Money Forward

This blog is about money and trying to keep my money from flying out the window.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Update on my Citi Card promotion

In an earlier postI was pondering my next moves with my new Citi AmEx card.. whether to keep with it, or do a balance transfer. Golbguru suggested that I call, which I was thinking of doing anyway, to get all of the details cleared out since there was already some confusion when I applied for the card.

I just called and talked with them. There is currently a promotion for the same card offering 5,000 points after your first purchase, which is what she said I would get at first. I said that the promotion I signed up for gave me 10,000 points. She looked it up and I guess there was a problem with the system. They have a note in there, so she said if I only get 5,000 points I should call back and they'll fix it.

Now comes the decision to do a balance transfer or not. Although I could probably get an additional 20,000 points, I was incorrect that I could trade them in for cash. I thought I saw that before, but they do not offer cash for points, just gifts cards and other merchandise. I could get a credit of $100 for 17,000 points, but that is absolutely ridiculous. Even though I said I could use gift cards as the same as cash and just convert over, for this I don't want to. So I've decided that once I pay my bill I am going to do a balance transfer. This will add to the balance transfer that we're getting from my fiance's new AmEx Blue card. But that will take a while to transfer because we have to do it through Capital One which is really slow at cutting a check.

4 Comments:

  • At 11:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This is why I dislike points cards -- the rules are complicated and the reward programs can change at any time.

    Citibank seems to be the worst. Depending on the card you get, you might get "Thank You Points" or "Thank You Flight Points" or "Thank You Reward Points" or "Thank You, But You'll Never Be Able To Redeem These Points".

    Who has time for all that? I've decided that with all the cards offering decent cash rebates, bothering with points programs is just not worth the hassle.

     
  • At 8:03 AM, Blogger MoneyFwd said…

    I agree. The only reason I got a rewards card was because I was paying tuition out of pocket, so I figured I might as well get soemthing for it. As much as Capital One sucks with the high APR, it does the job, is accepted basically everywhere, and the points just help out. Plus I can get unlimited points each year and turn them into cash.

     
  • At 3:39 AM, Anonymous applyonline.citicards.com said…

    thank for good info.

     
  • At 4:01 AM, Anonymous mervyns credit card said…

    I have been reading your blog. I thought it's nice blog.

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