Citi has launched a new promotion today for its PremierMiles Visa cardholders, with the opportunity to earn an enhanced 1.5 miles per dollar on local spend for the rest of 2019 instead of the regular 1.2 miles per dollar rate, provided you charge at least S$3,000 to your card per statement cycle.
That’s not likely to be a massive boost to your miles total, and of course there is a similar card on the market already offering 1.5 mpd as its standard local earn rate, but it may be useful if you stick to the PremierMiles card for the bulk of your local spend or like to use it for the additional transfer partner options available.
The offer
From 13th September 2019 to 31st December 2019, provided you accumulate a spend of S$3,000 or more on your Citi PremierMiles Visa card for the relevant month’s statement, you will earn 1.5 Citi Miles for every S$1 spent on local retail purchases.
The 1.5 Citi Miles includes the base rate of 1.2 Citi Miles (i.e. the usual Citi Miles earn rate for the card), plus additional 0.3 Citi Miles, which you’ll receive at the end of the same statement cycle in a single ‘bonus credit’.
This doesn’t affect the regular overseas earn rate, therefore the earn rates for the Citi PremierMiles Visa card during this promotion are as follows:
- S$1 = 2 Citi Miles on foreign currency spend
- S$1 = 1.2 Citi Miles on local spend (no minimum spend)
- S$1 = 1.5 Citi Miles on local spend (with minimum spend of S$3,000 per statement month)
Full terms and conditions for this offer can be found here.
Qualifying spend exclusions
This offer is subject to your minimum S$3,000 monthly (statement cycle) card spend not falling into one of the following (relatively limited) categories:
- annual fees, interest charges, late payment charges, GST, cash advances,
instalment/easy/extended/equal payment plans, preferred payment plans, balance transfers, cash advances, quasi-cash transactions, all fees and charges; - funds transfers using the card as source of funds;
- bill payments (including via Citibank Online or via any other channel or agent)
What about Citi PayAll?
Citi PayAll transactions do count towards the minimum spend, which is handy if you have larger bills like rent, education bills or taxes to pay.
Provided you successfully trigger the 1.5 mpd earn rate for the same statement cycle, this reduces your cost per mile when using PayAll at the generic 2% admin fee from 1.67 cents each to 1.33 cents each.
Be careful of your statement cycle
Since this promotion is statement cycle based, and Citi PremierMiles Visa customers all have different statement dates based on first account opening, you do have to take care to ensure you will meet the correct spend levels in the correct timeframes in order to qualify for this higher rate.
Citi illustrates the Citi Miles credited under the promotion in the following way, assuming a statement date on the 4th of each month:
Cardmember A: 5th September 2019 to 4th October 2019 (Start of Promotion)
Critical here to note that transactions completed in the same statement cycle, but before the valid transactions date (13th September 2019), are not accounted for towards the minimum spend.
Cardmember B: 5th September 2019 to 4th October 2019 (Start of Promotion)
Cardmember C: 5th December 2019 to 4th January 2020 (End of Promotion)
Cardmember D: 5th December 2019 to 4th January 2020 (End of Promotion)
Get your head around those if you will!
Basically you need to be especially careful around your statement cycle covering the start and the end of this promotion, as you will not only need to ensure you meet the minimum spend requirement in that statement month but also that you meet it within the qualifying dates (13th September 2019 to 31st December 2019).
This all seems needlessly complicated (four tables in the terms and conditions document for a simple offer!), and we can’t help thinking there must surely have been a more straightforward way to run the promotion.
What’s the time zone?
If you’re really pushing this offer to the extremes, especially at the very end on 31st December 2019, it’s worth noting that qualifying transactions will be determined by their transaction posting date based on Singapore Time (GMT + 8 hours).
Citi Miles are very flexible
One of the best things about Citi Miles in Singapore is the wide range of transfer partners compared with other bank loyalty points.
You can transfer your points into 11 different frequent flyer programmes and into IHG points.
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This gives you a wide range of flight redemption options including oneworld and SkyTeam carriers, in addition to the usual KrisFlyer and Asia Miles schemes.
The Citi PremierMiles Amex card is not eligible
Like the current PremierMiles sign-up bonus, the Citi PremierMiles Amex card is not eligible for this enhanced earn rate offer and will continue to earn miles at 1.3 mpd for local spend with no minimum amount.
We’ve said it before but 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.
Sign-up bonus
Speaking of the sign-up bonus, remember the Citi PremierMiles Visa card still has a 21,000 miles deal running until the end of September 2019. You can read full details in our sign-up bonus article here.
Summary
Not exactly the best deal in the world, this offer basically brings the Citi PremierMiles card into the BOC Elite Miles local earning rate, only that card doesn’t require a minimum monthly spend in order to achieve it.
On the flip side Citi transfers into a much wider range of frequent flyer programmes, while with BOC you’re restricted to KrisFlyer and Asia Miles.
If you are going to make use of the enhanced rate, make sure you know your statement date (and therefore monthly statement cycle), to ensure you will meet the eligible spend in the correct periods so that you qualify for the bonus.
(Cover Photo: MainlyMiles)
Is paying rent via cardup included in the 1.5mpd bonus and spend or do you have to pay it via PayAll?
CardUp and ipaymy are included in the qualifying transactions and will earn at the 1.5mpd rate. Those transactions also count towards the statement minimum spend requirement.