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Good news if you thought you were about to miss out on the 21,000 miles sign-up bonus for the Citi PremierMiles Visa card. Originally due to end today, the promotion has been extended by 3 months to 31st January 2019.
With a cost per mile of 0.9 Singapore cents each, this is one of the best sign-up bonuses currently on offer and one you should probably consider if you don’t currently hold this card.
21,000 Miles Sign-up bonus
Provided you don’t currently hold a Citi credit card and haven’t held one in the last 12 months prior to 1st November 2018, you’ll be eligible for a bonus of 21,000 miles, subject to having S$7,500 of spending to do in the 3 full calendar months from the end of the calendar month of card approval.
For example, if you are approved for the card on 12th November 2018, the qualifying spend period is from that date until 28th February 2019 (3 full calendar months from the end of November 2018).
It is subject to payment of the annual fee of S$192.60.
If you prefer not to pay the annual fee, the regular Citi S$120 cashback offer is available. As 21,000 miles are worth around S$420 we would strongly recommend paying the fee to receive the welcome bonus.
You will still earn the standard rate of 1.2 Citi Miles per S$1 spent locally or 2.0 Citi Miles per S$1 spent overseas, in addition to the bonus amounts. In fact provided you spend overseas before 31st December 2018, a bonus rate of 2.4 Citi Miles per S$1 currently applies on this card.
That means if you go for the full 21,000 bonus miles offer by spending S$7,500 over three months, you’ll net an extra 9,000 miles assuming you use the card for local spend, for a total of 30,000 miles (21,000 + 9,000).
That’s more than enough for a Business Class redemption to Hong Kong in the new Singapore A380 2017 Business Class seat. Check out our full review of that product, in case you’re wondering whether it’s worth it!
Of course you’re probably already using a card giving you a similar miles earning rate for local transactions, so the true bonus over and above what you would earn anyway is only 21,000 miles for most people.
Updated terms and conditions for new Citi credit card customers, reflecting the latest validity period of this offer through 31st January 2019, can be found here.
What about existing or former Citi customers?
If you are an existing Citi credit card holder, or had a Citi credit card account which was terminated in the last 12 months prior to 1st November 2018, you won’t be eligible for the sign-up bonus above, and instead can choose either from first year fee-waiver, or:
- 10,000 Citi Miles on approval and payment of the annual fee (S$192.60).
- An additional 4,000 Citi Miles (14,000 miles total) and a S$100 Kaligo.com e-voucher, if you spend S$7,500 on the card within the first 3 months.
Again you will still earn the standard rate of 1.2 Citi Miles per S$1 spent locally or 2.0 Citi Miles per S$1 spent overseas, in addition to the bonus amounts. That means if you go for the maximum bonus miles offer by spending S$7,500 over three months, you’ll again net an extra 9,000 miles assuming you use the card for local spend, for a total of 23,000 miles (10,000 + 4,000 + 9,000).
The cost per mile in this case increases to 1.38 cents each, still reasonable in our view. Full terms and conditions for existing Citi credit card customers can be found here.
Earning rates
As we’ve said above – the Citi PremierMiles Visa earns 1.2 miles for every S$1 spent locally (i.e. transacted in SGD), and 2.0 miles for every S$1 spent overseas (i.e. transacted in foreign currency).
Currently a bonus rate applies on overseas spend – with 2.4 miles awarded for every S$1 spent in foreign currency until 31st December 2018.
Citi has one of the widest range of frequent flyer programs for you to transfer your points into, including British Airways, Qatar Airways, Thai and Qantas, making these very flexible points to accrue. Attractive cost per mile too, at 0.92 cents each, provided you have S$7,500 spending to do in the next 3 months. See our full review for more details, including a full list of transfer partners.
| Citi PremierMiles Visa | ||
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Sign-up Bonus: | 21,000 miles |
| Annual Fee: | S$192.60 | |
| Cost per mile: | 0.92¢ | |
| Min Spend: | S$7,500 in 3 months | |
| Min Income: | S$30,000/yr | |
| Citi Miles credit to the following programs: | ||
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The Citi PremierMiles Amex is still excluded
There is still no sign-up bonus for the Citi PremierMiles Amex card, which features a slightly better local earning rate of 1.3 miles per S$1 spent, but in most other aspects is the same as the PremierMiles Visa offering.
Summary
A welcome extension of a good sign-up offer for the Citi PremierMiles card. The income requirement for this card was also cut to S$30k per annum in June, making it even more accessible, and a 2.4 miles per dollar promotional rate is currently available for foreign transactions through the end of 2018.
Do be aware though of some other changes to Citi products recently, namely an increase in the foreign transaction fee and some additional miles earning MCC category exclusions.
While not as attractive as some of the sign-up bonuses we’ve seen in the past for this card – 21,000 miles is worth about S$420 against a future redemption with Singapore Airlines under the KrisFlyer scheme, and a similar amount with many of the other programs you can transfer Citi Miles into, like Asia Miles and Avios.
That more than justifies the annual fee, which also entitles you to a recurring 10,000 miles per year bonus on each subsequent renewal. Citi Miles also never expire, so there’s no rush to transfer them into KrisFlyer or any other scheme until you’re ready.
As we also mentioned in our full review of the card, there are also regular ‘cheap miles’ promotions for existing cardholders, one of them offering 31,200 bonus miles for a spend of S$9,000 over a 2-month period in 2017, for an administrative fee of S$238, an absolute no-brainer for the miles collector. Fingers crossed for another offer like that soon.
In summary we think this is one to have in your wallet, assuming you don’t already. The sign-up bonus alone is worth it, provided you have S$7,500 spending to do over the next 3 months. Even for existing Citi credit card holders, a 14,000 miles bonus is worth considering.