Citi Premier Card – Velocity Offer

Pauline Hatch

Pauline is a personal finance expert at CreditCard.com.au, with 8 years in money, budgeting and property reporting under her belt. Ask Pauline a Question about this card.

Citi Premier Card - Velocity Points Offer Review

Citi’s Premier Velocity credit card hits the bulls-eye if you’re keen to build up your frequent flyer points. You can earn 80,000 Velocity points when you sign up and spend $6,000 on eligible purchases within 90 days of approval.

❗ We've gotten a lot of questions about the points with this card! The bonus offer is paid in Velocity points, but the points you earn on your spending every day are Citi reward points. You can transfer Citi points to Velocity points manually or set up an 'autosweep' feature to do it automatically. 2 Citi reward Points = 1 Velocity Point for Citi Premier cards.

Let’s look at what else the Citi Premier - Velocity card has so you can see if it’s what you’re looking for.

What we love...

I admit it, I’m often impressed by Citi and its offerings. I think the sign-up offers (which often include chunky rewards points or cashback) are some of the best around, and it has the framework in place for a good customer experience with plenty of ways to save money, budget and earn rewards.

The Citi Premier Card - Velocity Points Offer makes you look twice; it comes with excellent benefits, rewards, perks, discounts, free insurances and services, and extra features like Citi instalment plans where you can pay off your balance in a ‘Buy now pay later’ fashion.

An ongoing perk of Citi’s Premier card with the Velocity offer is the discounted annual fee. A 50% discount applies if you spend at least $48,000 on eligible purchases during the year before, bringing the annual fee down to $150. That’s a reasonable annual fee for a premium card.

Citi has its own program earning Citi rewards Points that you can redeem at its online store (a 2,000 point minimum spend applies). You can also convert Citi points to Velocity points, either manually or with the Autosweep function that converts your Rewards Balance on the same date each month.

Earning Citi rewards Points. You’ll earn 1 Citi rewards Point for every dollar you spend on eligible transactions online or overseas, and 1 point per dollar on any other eligible domestic purchase. Non-eligible transactions include cash advances, special promotions, fees, refunds, and balance transfers.

Complimentary insurances. The Citi Premier Card - Velocity Offer comes with complimentary international travel insurance, overseas transit accident insurance, mobile phone insurance, purchase cover insurance, extended warranty insurance and complimentary guaranteed pricing.

Citi Rewards perks. On top of earning points, Citi also offers exclusive deals with partnering businesses.

Priority Pass. You’ll get Priority Pass Standard Membership, which allows the primary cardholder free access to two airport lounges per year.

Other bonuses:

• Sync your card with Apple Pay and access your account via the Citi Mobile App
• 24/7 customer service
• Personal concierge services for round-the-clock help with bookings and travel

Citi PayAll is another feature unique to Citi that allows you to earn points on payments that most rewards programs won’t. You can set up automatic payments through the Citi Mobile App and earn points on rent, taxes, education fees, property management fees, childcare, bills and more. Effective 1 November 2023, the Citi PayAll fee changed to 0.95% of the amount being paid.

This card also comes with 55 days interest-free on purchases.

* Note: as of 16 October 2023, the Linked Diners Club card is no longer available with Citi.

What’s not so great...

The 50% discount on the annual fee is an excellent bonus, but it only comes into play when you’ve spent at least $48,000 on your card in the previous 12 months. So, you’ll pay the full $300 for the first year.

You can earn a maximum of 200,000 Citi Reward points per 12 month period (the 80,000 Velocity points bonus doesn’t count toward the cap).

With 2 points earned per overseas purchase, Citi primarily rewards international spenders and travellers. You might want to check that the card is going to earn the best points for the way you shop.

Why should you choose this card?

The Citi Premier card - Velocity Offer packs a decent punch upfront with 80,000 Velocity points, and then very good ongoing points with Citi Rewards. Since you can spend the points as is or convert them into Velocity points, you can choose whether you want retail or travel perks.

If you like money hacks, you’ll probably be a fan of the Citi Mobile App and its bonus features including Citi PayAll and Citi Instalment Plan that let you pay smarter and earn rewards.

Here are the points earning rates:

• Earn 2 Points per $1 on all eligible online transactions
• Earn 2 Points per $1 on all eligible international transactions made overseas or online with a merchant that is based overseas
• Earn 1 Points per $1 on all eligible domestic transactions
• Earn 1 Citi rewards Point per $1 on all eligible transactions using Citi PayAll

Citi reward Points can be redeemed for flights, hotels, shopping, dining, and car hire. You can use it to pay for almost anything like appliances, homewares, and other merchandise at partner stores. You also have an option to transfer your Citi reward Points to partner programs including Emirates Skywards, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, flybuys, and many more.

Overall Rating

The Citi Premier card - Velocity Offer will fill your rewards tank with 80,000 Velocity points when you sign up by 31 October 2023, and keep delivering with Citi reward Points you can redeem or convert to a variety of other programs.

It comes with a host of free travel bonuses, discounts with partner businesses, insurances including mobile phone coverage, and nifty ways to earn points on boring payments like bills and rent.

The premium annual fee can be discounted when you spend a certain amount each year, making this card and its features pretty attractive for the price.