While it may sound like a lot, I think most folks should consider applying for a new rewards card every six to 12 months. Of course, that’s only under the condition that you:
a) Meet the card requirements
b) Can handle a small, temporary ding to your credit score and
c) You can mentally and financially juggle multiple credit cards at once
But if you check those three boxes, it’s definitely worth considering. Because today’s reward cards are so rewarding—and have such insane welcome bonuses—not getting a new rewards card every so often is tantamount to leaving money on the table.
Case in point, I switched to the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card back in 2023 and pretty effortlessly saved $1,000 on essential expenses during year one. That was in spite of the fact that I already had the complete Chase Trifecta (Chase Freedom Flex®, Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card) present in my ever-fattening wallet.
So here’s how I saved $1,000 by switching to the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card—and how you can, too. Citi is a Forbes Advisor partner.
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First, I Made It My Primary Card for Gas and Groceries
Even though the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card was offering a nutty $750 welcome bonus at the time, the first thing that caught my eye was actually its unlimited and generous points on select categories.
Specifically, the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card gives you 3 Citi ThankYou® Points per dollar spent on airfare, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, gas and EV charging. That’s a mighty long list that includes a nice mix of both travel expenses and daily essentials.
By contrast, my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card only offers 3 points per dollar spent on dining, streaming and, um, online grocery purchases, as well as 2 points per dollar spent on travel not booked through Chase Travel℠.
Sure, the Chase Trifecta generates Chase Ultimate Rewards points that are worth 25% extra when redeemed through Chase Travel (and can be converted to high-value Hyatt points). Since I don’t travel as much these days, I prefer to redeem rewards for cash back.
The switch not only got me cash-back rewards, but I went from making between 1.5 and 2 points per dollar on gas, groceries, airfare and hotels using my existing card lineup to a whopping 3 points per dollar across the board. That change alone boosted my annual cash-back earnings by about $145.
Citi Strata Premier℠ Card
- High rewards rates for many popular categories
- Ability to transfer points to hotel and airline loyalty programs
- No foreign transaction fees
- Some built-in travel protections
- The $100 hotel benefit is difficult to redeem
- The highest earning rates are on Citi Travel bookings
- $95 annual fee
- Earn 70,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $700 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com
- Earn 10 points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on CitiTravel.com.
- Earn 3 points per $1 on Air Travel and Other Hotel Purchases, at Restaurants, Supermarkets, Gas and EV Charging Stations.
- Earn 1 Point per $1 spent on all other purchases
- $100 Annual Hotel Benefit: Once per calendar year, enjoy $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through CitiTravel.com. Benefit applied instantly at time of booking.
- No expiration and no limit to the amount of points you can earn with this card
- No Foreign Transaction Fees on purchases
Then I Scored the (Deceptively Generous) Welcome Bonus
While 3 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on gas, groceries and more served as a nice bulwark against inflation, there’s nothing like a big pile of cash to help with everyday expenses.
At first glance, the Citi Strata Premier card’s welcome bonus didn’t strike me as that special. After all, most midtier rewards cards that charge a similar annual fee have some sort of welcome bonus worth around $600 or more, including the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.
Moreover, the landing page for the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card states that a 75,000-point welcome bonus is “redeemable for $750 in gift cards or travel rewards on thankyou.com.” This actually had me more concerned than excited, since it seemed to imply that I couldn’t redeem my welcome bonus for straight cash—only $750 worth of Applebee’s and Sephora gift cards.
Thankfully (pun unavoidable), Citi ThankYou Points really are worth a penny a pop in cash back. The only exception is for points generated using the Citi Rewards+® Card, which are worth 0.5 cents each.
But the ThankYou Points I generate using my Strata Premier card are worth a full penny, and here’s the proof in my ThankYou.com dashboard:
Screenshot by Chris Butsch
On top of that, Citi has 19 transfer partners including Wyndham Rewards and Turkish Air, where you can stretch your point values even further. You’ll also see frequent promos, such as 25% bonus Flying Blue Miles at the time of this writing.
But I had no upcoming travel to book and a six-month auto insurance premium to pay, so I decided to take the $750 cash and run.
For context, a welcome bonus worth $750 in statement credit (not just travel redemption) is pretty outstanding for a midtier rewards card. Here are some competing examples to illustrate:
| Midtier Rewards Card | Welcome Bonus |
|---|---|
| Citi Strata Premier℠ Card | 70,000 bonus ThankYou® points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in purchases in the first three months, plus up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel purchases within the first year from account opening |
| Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card | 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months of account opening |
| American Express® Green Card* | 40,000 points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 6 months |
So in addition to my $145 earnings from the 3 points per dollar rewards categories, the Citi Strata Premier card also earned me another $750 from its deceptively generous welcome bonus. That brought my total to $895, and all it took was a single hotel booking to cross the four-figure mark.
Finally, I Used It To Shave $180 off a Rather Pricey Hotel Stay
The Citi Strata Premier’s last big money-saving perk is its $100 annual hotel benefit. When you book a $500-plus hotel stay via CitiTravel.com, Citi gives you a $100 statement credit at the time of booking. On top of that, you’ll always earn 10 ThankYou points per dollar spent on hotels, rental cars and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com.
So when I booked an $800 hotel stay for me and my partner near the Biltmore in Asheville, I figured Citi would give me my $100 Annual Hotel Savings benefit. I assumed I would only earn 10 times the points on the remaining $700.
But no, I earned 10 times the points on the full $800, meaning I got an instant $100 back and 8,000 ThankYou Points worth $80 cash. That’s a total of $180 back on an $800 hotel stay or 22.5% off, which isn’t bad at all. Heck, such high cash-back rewards on hotels could put the Citi Strata Premier in the running for the best travel cards.
Gushing aside, it’s worth remembering that there are some pretty big risks and caveats associated with booking travel indirectly through a portal like CitiTravel.com:
- You’ll typically forfeit any points or status-based benefits that you would’ve earned on the hotel side (in our case, late checkout and 12,800 IHG One Rewards points—ouch).
- Hotels are often limited in their ability to provide reservation assistance (for example, refunds, room changes) with indirect versus direct bookings.
- In a flip flop from the previous status quo, booking direct is usually the cheapest option these days. That’s especially true now that IHG, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and Wyndham all have Best Rate Guarantees to combat indirect bookings.
In the end, we decided that $180 in savings was worth the risk. Even still, we called the hotel multiple times just to confirm the details of our reservation, and we’d recommend you do the same any time you book indirectly.
Crunching the Numbers on Savings
All told, spending a year with the Citi Strata Premier saved me roughly $1,075 on (mostly) essential expenses. In total, I earned:
- $145 from the boosted category rewards (gas, groceries, dining, airfare and hotels)
- $750 from the 75,000-point welcome bonus
- $100 from the annual hotel statement credit
- $80 from rewards on hotels, rental cars and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
I suppose if we were to factor in its $95 annual fee, my net savings come out to just under $1,000—$980. But that’s still ten times what the card cost me, and as long as I keep using the annual hotel savings benefit, the card will pay for itself.
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Bottom Line
In the end, the Citi Strata Premier wasn’t a wholesale replacement for the existing cards in my wallet. I’ll definitely keep using the Chase Trifecta to score between 1.5 and 5 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on most purchases. Plus, now that the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card offers a $200 cash rewards bonus after spending $500 in purchases in the first 3 months plus 2% cash rewards on purchases, that’ll probably be the next card I apply for in six months’ time.
But as you can see—my time with the Citi Strata Premier Card was objectively well-spent. If you’re looking for a high rewards credit card with no annual fee attached, check out our running list of the best cards with no annual fees.