monthly basis. I am likely to ditch this Citi credit card once I get something from these thank you points. At the going rate of one point for dollar spent, it would take years to amass enough points for a major item. That 290,000 point laptop would require spending $290,000 – you got to be kidding! Unfortunately, you cannot use a credit card for a car or home purchase!
I do not want to publish who I am using now for my rewards card because it could be considered ulterior motives.
Let me just say that Citibank is the worst rewards card I have ever had by far. They changed cards on me for no reason other than they wanted to as I am a person who puts both nearly ALL business and personal epenses on a credit card and then pay it off at the end of the month. I have never let a balance roll over.
Citiban basically kept lowering the cap off on points and required me to use two different credits card of theirs and I had t switch when I met my point cap midway through the year.
The Thank you Netwok was the biggest joke on earth charging something like $125 dollars for $100 gift certificates. I called to tell them this is not fair and they just kept saying “That is not true, you can buy $100 worth of Omaha Steak for $100”. They were rude, outsourcd overseas, and tried to get people to get gifts worth $10 for $50 worth of points.
The last 3 – 4 years I have been using a program that is paying me back on average around 2% of my total purchases and I have had no problems. I can redeem my points at any time I get them send to me within 2 days of requesting them. The average percent depends on where you make purchases and is 1 on most things but is 3% on certain classes of purchases and up to 5% on specials they have with companies.
I encourage people to drop Citi and do their own due dillgence and find a credit card that has no cap on points (there is not a cap on money they make off sales), does not nickle and dimme you on Foreign transaction fees, always pays at least 1% and you can purchase items/cash back always at least for 1 to 1.
Consumers are the only ones that have the power to stop banks like Citi. I would encourage all people who have Citi to write a letter (not email) to the corporate office and explain why you are leaving and how much money you spent with them. I did this an got a call from their upper management who even understood why I left completely.
Good Luck,
Dean
Harumph…I’m SICK of getting ripped of by credit card companies. I have over 26,000 points (who cares) with this company and can’t even get onto the website to see what “rewards” they offer! I didn’t sign up for the stupid card for the rewards in the first place but I’m just disgusted with the crap credit card companies are allowed to get away with in the first place. Citicard is certainly no exception. Pthththth.
I have a student credit card from citi bank and a Thank you card from Citi bank! You call them and they are so rude to you! They do max you out quick don’t they? I don’t get alot of purchase credit next thing I know I have no credit to purchase anything!
Every thing is in the past. The drivers card is going away, as well as the rebates earned & the new card “the thank you card” has cut the cash rebate to .625 cents per point.IE it takes purchases of $8000-8000 points to recieve $50 back.Atleast there is no membership fee.
I’ve been getting points banking at Citibank and have been able to get quite a few nice things for my home and yard using these points.
I logged on to my account today and have rarely been so disappointed. The “awards” now offered are a shadow of what they used to be. Example: “Outdoor Living/Lighting” category used to have lots of nice, useful yard, path and party lighting–now it consists of 408 kinds of Big Screen TV Projector bulbs (out of 466 total “lighting” items)! WTF!!??
Similar results searching other categories: no more market umbrellas (a couple of ugly beige ones and one hideous circus-stripey model). Patio furniture–ugly rococo cast aluminum garbage. Looking for a gas barbecue grill—well, forget it–unless you’re looking for one with a large and ugly school logo. NO THANKS!! Bedding and Bath? GONE! Furniture: Dozens of barstools. 88 different kinds of vacuum cleaners….repeats of basically the same thing over and over…….I could go on….
THE AWARDS PROGRAM HAS BEEN GUTTED/DUMBED DOWN. The person responsible for this “improved” program should be canned, stat.
I’M CLOSING MY CITIBANK ACCOUNTS. ITS B******t!!
I have been trying to redeem some points for weeks and can’t get the website to fully load to make a purchase.
you are all a bunch of idiots who dont understand a damn thing that your doing you should read your terms and conditions that way your not stupid enough to fall for all the things you’ve all been falling for I take advantage of all my thankyou points and i’ve gotten a stupid of stuff for free if your broke and dont spend on your account then i guess you can feel stupid enough to place bad comments on here maybe you should just accept the fact that your stupid and stop complaining about a legit company as citi bank
I am happy that i am not alone. I was told thank you points don’t expire. last week i logged on to the system and found my 30k thank you points missing. I called thank you network and they told me that i need to call citicards and that i need to ask them to file dispute. He was nice enough to connect me to the citicards.The account manager in citicards was extremely unfriendly. She was like you have not used the card in 5 years and hence it expired. I told her that i have been told it never expires. She was like do you have a card agreement?
I later went home and found that my card was applied in 2007 and i wasnt using this card because i used another citi card. I have been their member since 10 years and now i am getting rid of all my relations with them. I wont recommend anyone to citicards.
I have had good experiences with other customer services in citi but this female really irritated me.
I would advise everybody to redeem your points for whatever you get immediately else you are gonna lose all of them.
Today I logged on to my THANK YOU account and found that over 87,000 points are missing! I called them and they said that the points were to expire in 2008 and earlier this week they ran a purge to get rid of the expired points. This is nonsence, the points were earned in the middle of 2007 with a five year expiration period. Back in December I did a year-end review and noted that the pooints were properly documented as expiring in 2012. Now I have to go back through my records and hope to find 3 years old credit card statements to prove their value. Boittom line: Keep your recoirds and take screen shots of your points.
After being a Citi cardholder for 10 years, I’m canceling all of my accounts after my horrible customer experience with them.
I had signed up for a Citi Platinum card over a year ago that had an accelerated Thank You points program (3x for every dollar, 5x for gas, groceries, drug stores) and when the year was almost up, I called and asked if there was an annual fee. The rep told me no and I politely insisted that he double check. Still the answer was no. I called again a week later and asked the same question. Again the answer was no and the rep joked that he could upgrade me to a card with an annual fee if that would make me happy. I hung up feeling confident that there was no fee. Ironically (yet not surprisingly), when the year was up, I was charged a $125 annual fee. I called and asked if the fee could be waived (partially or entirely) and the rep said no. I told them I called twice previously and confirmed that there wasn’t a fee and the rep said the previous reps probably looked at the wrong annual period. I didn’t want to pay the fee and so I cancelled the card.
By this time, I had accumulated just under 50,000 thank you points (I’ve been saving them up for good $100 gift cards) and I asked the rep what would happen to them. She said that as long as I had another Citi card under the Thank You network, which I did, my points would remain active, otherwise they would expire in 30 days. So this was good because I figured I’d use my other Citi card in order to reach 50,000 points and then redeem them for a bunch of $100 gift cards.
One day, I logged into my Thank You network and saw all of my points missing. Shocked, I called Thank You and they said my points had been forfeited due to the closure of my Citi Platinum account. I immediately called Citi, told them that I was advised that my points would remain active since I had another card under the Thank You network and asked if my points could be reinstated. The rep told me that the points were in fact forfeited because I was past the 30 days period to redeem them. I then learned that due to my Citi Platinum card being a “promotional” account, that having another card under the Thank You network would not keep my points active. I argued that I was not advised of this at all and the rep put in a request to a specialist to review my request for my points to be reinstated.
I later followed up and learned that my request was denied. I spoke to a senior account manager, explained the situation and all he could say was “sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” That was it – I am a good customer with excellent credit, no late payments and always paid my balance in full. I guess Citi doesn’t want to keep a customer like me and hence I’m canceling all my accounts.
So for those of you out there with lots of points, beware! Redeem them as soon as you can!
What a scam this Thank you network is turning out to be! I can no longer find a single way to convert points to dollars at the $1:100pts exchange rate!!
My Amazon.com VISA card through Chase is now letting me convert 5,000 points to $50 cash. I guess this means I’m cancelling my Citi card … after being a customer for 10 years … it’s almost sad to see it go.
PH. Look at any of your credit cards. B of A, Chase, Barclay card, citicard are all going up to about %26 pls the US prime rate. All Citicard payments can be processed at any Citibank location even through the atms, which includes 7-11 stores. So many people on here complain about late fees. The simplest way to avoid late fees PAY YOUR BILLS ON TIME!
If I were into options trading, I’d be quite confident in selling citi stock short over the course of the next year. I’m not even going to get into some of the run-arounds I’ve experienced with citi and their various offers because I think a letter I just got in the mail says it all. Like others posting here I have a citi diamond rewards card which Ive had now for 5 years. I was very happy with it to start with, but things have gone downhill in the last few years. My APR used to be around 13% on this card, but according to the letter I just received Citi says, “To continue to provide our customers with access to credit, we have had to adjust our pricing.” Wondering what this ever-so-characteristically-nebulous statement meant, I flipped the letter over to read the fine print. It says the purchase and cash advance APRs are being increased and the new APRs will equal “the US Prime Rate plus 26.74%”!!! I think Citi is in some serious shit these days… I am going to cash out my points and get out as fast as I can and I would recommend others do the same.
I could go on and on about the devious, infuriating and dishonest tricks I’ve noticed they use to make money. For example, if you want to avoid late fees and have your bank account automatically charged each month for your credit card bill, the automatic payment option does not deduct from your bank account until the last available second on the due date. This means that you receive a late payment warning each month and if *anything* gets delayed or goes wrong with the bank deduction you get slapped with a $40 late fee. In addition, you get to pay finance charges on your entire balance until the account gets paid… BUT you can no longer pay your account online!! The online account is frozen if you do not pay on time, which means that you either have to mail a check or call customer service, where it now costs $15 to pay your account off over the phone… This has all happened to me in spite of the fact that I had plenty of money in my bank account the whole time to pay off the bill in full. Now when this happens again, instead paying 13% interest on the amount that I owe, I will have to pay 26+% in spite of the fact that I could have paid the balance in full in the first place. I am sick of the risks and constant worrying about fees! Using a credit card should not have to be as risky and dangerous as betting with subprime mortgages, but these days it seems thats how it is. I only hope the other credit card companies are a bit less sharkish. Ive heard good things about AE and Discover…
I’m on board with leaving Citi and their YoureNotWelcome Network. The gift cards $100 options have dwindled down to a few terrible stores. The $50 and lower options are too expensive. I’m sick and tired of the poor customer service and I’m leaving. There’s no incentive to earn rewards (every product is at least 200 points to $1 ratio! That’s outrageous!
Goodbye and good riddance. I hope the ThankYou Network shuts down as more and more people realize that it’s not worth the time and money spent.
I can tell you right now as an employee of citibank all the points offers are given in writing. Those pamphlets the citibank employees gave you on credit cards cover the qualifying behavior to recieve the points bonus. Also, the ninety days it takes to recieve the bonus points is to make sure you don’t cancel the card right away. Furthermore, as far as dealing with expedia for travel that is part of the thankyou network. Expedia is one of the sponsors of the Thankyou network so of course you have to book through them. When you buy a new car and get a year of service free on it do you bitch and moan, because the service has to be done at the dealership? As far as finance charges go if you spend resonsibly you are not going to face overage, and finance charges. For all of those that can handle paying their bill on time, not overspending etc. I would recomend the new CitiForward car
Citi Forward
Up to 2% purchase APR reduction when you make a purchase, stay under your credit line and pay on time 3 billing periods in a row
6,000 ThankYou points after you make $50 in purchases within the first 3 months
5,000 points when you sign up for paperless statements within the first 3 months
5 points for every $1 you spend on dining, fast food and entertainment, 1 point for every $1 you spend on other purchasesâ€
100 points each billing period when you pay on time and stay under your credit line
0% APR on Purchases and Balance Transfers for first 6 monthsâ€
No annual fee
I will take on any and all questions.
Dean –
We are 2 peas in a pod. I’m glad you told me of your wasted efforts to contact citi. I was prepared to write a few letters and make some phone calls, but it appears that is a waste of time and breath. After I posted my prior message, I cashed out 20,000 points and cut up my Citi mastercard. It’s discover or an REI rewards card for me (we spend plenty there and it was a quick alternative). I’m surprised Citi is alienating valuable customers like you and me. I am through with them.
Andy,
I am glad to see other good clients bailing on Citibank.
II logged in to check my balance as I am going to leave the account open but not use it. However, it is a good idea to have a back up card since the Chase Visa is now my main card.
I logged into the website and sent a secure email on 7-15-09 and asked for someone to look up my business and how much money I have made for CITI by them charging for each transacation. I told them that it appears they do not care anyting about their clients and why have a credit card with an Outrageous finance charge if the rewards are less than a standard cash back card.
The EMAIL STATUS IS UNREAD.
Citi states they will reply within 24 to 48 hours. It is going on a motnh and they have not even read it.
I sent another email and called Citibank but they just dont care. “We are sorry you feel that way,” is there anything else we can do? I asked if they could at least escalate my coimplaint or keep it on record. She said Yes but she didnt type and it was obvious the CS rep has been trained just to ignore these calls.
I have gotten more points with my new VIA in 2 weeks than I received in the last 3 months of my Citibank card.
The best advice I can give anyone is to avoid Citibank like the plague.
Dean
I’m with Dean. My citicard thank you network usage and story is nearly the same as his – only my spending is a bit lower $1k – $2k per month. I loved the gift cards, but as Dean noted, they slowly rose in price. Additionally, the gift card options are less and less valuable – no more home depot, sears, jc penney, overstock.com, or Target – the choices we always picked. At least not at the $100 level – some may be available at lower levels, but they are too expensive. I’m cancelling my citicard and will be on the hunt for something else.
I have been with Citibank for 5 years. The first two years were pretty good on their rewards program. I spend about 2 – 4k a month average and pay off my balance every month (A lot of business purchases) and would end up with about $1200 worth of gift cards which I would cash in every year for Christmas for gifts for family, kids, and then some extra for my wife and I.
First the Thank You network got rid of the 5,000 points for a 50 dollar card. It became 6,000 points for a 5,000 card. They then got rid of the extra points for shopping at certain places. This pattern continued on with everything.
The bottom line is they now want 14,000 points for a $100 prepaid credit card which is 1% back and then asking for $140 dollars for a $100 card.
I also noticed what a ripoff their products are. I looked at the on sale section and they have the Tiger Woods Golf for the 360 on sales for 9800 points, They are asking $100 for a game that costs 49.99 in all stores.
I cashed all my points out each year in September or October to make sure none would expire.
For some reason this year, even though I have spent more money, I have less points and my balance went down.
I have received less than 0.25% of my purchases in points and no one at Citibank or the Thank You Network can explain.
I just cashed out $220 worth of points and got $150 worth of gift cards.
I cancelled my citibank card today and applied for an Amzaon Credit Card. The Amazon card supposedly offers a minimum of 1% on all purchases and 2% on gas, food, office supplies. They give you a $25 Amazon Gift Card every time you get 2500 points.
I am switching to this because it is at least fair at this point and time, Amazon does have low prices and I am tired of getting ripped off by CItibank.
I told Citibank that I hope they go bankrupt and they are ther worse credit company I have ever dealt with.
MY advice is to avoid them like the plague and find another reward card.
Dean
PS: I am NOT recommending the Amazon Visa. It just happened to appear to be a much better deal to me and cannot be worse than Citibank. Nothing can be worse than Citibank.
Does anyone know who ThankYou partners with to manage/ship their gift cards?
After 9 years I have finally gotten rid of all association with citi cards, who seem to have thiker hands in everyone’s pockets these days, they resort to very underhanded tactics to continue to get monies not owed to them even after an account has been closed for a year or more. Two of my cards originally were not handled by CITI, then , you know who , came into the picture and both accounts became a huge pain in my arse, and ended up costing me a minimum of 60 bucksmore than I had charged on them. On one account, aftyer getting fed up with all the misc. charges I sent in a payment of 156.81 to pay the account off, someone on CITI’s end used white out to cover the written numbers and wrote above the box on the check 1,056.81, my bank confirmed it had been done on the CITI bank end, it cost me 290.00 in bounced check charges and even after I called and was told the account was closed and the matter was cleared I continued to recieve bills and then collections threats for additional charges they tacked on AFTER the account was settled and closed, Does the word CROOK apply here, I think so, I will make absoulutly certain that CITI is in no way involved in ANY financial dealing I may have in the future and will be certian to warn any and all listeners as to the nature of this beast.
I have had the Citibank Platinum card for 3 years now and actually run a lot of my business expenses through the credit card. I have used the rewards with gift cards to certain stores. I always purchased the $100 cards for 10,000 points as the $50 where 6,000 points as of the last year or so.
I went to redeem a bunch of cards for Christmas and most of the retail stores no longer have $100 gift cards. You have to pay 6,000 points for the $50 cards. I basically gave away $120 dollars worth of cash in getting cards for Christmas.
I called Thank you Netwokr and they said it was up to the Vendors. I called Citibank and they said they have no control since they outsource the rewards to Thank you Network. I explained that they may need to reconsider then. She was very rude and said Look “You can get an Omaha steak gift card” for 9,000 points and a Sharper Image for 10,000. You know Sharper Image is about double the prize of items you can buy in other retail stores.
I am keeping the credit card until I make sure all reoccuring billing is off there but I am switching away. I feel it was basically the bait and switch that Citibank pulled.
Dean
I too got screwed by the ThankYouNetwork changing their flight policy. I used to be able to book a domestic flight for 25000 points. I live in a small city and am more than 2 hours from a major airport so this was a great deal being able to fly out of a small airport. Now, the same ticket would cost me well over 45000 points. They have eroded out the value of my points. Of course I was never notified or given the option of keeping the previous agreement.
Well, I have had it with their constantly changing pricing structure for redeeming points, too. Can anyone recommend an alternative from personal experience?
The last straw for my citibank dividend “world” mastercard was a recent trip to europe where, upon returning, received a statement with foreign transaction fees totaling $75. This amount is 3% of the total foreign purchases made. I only later found out that my wife’s Capitol One card has 0% foreign transaction fees (Amex is 2%). This, along with the impersonal form letter replies and lowering of gas, supermarket, and drugstore purchase dividends makes switching a no brainer.
I’ve had Citibank for several years now and had been saving my points up to get something big. Over the years they rolled me over into a new rewards system that finally ended up at the Thank You network. I was planning on booking a cruise, talked to a representative who recommended getting gift certificates that I could use anytime. A few months later, I noticed that my balance was missing 18,000 points. Called them up and they said that those points had expired. I mentioned that I had just called a couple months previous and their customer rep recommended a reward that convince me to save up and little more… and made no mention of the points expiring. Furthermore, I received no notice, no message on their web site… they used to include reward points and expiration on their bills but no more. I pretty much got a “too bad,” a rude representative, and no acknowledgment that their system sucks. I have slowly been switching to an AmEx card and will close my account soon. I was a Citibank customer for 15 years but no more.
Thank You Networks is currently offering a falsely advertised “solar recharger” backpack. It’s advertised to recharge your computer on the go, along with mp3 players, cell phones, and related equipment.
Upon arrival, I read the one sheet of instructions, which CLEARLY states that the recharger is NOT intended to be used with computers. I called Thank You Networks several times, spoke with a supervisor twice. They have informed me that I have no recourse whatsoever. They will not take the backpack back, though they admit that the advertising is incorrect. I cannot get my points (over 11,000) back. The only thing I can do is send the backpack to the manufacturer and request a new backpack! Why would I want another one?
Citibank tells me that they have no control or influence over Thank You Network. They did say they would spot me a few thousand points, but it will take “2 billing cycles” for that to show up. I requested a different reward program and intend to change to the dividend card, if I like that. Otherwise, I will cancel my Citibank card and find something better. I seldom fly, so miles points are of no use to me.
By the way, I did try the charger on an mp3 player, since it was useless for anything else I own. It caused the mp3 player to malfunction. Fortunately God heard my petition and we were able to get the player to reset itself several hours later.
I heartily recommend that no one order any “gifts” from the Thank You Network. They don’t check them from quality or even truthfulness, and they take no responsibility for any, ANY, defects or problems. They don’t even take returns.
I have the same problem as Lidia trying to get two international tickets to Asia. It used to require 120K points, now is 160K. I called to complaint, multiple times to ThanksYou network and CitiBank. I finally got two managers on the phone with me and they each agree to give me 5000 bonus points so I would have enough to get the 2 tickets I originally have enough points to get. I finally got the tickets, even I have lost a few hundreds $ for not redeeming those points sooner. But now with their plan changing to give out 2 points only for grocery, I’m researching to switch to another cc.
I signed up with Citi Rewards Diamond Preferred card about a year ago mainly because of 5 points for grocery/gas offer and only 55k points required for international travel. I specifically verified that over the phone, when signing up, cause I was comparing against another card/mileage I had at the time.
Guess what, now that I want to travel it turns out I need 80k points for a ticket to Asia that would cost up to $1600, then 5k points for each $50 over that price, up to $2000. But it gets worse: they can only book through expedia and the cheapest ticket there is over $3000!!! What a deal. My friend just got a ticket for $1400 for the same destination/time through a travel agent… I’ve switched to this card specifically for international travel and now cannot use the points (have 120k)! This is such a scam. Their excuse: the rules have changed many times since I’ve signed up. Nobody notified me, of course…
Advise for others thinking of this card: get your specific offer in writing and test it asap, before accumulating points that may turn out to be useless.
Just received notice that Citi is downgrading the Rewards card – again. Now instead of receiving 5 points for grocery/drug/gas I will receive just 2 points. I have never used this card for gas since I still get a 5% credit against the very next statement for all gas purchases on my Chase Rewards card (formerly Shell Rewards) and 1% on all other purchases. Given the “benefits” of the Citi card (lengthy wait for redemption, devaluation of the gift cards, etc.) I will switch to using the Chase card for ALL my purchases. As a former financial analyst with Citi(corp) Credit Card Services group, I too am not surprised at any of the complaints on this blog.
Another benefit of Thank You Points: I use mine to pay down my student loans. The redemption levels have no “premium” (100 pts = $1), I stopped saving for vacations until I’ve paid off my student loan.
Whoever uses their “thankyou” points for gift cards is missing out on a much better deal on travel. I just used 20,000 points for an airline ticket that would have cost $398. That’s basically $200 for a $400 ticket. So why get $200 worth of gift cards when you can double your value on travel? This is a much better deal than other rewards programs, including frequent flyers…..
I am very upset with both Citi thank You points and red Lobster restaurants.
10,000pts, you can go to chili’s, apple bee’s Even Chris and Ruths. but they won’t give you a Red Lobster $100. Certificate. I wrote Red Lobster & Thank You Network, numerous times.
You have to buy 2-$50. Certificates at 6000 Points each. Yes this is a rip off.
Or a serious prejudice corporate blunder against red Lobster!
Dan
what really makes me mad is that I ordered a $100 target card about 3 months ago, and when i did not recieve it after month of ordering i called them and they said they no longer offer that card. I asked why i was not notified, and they said they only take action when a customer complains. what’s worse is that they told me to get my points back i have to wait till they send me a claim, i have to fill it out, then send it back, then they will refund my points. so far its’ been 1/2 months and 2 calls, i have not recieved my claim forms. what do you think?
The Thank You Rewards program used to offer points off of your APR as well, now that was a DEAL, because we had consolidated some debt onto one card, and had a high balance. They had different offers: 1 point for three months or six months, 3 points for six months, etc. It was worth much more than a statement credit to us.
The offers would sometimes disappear and reappear, but I haven’t seen any for at least a year or two, now. Wondering if I should try requesting that as a “custom reward”…
Hi Jennifer – you have an uncanny knowledge of the Citi product. You also make some sly rebuttals to the previous complaints – you *do* get the points right away, cards *are* delivered quickly, customer representatives *are* waiting to help you out *free!*.
Wow. You are an excellent copy writer. How much is Citi paying you to troll blogs and add positive comments?
I was at first very happy with the thank you network, when i ordered $300 in best buy gift cards and they arrived within 3 weeks of ordering. I didn’t think that was too bad. Now I’ve ordered $200 in Home Depot best cards, and I have been waiting 7 weeks for them to arrive. I call customer service, and they have no idea what happened, if it got lost, if it shipped or what. Instead they are sending me a “claim” form, which apparently takes 10-14 days to get here. It will probably be another 2 months before I see any gift cards in the mail, and by that time I will no longer need a weed whacker as it will be winter. Thanks Citi Cards.
I have been nothing but satisfied with Citibank diamond preferred rewards card. I was skeptical at first, so I requested my two $50 gift cards right away…and got them right away! I’ve been saving ever since. I see that some of the prices have gone up, but it only takes 25,000 points to fly anywhere in the US or Alaska…I’m excited about that. I tell all my friends about this card. Just wait for a good deal. Also, to check your points and add the card to get points yourself, go to http://www.thankyounetwork.com And if you have any questions, call a representative. There are NO charges 🙂
Thank you network has another trick up their sleeve: they make you wait arbitrarily when you ask for larger amount gift cards (e.g., $100) because they profit when you cash up your points with lower exchange rates with the smaller denomination gift cards.
I recently ordered $250 dollars as Office Depot gift cards. I had to break it to 2x $100 and 1x $50 gift cards. While the $50 already arrived, the $100 cards are still “in progress”. It’s been about three weeks already. I call TYN and they say there’s a 2-5 weeks wait time for them to arrive. That info only shows up *after* you complete the purchase. Who waits for five weeks to get a gift card? This is really ridiculous.
I knew how much the Citi cards sucked, and thus I stopped using my Citi Rewards card a while back. However, I had ~ $250 worth of points so I had to deal with the Thank You Network to get some cash. I would get statement credit, but that is a bad deal – you get much less than when you buy gift cards. And they converted my Rewards card to Business card which doesn’t allow statement credit. Smart, eh?
Which rewards card gives you 5 points for gas/groceries/drug? Cuz I have the professional card, and I get 3 points for gas/restaurants. Thanks!
I just redeemed a $100 “gift certificate” to Carnival Cruise lines to use on our cruise that we have booked. Turned out just to be a $100 coupon off a new cruise. Do you think it said that anywhere on the web page? Nope. I’ll be cancelling my card.
The 5 points earned at grocery/gas/drug stores should make up for the premium.
Signed up for Diamond Preferred rewards card. Citibank offer was we would recieve 10000 points after our first purchase. We made the purchase within the three month time limit. We inquired with citibank about our points. Citibank people first said it will rtake three monthjs for the points to post. Now they are saying you needed to spend $150 to get the points. There is nothing in the documnetation about $150 minimum purchase. These people will lie to keep from keeping their word. I cant help but wonder how many other people ahave nbeen cheated by citibank in this way. I reported them to the BBB. We’ll see what happens next.
I have worked in Citi Credit Card division for years. I worked in all dept. There is nothing you guys can say that will shock me more than Citigroup does. Since Lee Friburg took over the Citibank credit card division it has gotten to be a no brainer to go some where else with your buisness. Citi makes most their money off fees and Credit Potecter (which is not worth it). Part of my one job was to find a reason, any reason to increase customer intest rates to increase the bottom line. Also they have cut payroll in half as well as benafits to the employees, So with that in mind you are getting what you pay for. Citi credit card division now has about a 45% turn over rate, which means if you have a problem and call, the person on the other end of the line won’t know what your talking about let alone help you. But they do know their products to sell you something. Over half of the Operations Managers, including myself have left the company due to nonstop scandles by boardmembers and rapid decline of stuctural upper managment. It is all down hill from here…I am watching them sink them selfs.I could give you non stop horror stories on that place. And you think Congress is bad. What say you?
Looks like the new non-ripoff threshold is $75 (7500 points). Below that, you’ll pay a premium.
I’ve always gone for the $100 gift cards myself, for the very same premium reason. Are $100 gift cards still 10000 points?