The Citi PremierPass credit cards were designed for those who frequently travel. They come in two flavors, a standard edition that has no annual fee and en elite edition which comes with a $75 annual fee.
Sign Up Bonus
The Citi PremierPass card offers 10,000 bonus ThankYou points bonus after you spend $300 in the first 3 months. The Citi PremierPass Elite Card offers 20,000 bonus ThankYou points after you spend $600 in the first 3 months.
10,000 THankYou points can be redeemed for a $100 gift card while 20,000 points can be redeemed for any domestic flight with a value up to $400. If you’re going with the elite card and you spend $600 in 3 months, quite an easy task, then you will end up with a free domestic flight.
ThankYou Points Explained
When you sign up for a PremierPass Elite card you gain ThankYou points under several different scenarios. You gain a point for every mile you travel in the air, even if you didn’t purchase the ticket yourself. You also gain a point for every air mile you purchase with your card, even if you’re not flying. And of course you earn a point for every dollar you spend with the card, and 2 points at gas stations and grocery stores. That’s a lot of ways for you to earn mileage points.
Most cards will only give you points for miles you buy with the card for yourself. So if you buy two tickets for 2,500 miles for $300 a pop, with a traditional airline card you’d only get the 300 points plus 2,500 points. But with the PremierPass Elite card you’d get 5,600 points for the same transaction. Double the points.
You can also get free companion travel on select flights, but it’s unclear which flights would be allowed for this part of the promotion.
The standard version works the same, but for every 3 miles you fly you would get 1 point instead of the Elite 1:1 ratio. So if you fly a lot, you should definitely get the elite version because you’ll profit in the long run, even with the $75 annual fee.
The PremierPass Elite card is perfect for frequent fliers or for those who like to clear bonuses on credit cards, the standard version is great for that $100 gift card. If you’ve been rejected for this card you might want to consider prepaid credit cards.
I think this is a decent offer from CitiBank (if you’re strictly after the bonus), however, I’d check out some of their other cards before signing up. During the holiday season they almost always have cash/point incentives for new card holders on a fairly large variety of credit cards.
I would never apply for this card unless you’re solely after the rewards. Their customer service is sub par and they’ve raised the rates on my friends cards who have pretty much stellar credit history with almost no explanation.
You can get what they call a secured card, which is aomslt like a debit card and bank account as you have to put money in the credit account before you can use the card. You do this for a while then the credit company may (usually does) give you a small line of credit, something like $250, pay that on time for a while they will increase it and so on. Honesty I’d get a bank account then try to get a card through them. Are you a student? If so, many banks offer students cards which are a bit easier to get. Good luck.