Citi Prestige Card Review (2023)

Here’s our review of the Citi Prestige Card issued in Singapore. It forms part of our series of credit card reviews, which are all summarised on our dedicated Credit Cards page.

Dollar amounts refer to SGD, and ‘miles’ refer to KrisFlyer miles, except where stated. This review was updated on 30th August 2023.

Some great benefits, including a 71,000 miles sign-up bonus and unlimited lounge access with a guest in tow, but do the Citi Prestige Card’s other perks like limo rides and golf perks justify the card’s $540 annual price tag after that?

Let’s see.

Pros	Cons
71,000 miles sign-up bonus Unlimited lounge access + 1 guest Earn miles for transactions from $1.00 Points never expire 10 Frequent Flyer Programme partners Up to 8 airport limo rides per year 4th night free for hotel stays	Points don’t pool with other Citi cards 10,000-mile transfer blocks Earn rates are better with comparable cards

  APPLY

• Minimum Age: 21
• Minimum Income: $120,000/yr
• Minimum Income (Citigold customers): $30,000/yr

The Citi Prestige card has a $120,000 per year income requirement for all applicants, except for Citigold customers who are eligible with an income of $30,000+.

• Annual Fee (principal): $540.00
• Annual Fee (supplementary): Free

The annual fee for the Citi Prestige card is $540.00. The annual fee is not waivable.

This will increase marginally to $545.00 from 1st January 2024, due to an increase in GST by the Singapore Government.

The good news is that you’ll receive 62,500 Citi ThankYou Points (25,000 miles) on payment of the annual fee, with no minimum spend requirement.

An unlimited number of supplementary cards can be added to your account for free. Supplementary cardholders must be at least 18 years old.

Other fees and interest rates for the Citi Prestige card include:

• EIR: 26.9%
• Interest-free period: 21 days
• Minimum payment: 1% (or current balance if < $50)
• Late payment fee: $100
• Cash advance fee: 6% (minimum $15)
• Overlimit fee: $40

The Citi Prestige card currently has a sign-up bonus of 71,000 miles, paid as 177,500 Citi ThankYou points, with a minimum spend of $2,000 ($1,000 in local currency and $1,000 in foreign currency) from the card approval date until the end of the second full calendar month.

That’s enough miles to fly Business Class on Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Auckland or Sydney.

Provided you don’t currently hold a Citi Prestige card as the primary cardholder and haven’t held a Citi Prestige card in the 12 months before application, you’ll be eligible for the sign-up bonus.

That means existing Citi credit card holders, for example those with the PremierMiles and/or Rewards cards in their wallet, are also eligible to apply and receive the bonus.

The promotion is running for applications between 1st August 2023 and 31st October 2023.

Here’s how it’s structured.

• 25,000 miles: For payment of $540 annual fee
• 23,000 miles: For spending $1,000 in local currency
• 23,000 miles: For spending $1,000 in foreign currency
• 71,000 miles: Maximum total bonus

Cost per mile is the annual fee ($540) divided by the bonus element (71,000) = 0.76 cents each.

Full terms and conditions for the sign-up offer can be found here.

Here’s how Citi outlines the offer:

71,000 bonus miles when you spend

  APPLY HERE

Also at each annual renewal, on payment of the annual fee, you will be credited 62,500 Citi ThankYou Points (25,000 miles).

These Citi ThankYou Points can be transferred into one of 10 frequent flyer schemes (including KrisFlyer) at a 2.5:1 ratio.

The Citi Prestige card earns:

• 3.25 Citi Thank You Points (1.3 miles) for every $1 spent locally (i.e. transacted in SGD)
• 5 Citi ThankYou Points (2 miles) for every $1 spent overseas (i.e. transacted in foreign currency)

Here’s how that compares to some other $120k income category cards on the market in Singapore.

Earn rates ($120k income cards)
(Best to worst, August 2023)

Card	Local Spend	FCY Spend
DBS Vantage	1.5 mpd	2.2 mpd
SCVI	1.4 mpd*	3 mpd*
UOB VI Metal	1.4 mpd	2 mpd
OCBC Voyage	1.3 mpd	2.2 mpd
Citi Prestige	1.3 mpd	2 mpd
HSBC VI (Step up rate)	1.25 mpd**	2.25 mpd**

* Higher earn rates for the SCVI card are subject to a minimum spend of $2,000 (any currency) in the same statement cycle.
** Step up earn rate for HSBC VI is only applicable from year 2 of card membership onwards, provided you spent at least $50,000 in the previous year.

With the Citi Prestige card, there is also a Relationship Bonus applied to the regular earn rates.

The table below shows how it’s advertised. For a normal banking customer, the bonus is at least 5% in the first five years – but more if you are a Citigold customer.

So surely a 5% bonus means 1.3 mpd becomes 1.365 mpd spent locally, right? Wrong!

This is actually very differently applied because the percentages referred to in this table are applied to your total overall spend and then paid in Citi ThankYou Points, not in miles. Here’s how Citi explains it in a bit more detail.

For example, spend $10,000 (locally or overseas) and at the 5% rate you will be rewarded with 500 Citi ThankYou Points, which equates to 200 miles or a 2% bonus – not a great deal.

We have created a table to make it easier to understand what your actual miles earning rates will be, with the relevant bonuses applied.

Citi Prestige Relationship Bonus Actual miles earn rates (mpd)
	0 – 5 years	6 – 10 years	> 10 years
Local Spend Citigold / Private Client	1.36	1.38	1.42
Overseas Spend Citigold / Private Client	2.06	2.08	2.12
Local Spend Regular	1.32	1.34	1.36
Overseas Spend Regular	2.02	2.04	2.06

For example, assuming you aren’t a Citigold customer, after 10 years the earn rate rises to a maximum of 1.36 mpd locally and 2.06 mpd overseas.

Citi occasionally offers its Prestige cardholders the opportunity to earn bonus rates for specific spend categories. Recent examples include:

• November – December 2021: 3 mpd on travel spend, capped at S$3,000 (9,000 miles)
• March – August 2021: Uncapped 4 mpd on food delivery and home entertainment.

While it’s certainly not guaranteed, and offers have dried up recently, you should certainly be able to expect one or two bonus miles earning opportunities each year with this card.

While many of these deals are no better than you can get with other 4 mpd cards year-round, the benefit here is being able to divert spend away from those cards and onto the Citi Prestige card during the promotion itself, to free up the monthly caps on 4 mpd cards and maximise your miles earning for a month or two.

Another great thing about the Citi Prestige card is occasional ‘spend and get’ miles offers – which allow you to buy miles at competitive rates, by meeting a spend threshold and on payment of a fee for the bonus miles.

These have included:

• October 2020: Buy 42,000 miles for $360 (0.86 cents each)
• April 2020: Buy 61,000 miles for $700 (1.15 cents each)

These can be great deals to participate in for a healthy miles boost for a competitive fee, if you can meet the spend threshold during the promotion period.

Citi maintains a list of merchants and / or MCC codes which will not earn Citi ThankYou points here.

Some of the most important exclusion categories are:

• Education Institutions (MCC 8211 – 8299)
• Government Services, including tax payments (MCC 9000 – 9999)
• Insurance (MCC 6300)
• Real Estate Agents and Managers – Rentals (MCC 6513)
• Utilities (MCC 4900)

Note that education, insurance and tax payments are specifically excluded from miles earning.

Good news is that the Citi Prestige card does earn 1.3 mpd for CardUp and ipaymy transactions.

No, instead of being credited miles directly you’ll accrue ‘Citi ThankYou points’ for your regular spending on this card.

These transfer to KrisFlyer miles at a 2.5:1 ratio (so for $25,000 of local spending, you’ll net 81,250 Citi ThankYou points, which can be converted to 32,500 KrisFlyer miles).

Citi ThankYou points should reflect in your account once the transaction posts, which typically takes anywhere between one and three days.

You won’t have to wait until your monthly statement for the Citi ThankYou points to be added, so if you’re making a purchase to achieve a short-term top-up they should be available to you within a few days.

Here’s a plus – Citi ThankYou points earned on the Prestige card never expire as long as your card account remains active, so unless you have an urgent or specific redemption need, there should be no harm in letting them accumulate.

Indeed this is a great benefit of this card, given Citi’s extensive FFP partner list (see below) you are effectively protecting yourself from devaluation in a single programme by retaining the flexibility of keeping your miles at the Citi side, until you need to make a redemption.

If your preferred FFP suffers a sudden devaluation (they do happen), at least you then still have the flexibility to transfer your miles to another programme instead and still achieve good value from your hard-earned stash.

Not all credit card points are perfect, and our main bugbear with Citi is that it does not pool points across your cards and allow you to transfer them to your preferred FFP as a single (accumulated) transfer.

For example, if you have 30,000 Citi Miles on your Citi PremierMiles card and 75,000 Citi ThankYou Points on your Citi Rewards card (worth 30,000 miles), you won’t have the option to transfer those two amounts into 60,000 KrisFlyer miles.

Instead, will have to pay the transfer fee for each card (i.e. twice in this example).

It also means you have to transfer all your points into miles before cancelling any Citi cards you hold, since you generally won’t be allowed to combine them with those accumulated on other Citi cards.

It’s the same for all 11 transfer partners which are part of the programme, $27.00 each time you transfer Citi ThankYou points to airline miles (like KrisFlyer miles).

This will increase marginally to $27.25 from 1st January 2024, due to an increase in GST by the Singapore Government.

Yes, the minimum amount of Citi ThankYou points you can transfer into airline miles is 25,000, which converts to 10,000 miles, and they must then be in subsequent blocks of 25,000. Previously, much more flexible 1,250-point block transfers (into 500-mile denominations) were possible, but this sadly changed in 2017.

For example, if you have 99,999 Citi ThankYou Points, and you don’t have time to tick it over by making a small purchase (miles from purchases tend to reflect in your account within a few days), you’ll only be able to transfer 75,000 Citi ThankYou Points across to KrisFlyer (and will be left with 24,999 in your Citi ThankYou Points account).

One of the best things about Citi ThankYou points in Singapore is the wide range of transfer partners compared with other bank loyalty points.

You can transfer your miles into 10 different frequent flyer programmes (FFPs), plus into IHG points on the hotel loyalty side.

Here’s how Citi compares to other banks in Singapore.

Singapore credit card to FFP transfers

Citi ThankYou points transfer at the same 2.5:1 ratio into all these programmes, giving you a wide range of flight redemption options including Oneworld and SkyTeam carriers.

Convertible loyalty points like Citi TYPs are therefore intrinsically more valuable to you, because the range of transfer options protects you against devaluation in a single programme, and opens up a wider variety of redemption options.

Since Citi ThankYou points earned on the Prestige card never expire and also transfer to most FFPs relatively quickly, there’s no rush to commit to a specific programme nor transfer regularly.

Simply transfer when you need to travel, into the scheme that works best for your preferred redemption.

The official line is “up to 5 working days”. In reality the last few times we converted, it took 24-48 hours on each occasion. Here are our recent data points for transfer times from Citi:

• KrisFlyer: 24 hours (48 hours for transfers initiated on a Sunday)
• Asia Miles: 2 days
• BA Avios: 2 days
• Qatar Avios: 4 days

That’s not a bad turnaround, especially if you are looking to jump on a flight redemption that’s currently available.

Pro Tip: Since Avios transfer instantly and fee-free between BA Executive Club and Qatar Privilege Club, provided you have an account with each programme and have linked them, it’s better to always transfer from Citi to BA Avios, even if you will then transfer and use them in the Qatar programme, because the conversion from Citi is much faster.

Since October 2021, it’s become possible to link your Citi ThankYou points and KrisPay account and instantly transfer as little as 4,000 miles into KrisPay miles via the Kris+ app.

The transfer ratio is 10,000:3,400 (e.g. 10,000 Citi TYPs = 3,400 KrisPay miles)

You won’t want to be using the converted KrisPay miles against Kris+ merchant purchases, due to the awful value of 0.67 cents per mile, but you can immediately transfer them 1:1 into your KrisFlyer account as KrisFlyer miles.

As you’ll notice the ratio means taking a 15% ‘hit’ on the usual 2.5:1 Citi TYPs to KrisFlyer transfer rate, so it’s only of interest if you need a small amount to meet a specific redemption threshold, or have a small balance ‘stuck’ in Citi TYPs (less than 25,000), which you aren’t going to be adding to in future.

You shouldn’t be using this as your regular Citi ThankYou points to KrisFlyer transfer method, as it effectively devalues your miles earning rate to 1.1 mpd for local transactions, or 1.7 mpd for FCY transactions.

There are important factors to be aware of, firstly you’ll have to move any points transferred from Citi to KrisPay into KrisFlyer miles within seven days, otherwise they are stuck in KrisPay (where you definitely don’t want them).

The second is just as important, you cannot use any of the KrisPay miles you have earned from your Citi ThankYou points transfer for any Kris+ purchase, no matter how small, as that automatically renders the entire transfer stuck in Kris+ until expiry, six months later.

The golden rule therefore is to transfer in to KrisPay miles via Kris+, then transfer straight out to KrisFlyer. Even with that seven-day window available, our advice is don’t wait.

Every eligible transaction you make using the Citi Prestige card is rounded down to the nearest Singapore dollar (after conversion from foreign currency, if applicable), before Citi ThankYou points are then assessed.

Example:

• $21.49 rounds down to $21
• $21.99 rounds down to $21

The appropriate multiplier of Citi ThankYou points is then applied to the transaction, depending on its nature, then rounded to the nearest whole mile.

Example (regular earn rate):

• $21 x 3.25 (local) = 68.25 Points (rounds to 68 Points, equivalent to 27 Miles)
• $21 x 5.0 (overseas) = 105 Points, equivalent to 42 miles

Since every amount you spend is rounded down to the nearest dollar before Citi ThankYou points are accounted for, $1.00 is the minimum transaction amount in order to earn points, or its equivalent in foreign currency for overseas spend.

This is a nice perk for Citi cards, with UOB, OCBC and now Maybank using the annoying $5 rounding method, where even a $4.99 transaction earns no rewards or miles at all!

No such worries with the Citi Prestige card, and one reason the UOB PRVI Miles option isn’t significantly better despite a higher headline earning rate (1.4 mpd), when it comes to smaller transactions at least.

The Citi Prestige card has a 3.25% foreign currency transaction fee, which is among the highest on the market in Singapore.

With a relatively standard regular overseas earn rate of 2 miles per dollar, that means it’s certainly not the best card to use as it is equivalent to paying 1.71 cents per mile when spending in foreign currency.

There are better cards than that for overseas spend, and you should be looking at the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite or UOB PRVI Miles for much better rates, not just in cost per mile terms but miles per dollar too.

Cost per mile on overseas transactions
(Best to worst, August 2023)

Card	Fee	Miles per $	Cost per mile
SCVI	3.5%	3.0*	1.22¢*
HSBC VI (Step up rate)	2.8%	2.25**	1.33¢**
UOB PRVI Miles	3.25%	2.4	1.43¢
Maybank Horizon Visa	2.75%	2.0	1.48¢
HSBC VI (Regular rate)	2.8%	2.0	1.50¢
OCBC Voyage	3.25%	2.2	1.56¢
KF Ascend (Jun & Dec)	2.95%	2.0	1.57¢
DBS Altitude Amex	3.0%	2.0	1.60¢
OCBC 90oN MC	3.25%	2.1	1.63¢
DBS Altitude Visa	3.25%	2.0	1.71¢
OCBC 90oN Visa	3.25%	2.0	1.71¢
Citi Prestige	3.25%	2.0	1.71¢
Citi PM	3.25%	2.0	1.71¢
Journey Card	3.5%	2.0	1.83¢
KrisFlyer UOB	3.25%	1.2	2.86¢

* 3 mpd earn rate for the SCVI card is subject to a minimum spend of $2,000 (any currency) in the same statement cycle.
** Step up earn rate for HSBC VI is only applicable from year 2 of card membership onwards, provided you spent at least $50,000 in the previous year.

Cost per mile also accounts for an additional 0.3% ‘spread’ over money changer currency rates, though this doesn’t apply to all banks and all foreign currencies, so is a worst-case scenario.

If you’re holding a specialised 4 mpd card, like the DBS WWMC, you will of course be able to achieve much better cost per mile for transactions in foreign currency, provided you are spending within the card’s eligible categories and monthly spend cap.

The Citi Prestige card participates in the bank’s ‘PayAll’ programme, a facility allowing you to pay a fee to use your card and still earn miles on a range of payment types that would otherwise be excluded from miles earning, or not usually possible with a credit card.

At the time of writing, PayAll supports:

• Tax payments to IRAS
• Rent payments to your landlord in Singapore
• Education payments to a school or tuition centre in Singapore
• Condo Management Fees
• Electricity payments in Singapore
• Renovation fees
• Wedding Expenses
• Childcare services
• Domestic helper service fees
• Donations or charitable payments
• Utility bills

Citi charges a 2.2% service fee for PayAll transactions, so you are ‘buying’ miles for 1.69 cents each when using your Prestige card at the local earn rate of 1.3 mpd for these payments.

Example, for a $4,000 rental payment:

• Total Spend: $4,000
• PayAll Fee (2.2%): $88
• Total Spent: $4,088
• Miles Earned: 5,200 (4,000 x 1.3)
• Cost per Mile: 1.69 cents ($88 / 5,200)

Citi PayAll regularly runs promotions with enhanced earn rates for meeting specific spend thresholds through the payment service, which can drive the cost per mile down to even more competitive levels as low as 1 cent per mile.

The Citi Prestige card comes with a complimentary Prestige level Priority Pass membership (usually US$469 per year), which entitles you to unlimited lounge visits throughout the year, including one free accompanying guest.

This perk is a must for any frequent traveller who may not have airline status or doesn’t always fly in a premium cabin or with a full service airline. When travelling long haul, we always book or redeem Business or First Class, but on the shorter hops the expense often isn’t worth it.

The guest allowance is especially useful when travelling with a partner, friend, colleague or client. This is not offered with other similar cards on the market.

Once you’re a cardholder, you’ll have to register online for instant Priority Pass membership via the Citi Mobile app and Priority Pass phone app, by following the instructions provided at the following link:

• Citi Prestige PP membership application

Full terms and conditions are also available at that link.

For big spenders, Citi offers up to eight one-way complimentary airport limousine transfers per year.

When we say big spenders though, we mean it! A minimum spend of $12,000 per calendar quarter applies, unlocking two complimentary rides in a Mercedes-Benz E-Class during the same quarter. That is also the upper cap of complimentary rides in the same quarter (you can’t unlock single rides, only in pairs).

• Q1: 1st January to 31st March
• Q2: 1st April to 30th June
• Q3: 1st July to 30th September
• Q4: 1st October to 31st December

On the plus side, Citi PayAll transactions do count towards the $12,000 spend requirement, so paying large bills this way such as your monthly property rental can help you reach the threshold.

Do note, however, that this excludes Citi PayAll transactions where you opt not to pay the Citi PayAll service fee.

We have a full rundown of which credit cards provide this service, but it’s safe to say the Citi Prestige offer is among the least generous of the pack.

Each limo ride is for a maximum of four passengers, with no additional midnight or Sentosa surcharges like you see with some other providers.

Booking is through an online portal at least 48 hours before your pick up time. You’ll have to make payment for the service using your Citi Prestige Mastercard, and the bank will then reimburse you (provided you met the spend criteria in that same quarter as the limo ride).

Reimbursement is to your card account, in the following quarter.

Technically the Citi Prestige limo benefit ends on 31st December 2023, but the deal is likely to be renewed on similar terms next year.

Bear in mind it can take up to six months to be refunded for your limo ride under this system. For example a booking on 1st July might not be paid back to your card until the end of the following quarter, in late December.

Late cancellation and ‘no show’ penalties and fees apply for this service. Check the full terms and conditions here.

With the Citi Prestige card, the International Complimentary Night Hotels and Resorts Program offers you the fourth night free in any hotel in the world, with unlimited usage, when booked through the Citi Concierge.

To benefit, you’ll need to make a hotel booking of four consecutive nights or longer via the Citi Prestige concierge.

You will then be refunded for one night, based on the average rate before taxes for the first four nights of the stay. The refund will be applied to your card account within two statement cycles of the full hotel payment, which applies as soon as you book. The benefit is limited to one room per cardmember.

You cannot book back-to-back stays in the same city to take advantage of the discount more than once (for example, by trying to get two nights free for an eight-night booking).

Even if you move to a different hotel in the same city, a seven-day gap between the bookings is necessary.

Unfortunately there are a raft of restrictions now applied to this benefit, which has seen it take a bit of a beating over the years. Here are some key exclusions:

• Full and Half board room stays
• Single and multi-room suites
• Home & Farm stays
• Serviced apartments
• Villas
• Packaged stays and member rates, such as air and hotel, hotel and car rental, or hotel and meals bundled promotions

It’s a shame this perk has seen so many added restrictions over the years, but you may still be able to use it to your advantage from time to time for a relatively “simple” four-night generic hotel stay.

Full terms and conditions are available here.

Citi Prestige cardholders can take advantage of the Prestige Guest Chef Dining Program, with a range of experiences offered throughout the year.

At the time of writing, a Four Hands Dining experience is being offered at Iggy’s on Orchard Road in September 2023.

Citi Prestige cardholders are entitled to three complimentary green fee golf rounds at local golf clubs and three at regional clubs from those listed below, each calendar year.

Region	Clubs	Benefit
Local	Sentosa Golf Club* (weekdays only) Sembawang Country Club Marina Bay Golf Course	Three complimentary weekday or weekend green fee rounds Minimum golfers per flight may be required by the golf clubs
Regional	Mission Hills Golf Club Dongguan Hillview Golf Club Horizon Hills Golf & Country Club Tropicana Golf & Country Resort Glenmarie Golf & Country Club Ria Bintan Golf Club Klub Golf Sukajadi	Three (3) complimentary weekday or weekend green fee rounds No accompanying paying guest per cardholder required Minimum golfers per flight may be required by the golf clubs

* There is a requirement of one minimum accompanying paying guest per cardholder for Sentosa Golf Club. No accompanying paying guest is required for Sembawang Country Club, Marina Bay Golf Course and Regional Golf Clubs. Mission Hills Golf Club requires a minimum one-night stay for every tee time booking.

This can be used for multiple rounds at the same club if you wish.

All bookings must be made via the booking link at prestigegolf.apexlynx.net. Cardholders will be required to register their profile using their Citibank registered name, email address, and mobile number for verification purposes.

As a World Elite Mastercard, Citi Prestige members are also entitled to a range of additional benefits including:

• 35% off Avis standard car hire rates
• 10% off Hertz standard car hire rates
• Complimentary fast-track to GHA DISCOVERY Titanium status
• Complimentary HotelLux Elite Plus membership including 2,000 HoteLux points
• Held Tables at more than 600 of the finest dining venues in major cities around the world
• Other Mastercard ‘Priceless Specials’

• Complimentary travel insurance when you pay for your round-trip air ticket, or pay the taxes and fees on an award redemption ticket, using your Citi Prestige card, underwritten by AIG Insurance (policy terms here).
• Citi World Privileges, available to all Citi cardholders. These include restaurant, shopping and lifestyle benefits.
• Up to 14% fuel savings at Shell.
• Complimentary Sands LifeStyle membership upgrade to Prestige tier for up to 12 months (terms here).

Here are links to the full terms and conditions applicable to the Citi Prestige card.

 Citi Prestige Information Sheet
 Citi Prestige Cardmembers Agreement

The Citi Prestige Card doesn’t boast the best earning rates, but there’s a fantastic 71,000 miles sign-up bonus on offer for a reasonable spend of $2,000 in the first two months, plus an annual recurring bonus of 25,000 miles after that.

The ability to transfer miles into several frequent flyer schemes other than KrisFlyer is also a great feature, indeed we often use this card to top up our British Airways Avios balance, which we use for Qatar Airways Qsuite and Cathay Pacific First and Business Class redemptions.

The real value of this card comes from the perks – primarily the fourth night free deal and the unlimited Priority Pass membership including one guest.

If you use those correctly, they can end up saving you significant money over the year.

Our Rating

4 / 5 among high income general spend cards

Citi Prestige Card APPLY HERE

How we rate credit cards Best in class: A must-have for the miles earner in Singapore Excellent: A leader in its category with few if any downsides Very good: Drawbacks largely outweighed by the positive aspects Good: Useful benefits despite some poor features vs. other cards Average: Worth considering but not an essential addition to your wallet Conflicted: Some benefits but much better cards exist in the same category Poor: Few benefits worth having Very poor: Almost no benefits, not recommended Awful: Not worth considering

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(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)