Citi Strata Credit Card Review (New Card Launched: 30k Offer)

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Benefits

• 30k Welcome Bonus: Earn 30,000 ThankYou Points (TYP) after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.
• We value TYP at 1.6 cents/point, making the welcome bonus worth approximately $480.
• Points Earning Structures:
  • 5x TYP on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked through Citi Travel
  • 3x TYP at Supermarkets, Select Transit, and Gas & EV Charging Stations
  • 3x TYP in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores)​
  • 2x TYP at Restaurants
  • 1x TYP on all other purchases
• No annual fee.

Disadvantages

• It has foreign transaction fee, so it’s not a good choice outside the US.

Introduction to TYP

• You can earn TYP with Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier, Citi Strata, Citi Custom Cash, Citi Double Cash, etc.
• You can add all these cards into the same thankyou.com account, and points that are about to expire will be redeemed first in the order in which they expire automatically.
• In most cases, TYP never expire. But closing account, product change, or receiving points from other people may cause TYP on that account to expire.
• If you have Citi Strata Premier or Citi Strata Elite or Citi Prestige (Discontinued), TYP can be transferred to some airline miles. The best way to use TYP is to 1:1 transfer them to American Airlines miles (Oneworld) or EVA Air (BR) miles (Star Alliance). Other good options are: Cathay Pacific (CX) miles (Oneworld), Avianca (AV) miles (Star Alliance), Singapore Airlines (SQ) miles (Star Alliance), Flying Blue miles (SkyTeam), Virgin Atlantic (VS) miles (Non-alliance), etc. If you use TYP in this way, the value is about 1.6 cents/point.
• You can redeem your TYP at a fixed rate 1 cents/point towards cash.
• If you have Citi Prestige (Discontinued), you can redeem your TYP at a fixed rate 1.25 cents/point towards air tickets on thankyou.com. This is a common way to use TYP. Points+cash is available when redeeming for air tickets, so no need to worry if you do not have enough TYP.
• If you have Citi Rewards+ (Discontinued), you can get 10% back when redeeming TYP, up to 100k TYP per year. This feature further boosts the value of TYP. [Expired]
• In summary, we estimate that TYP are worth about 1.6 cents/point.
• For more information about TYP, see Maximize the Credit Card Points Values (overview), and Introduction to TYP: How to Earn & Introduction to TYP: How to Use (very detailed).

Recommended Application Time

• [1/48 Rule] Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new account bonus for Citi Strata℠, Citi Strata Student, Citi Rewards+® or Citi Rewards+ Student account in the past 48 months or if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a new account bonus in the last 48 months into a Citi Strata℠, Citi Strata Student, Citi Rewards+® or Citi Rewards+ Student account.
• [8/65 Rule] You can apply for at most 1 Citi cards every 8 days, and at most 2 Citi cards every 65 days, no matter approved or not.
• Best to apply with fewer than 3 hard inquiries in the last 6 months (even though Citi’s limit is 6).
• Citi values the number of recent hard pulls a lot, we recommend you apply when there’s less than 3 hard pulls in the past 6 months (Citi generally requires less than 6 hard pulls, but this card is different).
• We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least one year.

Summary

As a no-annual-fee card, this one offers a pretty solid rewards rate on supermarket and gas/EV charging purchases.

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