Citi retired the the Citi Premier® Card in May of 2024. In its place comes the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, which is very similar to the original card, but with a few modest improvements. It maintains its reasonable $95 annual fee and 3x earnings rate on dining, gas, grocery and travel. It also keeps some of the best purchase protections you can get. What’s more, Citi added back some travel protections, an EV charging category and made earning 10x on Citi Travel purchases a permanent feature. Finally, it still earns transferable points in Citi’s ThankYou Rewards® program.

While I rank Citi’s program behind similar offerings from Chase and American Express, this card’s earnings structure still makes it very attractive. It’s hard to find another card that earns 3x points on so many of the most common spending categories. It’s also a great card for people who have a lot of Chase or Amex points and want to diversify their points-earning strategy.

Who is this card for?

This is Citi’s new mid-tier offering within it’s ThankYou Rewards family of cards. It fits well when combined with the no annual fee Double Cash, Citi Rewards+℠ and Custom Cash cards. For only $95 a year, you’d be able to earn 2x points on all purchases, flexible 5x categories, and 3x in dining, gas, grocery and travel. In addition, you’d get 10% back on points redemptions.

You can apply for the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card here.

Card Features

Bonus Offer

You’ll earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months.

Note: With most Citi cards, you can only receive a welcome offer every 48 months. This applies to the same exact card, not families of cards.

Annual Fee

The card comes with a $95 annual fee, which is not waived the first year.

Earning Rates

The Citi Premier® Card earns bonuses on some of the most popular categories.

• 10x points per $1 spent on eligible travel bookings through Citi Travel
• 3x points per $1 spent on gas and EV charging
• 3x points per $1 spent on grocery, dining and travel (includes only airfare, hotels and travel agencies)
• 1x points per $1 on all other spending

Compared to its biggest competitors, this card may be the best all-around card since it has the best collection of bonus categories. On the other side, the travel category is much narrower than other, as only airfare, hotels and travel agencies will earn 3x points.

Redeeming Points

The flexibility of Citi ThankYou® Rewards points is evident when it’s time to redeem for travel.  You can book travel through the Citi Travel Center, which is an online travel agency booking site similar to Expedia or Orbitz.

Citi Travel isn’t your only option, however. You can often get even greater value by transferring points to any of their 24 travel partners and really maximize your points!

For example, 15,000 Citi ThankYou Rewards points are enough for a round-trip coach award to Hawaii on Turkish Airlines.

You can transfer points to most participating frequent travel programs at full 1:1 value – that means 1,000 Citi ThankYou Rewards® points equals 1,000 partner miles/points.

For more information on Citi’s flexible points program, check out The Complete Guide to Citi ThankYou® Rewards.

Card Benefits

$100 Hotel Credit

Each calendar year, you can get up to $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees, when booked through Citi Travel.

Citi Merchant Offers

Citi Merchant Offers is a free cash-back program for targeted Citi credit cardholders. It saves you money on shopping, dining and more. You choose offers from brands you love and get cash back in the form of statement credits.

To redeem an offer, simply select the offer you want to add to your card by clicking the “See Details” link. Then, click “Add Offer” to enroll your selected Citi card in the offer.

Warning: Make sure to review the requirements and restrictions listed on each offer so you know what is needed to trigger the cash back.

Finally use your card to pay and within a few days, the cash back will be applied to your credit card as a statement credit.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

For those who travel internationally, this card does not charge foreign transaction fees.

Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance

If your trip can’t start, is cut short or interrupted by sickness, severe weather or other covered situations, you can be reimbursed for prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses up to $5,000 per covered trip and $10,000 per account per 12 consecutive months.

Note: This applies to round-trip travel only.

Lost or Damaged Luggage Protection

If you pay in full with the card and/or points associated with the card and experience lost or damaged luggage, you can be reimbursed up to $3,000 per trip. The cap is $2,000 for New York residents.

Trip Delay Reimbursement

If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for non-reimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per trip. There’s a maximum of two claims per account per 12 consecutive months.

Lost Luggage Reimbursement

Up to $3,000 per person (up to $500 per person for jewelry, watches, cameras, video recorders and other electronic equipment)

Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver (CDW)

Coverage is secondary within the eligible renter’s country of residence and primary outside of that country.

The vast majority of credit cards offer some type of coverage when it comes to auto rentals. However, there are two different coverage categories (primary and secondary) and knowing the difference is key. Secondary coverage is what most credit cards offer and it applies after your own personal auto insurance policy. Typically it means that your auto insurer pays the claim, but the card will reimburse your deductible and potentially other costs not covered by your personal policy.

There are only six consumer credit cards that offer primary auto rental CDW coverage:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred®
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• United℠ Explorer Card
• United Quest Card
• United Club Infinite Card
• Capital One Venture X Card

Damage and Theft Protection

This benefit covers your new purchases for 90 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per incident and $50,000 per calendar year. As always, make sure you read the fine print for benefit terms and conditions. But you’ll sleep easy knowing your new, big purchases are covered.

Extended Warranty Protection

With this benefit, you can extend the time period of the manufacturer’s warranty by 24 months. This applies to eligible warranties of five years or less.

Who should look for another card?

The mid-tier credit card market is flush with great options. To help you decide which card may best fit your lifestyle, you need to compare the annual fees, annual credits, and the earnings rates of each card. It’s also worth exploring each card’s flexible points ecosystem since they’re not all the same.

A few cards to consider are the Chase Sapphire Preferred® and Capital One® Venture® Rewards cards. These cards have comparable annual fees of $95 and earn transferable points.

There are also a couple American Express cards to consider, although the annual fees on those are a bit higher.

The American Express® Gold Card is one of my favorites. It has an annual fee of $250, but it also has dining perks that offset most of that each year. This food-centric card has an amazing earnings rates of 4x points on dining and groceries.

The other Amex card worth considering is the American Express® Green Card. It carries a $150 annual fee, but has several travel credits which can offset that each year.

Card Card	Welcome Offer	Annual Fee and Offsets	Earnings Rate
American Express® Green Card	40,000 bonus points after spending $2,000 on purchases in the first 6 months	$150 ($189 CLEAR credit and $100 LoungeBuddy credit)	3x points on dining, travel and transit
American Express® Gold Card	60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months	$250 ($240 annual dining credits)	4x points on dining and groceries
Capital One® Venture® Rewards	75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months	$95 ($100 Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® Credit once every 4 years)	2x points on all purchases
Chase Sapphire Preferred®	60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months	$95 ($50 hotel credit for stays purchased through the Chase Travel Portal)	3x points on dining and online grocery and 2x points on travel
Citi Strata Premier℠ Card	75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months	$95 ($100 hotel credit for stays purchased through Citi Travel)	3x points on air travel, hotels, dining, grocery, gas and EV charging

Bottom Line

Thanks to its long list of bonus categories, the Citi Strata Premier Card is one of the best points-building cards in its price range. Plus with a 75,000 point sign-up bonus, you can amass points very quickly. It also earns flexible Citi ThankYou Rewards® points that can be transferred to 24 travel partners, for some really wonderful redemption options.

If you’re just starting out with transferable points credit cards, I’d first take a look at similar offerings from Chase and Amex. However, if you already hold cards in those programs and are looking to diversify, the Citi Strata Premier Card is a great way to start earning ThankYou Rewards points.

Apply here for the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card Card.