In what’s almost become a year-round offer, Citi has once again extended the sign-up bonus for its PremierMiles Visa card in Singapore to 31st July 2019.
There are three sign-up offers in total, depending on whether you are an existing Citi credit card customer or not, and whether you wish to pay the first year annual fee.
This extension to the deal gives both brand new customers, and former cardholders who have now exceeded 12 months without a Citi credit card, the opportunity to secure the main 21,000-mile sign-up bonus with a spend of S$7,500 in the first three months.
The details
Here are the full details of the sign-up bonus options for the Citi PremierMiles Visa card, for applications by 31st July 2019.
The main offer – 21,000 miles bonus:
Provided you don’t currently hold a Citi credit card and haven’t held one in the last 12 months, you’ll be eligible for a bonus of 21,000 miles, subject to having S$7,500 of spending to do from the approval date until the end of the third full calendar month, not including the calendar month of card approval.
For example, if you are approved for the card on 8th July 2019, the qualifying spend period is from that date until 31st October 2019 (three full calendar months from the 1st August 2019).
It is subject to payment of the annual fee, which is S$192.60.
As usual, Citi sells this 21,000 miles bonus as a 30,000 miles one, because they include the miles you would earn anyway for spending S$7,500 locally at the 1.2 miles per dollar rate.
Those 9,000 miles aren’t part of the bonus because you would receive them if you spent that amount on the card without a sign-up bonus even running, and we would argue you should be earning more than that anyway with a card like the BOC Elite Miles (1.5 mpd on local spend).
30,000 miles is the total you will receive, but 21,000 miles is the bonus.
Full terms and conditions for the main sign-up offer can be found here.
Offer 2 – 6,400 miles bonus:
If you’re still new to Citi credit cards but prefer not to pay the annual fee (first year fee waiver), and will spend at least S$3,000 from card approval to the end of the third full calendar month following the month card approval (as defined above), you will earn a 6,400 miles bonus.
Again Citi includes the miles you would earn anyway for spending S$3,000 on this card, even if a sign-up bonus didn’t exist, and so claims it to be a 10,000 miles bonus.
The terms and conditions for Offer 2 can be found here (note that unlike the other two options, this offer is available until the end of 2019).
Offer 3 – 14,000 miles bonus:
This one’s for you if you already hold another Citi credit card, for example the Citi Rewards or Citi Prestige, or you had a Citi credit card account which was terminated within the last 12 months and therefore don’t qualify as a ‘new’ Citi credit cardholder.
You can choose either from first year fee-waiver, or provided you spend S$7,500 from card approval to the end of the third full calendar month following the month card approval (as defined above):
- 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.
Remember both bonuses are subject to meeting the S$7,500 spend in the required time, including the 10,000 Citi Miles for payment of the annual fee.
Citi advertises this one as a 23,000 miles bonus, but of course again includes the 9,000 miles you would always earn spending S$7,500 on this card.
The terms and conditions for Offer 3 can be found here.
Citi Miles / ThankYou points are very flexible
One of the best things about Citi Miles and Citi ThankYou points in Singapore is the wide range of transfer partners compared with other bank loyalty points.
You can transfer your points into 12 different frequent flyer programs and into IHG points.
| Citi Miles / ThankYou Points credit to the following programs: | ||
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This gives you a wide range of flight redemption options including oneworld and SkyTeam carriers.
In our recent review of the excellent Oman Air 787 Apex Suite Business Class, we highlighted how you can redeem this seat from Bangkok to Paris for 76,000 Etihad Guest miles (equivalent to 76,000 Citi Miles).
Our card review
We updated our full review of the Citi PremierMiles Visa card today in light of the sign-up bonus extension. Read the full review here if you’re considering this card, as it goes into a lot more depth on the other features, to help you decide if it’s the right product.
Still no bonus for the Citi PremierMiles Amex
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 dollar spent, but in most other aspects is identical to the PremierMiles Visa offering.
Citi seems to be falling out of love with this card, not even advertising it on its homepage of travel credit cards (it’s hidden in a side menu), and neglecting it in the latest batch of updated card face designs.
Kaligo 12 miles per dollar
If you recall our article from last month (when Citi last extended this sign-up bonus), there is also an offer until the end of July to earn an unlimited 12 Citi Miles per dollar spent with your Citi PremierMiles card at online hotel booking site Kaligo.
Full terms and conditions for the Kaligo 12 miles per dollar offer are available here.
This can be a great miles boost, especially when you’re booking independent hotels or don’t hold (and aren’t chasing) status with certain hotel chains.
Do be aware Kaligo does not always have the cheapest rates (they pay some of their commission to you in the form of miles), but we have found plenty of examples where their rate is close to or only slightly above the lowest available rate for a hotel, often with thousands of miles thrown in for the booking, so do your research first but remember to consider it.
Top sign-up bonuses
We’ve updated our Top Credit Card Sign-up Bonuses page today to reflect the extension of this offer from Citi. Do bear in mind though we are expecting several changes in the days ahead as a round of sign-up bonuses have just expired, including:
- Amex Platinum Charge Card
- Citi Rewards
- HSBC Premier Mastercard
- KrisFlyer UOB Mastercard
- SIA KrisFlyer Amex & Amex Ascend
There should be some new sign-up bonuses coming for these cards soon, so keep an eye on the sign-up bonuses page as we’ll update it as soon as we learn of these.
Summary
The good sign-up bonus for Citi’s PremierMiles Visa card gets another extension to the end of July for those who’ve missed out, or now qualify having cancelled their Citi credit card more than 12 months ago (if you cancelled in June 2018 for example, you’re now eligible for the bonus again).
Citi continues to be generous with this offer, also offering options for those who don’t want to pay the annual fee plus an alternative bonus for those already holding another Citi credit card type.
We expect a few more sign-up bonuses to be announced this month with several such offers ending last night, so stay tuned for the details.
The sign up bonus is actually only 11,000 miles. 10,000 miles is for paying the annual fee. And good luck trying to collect the 11,000 miles after spending $7500. Every CSO has a different story. PayAll isn’t included, PayAll is included. Miles credited at end of month. Miles credited two months after spend. Also Citibank seems to have the largest list of exclusions of any Singapore credit card – it’s a bad deal with bad customer service.