Citi cards - major changes

[kamchatsky]

Myself (and most likely a number of us) have the fee free Signature card, I will keep this card for now and just use it after 15 June, until all the banks as changed their program and see which one will be a better fit.

I will most likely look at a higher earn card with points capping per month rewards as I don't have huge spending pattern and don't have BAS/ATO payments. I will favour CBA and Westpac though as I have home loan package for both of them which allows annual fees to be waived.

 

[potm]

Called up to cancel my card as the annual fee was due tomorrow.
Transferred to the relationship manager. I said the reason for cancelling was that the changes to the points made the card not worth paying the annual fee.
She tried to sell to me that the changes were positive mentioning that some categories are 3 points per dollar and that velocity transfer rates would stay the same. Also mentioned that all banks would be making changes. I was having none of it, with Krisflyer earn rate reducing by 60%.

Her only offers were to downgrade me to a signature card for the princely sum of $395, the basic card with no annual fee or 15,000 points to retain the Prestige at $700. I asked for a reduced $350 but she said that was not possible so we went ahead with the cancelation.

 

[equus]

It it issues cards for smaller institutions that don't have the critical mass e.g. Virgin, BOQ, Suncorp.

Yes is does issue for those, but not true about critical mass. Suncorp issued its own cards, and then sold the book to Citi for a substantial return.

 

[carls888]

velocity transfer rates would stay the same.

I was wondering about the velocity transfer rates as they are not in the booklet I was sent, I thought for a moment that they were no longer an option to transfer to.

Can anyone confirm this please?

 

[oz_mark]

I was wondering about the velocity transfer rates as they are not in the booklet I was sent, I thought for a moment that they were no longer an option to transfer to.

Can anyone confirm this please?

Not sure which booklet you were sent, but for the most part what they have sent out details changes. Anything they haven't specified as changing is staying the same as at present.

 

[carls888]

Cool, thank you. Just transferred 2M points to KF. Will do more next week. I want to make sure Velocity points will stay the same before I do any more. Then I will give them a call...

 

[Cynicor]

Did the actual cancellation today. I get the feeling they weren't really expecting people to actually cancel, as they seem to go all the way and keep saying "are you sure".
Sure, I'm testing the waters to see if I can get the fee to $350, but if not, bye bye card. Mine should be closed with a full refund of the annual fee (charged last month).

 

[CaptJCool]

Got the letter today....

no points on government tranasctions
no points on spend over $5,000 (reduced from $10,000)
points cuts although I couldn't follow what it meant since I'm on 0.5 points for each dollar anyway and had been for sometime
and since I paid four days late once in the last 5 years still got hammered plus $2 a month for paper statements plus relatively small annual fee plus rewards fee that kinda tops me over the edge. Not that I spend more than $5k unless overseas.... and that's now whacked with foreign transaction charges ...

verdict when qantas cash debit card is a better deal, you know it's cough.

 

[theblank]

Did the actual cancellation today. I get the feeling they weren't really expecting people to actually cancel, as they seem to go all the way and keep saying "are you sure".

Management would have already done projections on the numbers that will cancel, and accounted for it in their costings.

 

[Nutcase]

Got the letter today....


verdict when qantas cash debit card is a better deal, you know it's cough.

.........................

 

[Mitch_W]

Did the actual cancellation today. I get the feeling they weren't really expecting people to actually cancel, as they seem to go all the way and keep saying "are you sure".
Sure, I'm testing the waters to see if I can get the fee to $350, but if not, bye bye card. Mine should be closed with a full refund of the annual fee (charged last month).

I also have the Prestige card. I will be cancelling for sure. I have paid the $700 annual fee a few months ago. If I cancel, should they refund the unused portion of the yearly fee?

 

[cove]

Mitch maybe try some 4 night pay for three to get some extra value out of Prestige. My New York booking was a $400 odd saving.

 

[andrewsimmonds]

I spend about 100k per month with citi. Asked for halved annual fee - declined. 15000 points was their top offer. Will move all non amex spend to st george after june and use citi solely for hotel 4 nights and occasional airport transfer.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I spend about 100k per month with citi. Asked for halved annual fee - declined. 15000 points was their top offer. Will move all non amex spend to st george after june and use citi solely for hotel 4 nights and occasional airport transfer.

LOL what a joke. Cancel the card.

 

[Liski]

Do you all think the Citi Signature Card will be a better earn wise vs a Westpac SQ Visa/Westpac Black MC/ANZ Travel Adventures Visa for Velocity/SQ Points where an Amex Edge can't be used?

 

[theblank]

Do you all think the Citi Signature Card will be a better earn wise vs a Westpac SQ Visa/Westpac Black MC/ANZ Travel Adventures Visa for Velocity/SQ Points where an Amex Edge can't be used?

ANZ Travel Adventures earns at 0.75 where Citi Signature earns at 0.50. Whatever Citi pays more points on is pretty much beaten by Amex edge.
Excepting the monthly cap of course

 

[piratematerial]

It's not so simple - Travel Adventures Visa drops to 0.25 / $ after $2k spend from Aug. I'm currently looking to settle on a combo of Edge with Travel Adventures and fee free Signature for Visa once the RBA changes kick in, with a revolving door of other cards to churn for cheap bonus points.

 

[bsdll]

I have 1.3 million citi points - but it looks like I need to get them out of citi before the changeover. Looking for any advice on where to put them. I have no plans to travel soon so KrisFlyer is out as they would probably expire in 3 years. Thanks.

 

[nickomac]

velocity? they've got their 15% transfer bonus at the moment - keep the points alive by earning points once every 24 months (could just swipe the card at BP once in a while)

 

[d00dz]

Get $500 prepaid cards at 90,000 eachl

Should get about 11 cards. So $5500