Citi Rewards Credit Card Review

Citibank offers only a few credit cards as compared to other market players like HDFC Bank, SBI Card and ICICI Bank. However, there card offerings are well-designed to match the needs of their target audience. One such card is the Citi Rewards Credit Card that truly stands as one of the best rewards credit cards in India with an annual fee of only Rs. 1,000. The best part of the credit card is that the reward points never expire. Here is our Citi Rewards Credit Card Review to help you understand these benefits better.

Rewards and More Rewards

Being a rewards card, this Citibank Credit Card lets you earn rewards on all your purchases. The rate of reward earning is given below:

• 1 reward point per Rs. 125 on all purchases
• 10 reward points per Rs. 125 on apparel and departmental store spending
• 1,500 bonus rewards points as welcome gift on making the first transaction within 30 days of card activation
• Reward points never expire

An important underlying condition to notice here is that you will be able to enjoy 10X rewards on apparel and departmental store spending only up to Rs. 7,000 per month. If your spending goes above Rs. 7,000, you will earn rewards at the normal rate of 1 point per Rs. 125.

Generally, the most common complain about credit card reward points is that they come with an expiration date. Citi Rewards Credit Card beats this drawback by giving points that never expire. If you don’t redeem the points for a long time, you can get a substantial redemption benefit out of it.

Suggested Read: Best Rewards Credit Cards in India for 2020

Citibank Rewards Credit Card

Redeeming Citibank Credit Card Reward Points

The accumulated reward points can be used in the following ways:

• Redeem points to purchase items from the rewards catalogue
• Convert the reward points into air miles* ( 1point = 0.75 Air Miles)
• Get cashback against your reward points (1 Point = Re. 0.35)

*On Citi Rewards Credit Card, Air Mile conversion can be availed only for Intermiles and Air India Frequent Flyer Program.

Citibank has separate cards for air miles (Citi PremierMiles) and cashback (Citi Cashback). If you want any of these services, it is better to apply for cards that are specifically made for those.

Annual Fee Waiver

Citibank is pretty lax about annual fee waiver on its credit cards. While there are other cards in the market that would require you to spend up to Rs. 1 Lakh to waive off Rs. 500 annual fee, Citi Rewards Credit Card annual fee of Rs. 1,000 can be waived off on reaching annual spending threshold of only Rs. 30,000. And, on top of that, Citibank also rewards you with 300 bonus points on reaching the same spending limit.

Drawbacks of Citi Rewards Credit Card

Despite being designed around rewards and only rewards, this card could be better and could come on top of the list of best rewards credit cards in India. However, there are a few downsides that keep it from being the best:

Not an Impressive Rewards Rate (Comparatively)

If you are a heavy spender and are seriously looking forward to earn handsome rewards on your card, you would be better off with a different credit card (perhaps for a slightly higher annual fee). For example, SBI Card PRIME charges an annual fee of Rs. 3,000 but its rewards program would offer you 2 points per Rs. 100 and 10X points on dining, movies, grocery and departmental store spending. Another option is HDFC Regalia Credit Card (Annual Fee: Rs 2,500). It does not offer any accelerated rewards but the basic rate itself stands good at 4 points per Rs. 150.

Below is the reward earning on Citi Rewards Credit Card as compared to other cards with slightly higher annual fee.

No Benefit on Any Other Category

While it is a good strategy to design a credit card around a particular benefit, not offering any other benefit whatsoever is not a good plan either. This is the reason why Citi Rewards Card struggles to rise above the ‘Basic Cards’ category. At the same time, SBI SimplySAVE is also a basic card with 1 reward point per Rs. 100, but it offers 10X rewards on dining, movies, departmental stores and grocery spends. Whereas, Citi Rewards offers 10X points only on apparel and departmental store spending which is anyway what most of the people put on their credit cards. Extra rewards on movies or dining could have been better.

Is the annual fee of Rs. 1,000 worth it?

At the first look, you may find the annual fee of Citi Rewards Credit Card a bit high. However, the real value depends on how much you can spend using the card in a year. As soon as you reach annual spending threshold of Rs. 30,000, the annual fee will be waived off, plus you will get 300 bonus reward points. In addition, the monetary value of 30,000 reward points is Rs. 10,500 which is a fairly good deal.

Should you get this card?

The answer to this question lies actually in what do you want from your card.

Bottom Line

Citi Rewards Credit Card deserves to be in the list of the best rewards credit cards in India but probably not on the top. The more you spend on the card, the better it will be for you. For a good spender, the annual fee would not be too much. Plan your spending and then see whether this card would be a good fit for you.