CITI THANKYOU PREMIER 50K: Via Frequent Miler’s Quick Deals: Citi has raised the bonus on its ThankYou Premier card to 50,000 points, though the bank has done so in an unusual way.
Instead of giving you the whole bonus up front, they parcel it out over two years. It’s 20,000 points after spending $2,000 the first year, and then 30,000 points after spending $3,000 the second year. There is no annual fee the first year, but you’ll have to pay $125 in year two.
So is this a good deal? It’s not as good as the Premier bonus has been in the past, but it’s certainly not a bad deal either. It’s a 50K bonus for $5K spend, minus $125 dollars. I value ThankYou points at a cent each, so that makes this a $375 value. If you redeem the points for travel, the Premier gives you 1.25 cents per dollar (vs. 1 cent per dollar if you don’t have the Premier), so that would make this worth $500 instead of $375. If you’re currently sitting on a stash of ThankYou points, then this deal would potentially be worth even more.
500 FREE MILES PER MONTH: Thanks to Hack My Trip for pointing out that Bluebird’s $1,000/month debit card funding limit is in addition to the $5,000 per month regular limit, so you can actually fund $6,000 per month per card.
INTERCONTINENTAL REWARDS FLASH SALE: IHG is having a flash sale on certain properties only for today, October 21. The hotels are 50-75% off their usual points cost, so there are some good values to be had.
10 FREE MOVIES FROM BEST BUY: Best Buy apparently has a streaming movie service, and they’re willing you let you watch 10 movies if you sign up for it. They actually have some major releases, so it may be worth your while. EDIT: In the comments, MilesAbound points out that only the crappy movies are free and they want to charge you for the good stuff, so this one may not be worth your while.
DOES AMEX OWE YOU $40?: I figure I have enough readers who are eligible for this one, so via MaximizingMoney:
If you purchased, received, held, or used an American Express Gift Card between January 1, 2002, and September 21, 2011, you may be eligible to receive up to $40 in compensation from this American Express Gift Card class action lawsuit settlement.
More details:
…You may file a claim even if you no longer have your gift card or gift card number and still receive some type of compensation.
Just as long as you purchased, received, held, or used a Gift Card issued by American Express from January 1, 2002, to September 21, 2011, you are eligible.
On top of that, anyone who currently has an American Express Gift Card or gift card number valued at $25 or less can get refunded on the unused balance, even if you don’t otherwise qualify as a Class Member.
Full story here.
Thanks for the link to the free movies. First I heard about that!
Thanks for the free movie link!
I was fortunate to get Mike a Citi Premier last year with the 50K bonus. At the time, it was the only card that offered primary car rental insurance in Ireland, and that is why we got it. Not sure if that’s still the case. It was an incremental benefit to a good card with a great bonus. They offered a statement credit to waive the 2nd year $125 fee if I spent $4500, and I took it.
I was waiting for the Citi TY Premier to come back. I have a huge stash from the 5x card which I am still pumping and this will let me get better value for them. Note I mentioned this on another blog but you can always get the higher redemption value for this card. Just book a fully refundable flight using the points. When you cancel you get a cash refund. And I was going to thank you for the movies… but when you sign up the free movies are just a bunch of crap you’d have to pay me to watch, the good stuff is not free. So thanks for trying 😉 Either that or I did something wrong and you can enlighten me!
Good tip, thanks! Also: I didn’t mention this in the article, because I have no idea if it’s true, but I’ve seen speculation that in cases where Citi has shut people down for earning too many “unlimited” TYPs, it’s been the mortgage/student loan redemption that’s done it, so if there’s any truth to that then booking a plane ticket looks that much more attractive.
Re the movies–did not know that, can’t believe they’d do that! I’ll put a note in the article advising caution.
Yeah very familiar with the Citi shutdown situation. I am kind of throwing caution to the wind as I’ve had pretty much all the cards I can or want to get from Citi so doing around 50k TYP per month until the 5x ends or they cut my throat
Caution to the wind is only $10K/month of 5X spend ? I’m in trouble…