Best ways to accrue Citi ThankYou points (for flights)

Thank You Merchants.

Reap 10K TY points for credit cards signups. Also, if you get a 4.0 GPA in a certain semester, you get 2k TY points, twice a year.

illu5ionz said: probably not a good idea but last month, i spent close to a thousand dollars on purchases at costco online. i ended up never even opening most of the stuff and brought it back to the store to return where they refunded cash since costco's dont accept mastercard instore. Voila, close to a thousand dollars worth of thank you points for free. And no, i don't intend to do this again just to rack up points

wow...

Laith said: Banking with them will net you 800 points per month.

Can I add my existing checking account into thank you network?

asdf9876 said: Never carry any cash. Then when you go out to eat with your friends in large groups collect money from everyone who is going to pay cash and then stick that in your wallet.
That doesn't mean that you don't carry cash. You can execute this manuever while carrying a wallet full of $100s. Just don't let anyone see them.

Laith said: Banking with them will net you 800 points per month.

Banking will net you between 100-1200 points a month depending on the account type you have with them.

Citibank access and Basic checking with 7 products gets you 100 points a month.

EZ-Checking with 7 products net you 300 points a month.

Citibank account/Everything counts with 7 products get you 800 points a month

Citigold/Private banking accounts with 7 products get you 1200 points a month.

b534202 said: illu5ionz said: probably not a good idea but last month, i spent close to a thousand dollars on purchases at costco online. i ended up never even opening most of the stuff and brought it back to the store to return where they refunded cash since costco's dont accept mastercard instore. Voila, close to a thousand dollars worth of thank you points for free. And no, i don't intend to do this again just to rack up points

I'm assuming that they don't refund shipping?

Costco is the greatest, they do in fact refund the shipping too.

it's possible to buy 1k usps postal money orders with your debit card. Pin transactions = 1/3 point per $. So 1k money order is 333 points. and costs $1.30

If you have say 10k in your bank account, go to post office and buy 10 money orders with debit card then deposit them in your bank. Quick 203 points per money order.

I've never done this but it does work apparantly.

edit: sure it might be a bit of work, but for 2030 points it's a helluva lot easier than getting a 4.0

JasonE4 said: AbbaZabba said: it's possible to buy 1k usps postal money orders with your debit card. Pin transactions = 1/3 point per $. So 1k money order is 333 points. and costs $1.30

If you have say 10k in your bank account, go to post office and buy 10 money orders with debit card then deposit them in your bank. Quick 203 points per money order.

I've never done this but it does work apparantly.

edit: sure it might be a bit of work, but for 2030 points it's a helluva lot easier than getting a 4.0
Although with the lost interest, its cost is a bit more.

Yep, even if you only lost the 10K for 1 day of interest, you'd lose about $1.50 in interest. Sure it is taxed so call it $1.20. That means $2.50 in "cost" for $3.33 in gain or so. So you are pumping 10K continually through the system, making trips to both your bank and your post office, waiting in line, wasting your time...all for $.80.

My point is this can be a stop-gap if you need to hit a certain tier level by a certain time but it is a terrible way to try to "make" money. By the way, if you just want the points, it isn't 203 points per money order. It isn't like you pay for the fee in points. So if you desperately needed 3,333 points in one day for an upcoming trip I suppose this might be the cheapest way.

dolmar said: ...Citibank account/Everything counts with 7 products get you 800 points a month...I think this is a hot deal if you don't have citigold/private banking acct. It's pretty easy to get 7 accounts: checking, e-savings, debit card, billpay, direct deposit, CD ($6K in a 6-mo at 5.5%), and Checking Plus for $5/yr, all for 9600 points/yr. Even at $0.01 per point it's equivalent to ~ 7% yield on the $6K. Here's the calculator.

scripta said: dolmar said: ...Citibank account/Everything counts with 7 products get you 800 points a month...I think this is a hot deal if you don't have citigold/private banking acct. It's pretty easy to get 7 accounts: checking, e-savings, debit card, billpay, direct deposit, CD ($6K in a 6-mo at 5.5%), and Checking Plus for $5/yr, all for 9600 points/yr. Even at $0.01 per point it's equivalent to ~ 7% yield on the $6K. Here's the calculator.

Plus there is no reason why you have to do $6K in the CD. I have $500 in the CD and $10k in BTs for life from Citi. So my return is even greater.

scripta said: asdf9876 said: ...Plus there is no reason why you have to do $6K in the CD. I have $500 in the CD and $10k in BTs for life from Citi. So my return is even greater.
You have to have $6K to keep the Citibank Account free, and the best return is in CDs.]

No, it isn't. A better return is doing what I said.

asdf9876 said: AbbaZabba said: well... you can deposit the money orders right after you buy them... so you don't lose any interest.

Only if your highest interest earning account that you own is a B&M bank. It is pretty tough for me to get my money order to GMAC in "0" days.

that's why you should get a b&m. wamu is 5%, citi and hsbc are also. and plus, with wamu you can use the free wire transfer and transfer money instantly

True, but the plan here is to do this daily, depositing the money today and drawing it out tomorrow for more money orders.

The debit cards at Citibank when used for PIN-based purchases take the money out of checking accounts only. That's how they're linked. (You can use the cards to take money from other kinds of accounts, but those withdrawals won't earn points.)

So you have to wait for those deposits to clear before you can buy more money orders with them.

asdf9876 said: JasonE4 said: AbbaZabba said: it's possible to buy 1k usps postal money orders with your debit card. Pin transactions = 1/3 point per $. So 1k money order is 333 points. and costs $1.30

If you have say 10k in your bank account, go to post office and buy 10 money orders with debit card then deposit them in your bank. Quick 203 points per money order.

I've never done this but it does work apparantly.

edit: sure it might be a bit of work, but for 2030 points it's a helluva lot easier than getting a 4.0
Although with the lost interest, its cost is a bit more.

Yep, even if you only lost the 10K for 1 day of interest, you'd lose about $1.50 in interest. Sure it is taxed so call it $1.20. That means $2.50 in "cost" for $3.33 in gain or so. So you are pumping 10K continually through the system, making trips to both your bank and your post office, waiting in line, wasting your time...all for $.80.

My point is this can be a stop-gap if you need to hit a certain tier level by a certain time but it is a terrible way to try to "make" money. By the way, if you just want the points, it isn't 203 points per money order. It isn't like you pay for the fee in points. So if you desperately needed 3,333 points in one day for an upcoming trip I suppose this might be the cheapest way.


why not buy with a CC not a debit card? then you can float the 10-15K limit on your card for 25 days also so your getting the points plus making money on the 15K in savings for a couple weeks? or did i miss something.

The thank you site was upgraded today they now have a search for flight rewards with expedia. They also had a link where you can get points by using expedia, but that link was removed this afternoon, so it may be a new program ready to be launched.


this is on their faq page

10. Can I combine my points from multiple Sponsor Accounts?
Yes. If you have more than one Citi® credit card, Citibank® checking account or Expedia.com® Account that participates in ThankYou Network you can combine points from these accounts into one ThankYou Member Account. Simply go to Add a Sponsor Account in the My Account section to consolidate your accounts.

breaux124 said: Get the citi premier pass and fly with it or buy other's tickets with it. You get 1pt/3miles for the free card and 1pt/mile for the Elite (annual fee) version. You of course have to match the flight points with purchase points or bonus points, but it works out nice.
Also my Citi simplicity is currently getting 5pts/dollar for gas and drugstores.

the premier pass actually isn't that good of a deal. at most, it doubles your points (cause you have to match flight points with purchase points). you can perhaps double your initial sign-up bonus, but after that you can get up to 4 points per grocery stores, parking merchants, commuter stuff, cause it normally gives you two. for grocery stores that's not as good as the cards that give you 5. and for plenty of other stuff it only gives you 1, when you can normally find stuff to give you more

s0ssos said: breaux124 said: Get the citi premier pass and fly with it or buy other's tickets with it. You get 1pt/3miles for the free card and 1pt/mile for the Elite (annual fee) version. You of course have to match the flight points with purchase points or bonus points, but it works out nice.
Also my Citi simplicity is currently getting 5pts/dollar for gas and drugstores.

the premier pass actually isn't that good of a deal. at most, it doubles your points (cause you have to match flight points with purchase points). you can perhaps double your initial sign-up bonus, but after that you can get up to 4 points per grocery stores, parking merchants, commuter stuff, cause it normally gives you two. for grocery stores that's not as good as the cards that give you 5. and for plenty of other stuff it only gives you 1, when you can normally find stuff to give you more

This was true before but not anymore. Citi's 5 pt programs for groceries and gas are no longer available except for a few cards that have the offer for the first 12months, but after that they still don't match the 4pts/$1 return of the PP Elite. So if you fly enough you get AT least 2pts/$1 for all purchases, AND 4pts/$1 for supermarkets, drug stores, gas stations, commuter transportation and parking merchants.

Before I would use my Citi Simplicity for gas because of the 5% return, but now that it's over I use my PP Elite because I'm getting 4% which is better than the remaining 1% I get for simplicity.

This thread is about Citi ThankYou points, not just 5% returns. Otherwise the Chase cards would be better since they still have 5% returns for gas/groceries.

nymgiants said: The thank you site was upgraded today they now have a search for flight rewards with expedia. They also had a link where you can get points by using expedia, but that link was removed this afternoon, so it may be a new program ready to be launched.


I entered some quasi-random flight data through this link, and it appears that it gives you exactly the same flight options and prices as you would get directly from expedia.com, assuming 1 point is redeemed for $0.01. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if this is the case for all flights, wouldn't it be better to just charge the tickets to PremierPass and redeem for $100 gift cards?