Citi Premier rebrands as Citi ‘Strata’ Premier — and changes very little else
You may have heard the rumors that the Citi Premier Card would be refreshed. Now we can confirm that those rumors are true.
As of May 12, the Citi Premier Card has been rebranded as the Citi Strata Premier Card.
Credit card changes can either be positive or negative — or a mix of both — but rarely do they evoke such a neutral response. In our opinion, the changes are lackluster and do not warrant a change of the card’s name.
So, let’s dive deep into what changes existing cardholders and new applicants can expect.
The information for the Citi Premier and Citi Strata Premier cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Summary of the changes
What isn’t changing:
- Annual fee (staying the same at $95)
- Most bonus categories, including air travel, hotels, gas stations, supermarkets and dining
- ThankYou Rewards transfer partners
- $100 annual hotel credit
- No foreign transaction fees
- Access to Citi Entertainment
- World Elite Mastercard benefits
What is changing:
- New name and card art
- New electronic vehicle charging stations bonus category
- Ongoing Citi Travel portal bonus category
- Reintroduction of travel protections
- Elevated sign-up bonus
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Existing Citi Premier cardmembers will receive the enhanced benefits on the Strata Premier card effective immediately. They will receive a new card with the new Strata Premier name and card art when their current card expires.
New earning rates
The new card has two changes to its earning structure:
- New: 3 points per dollar spent at electronic vehicle charging stations
- Extended: 10 points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through the Citi Travel portal
All other bonus-earning categories are staying the same.
Earning bonus points per dollar spent on EV charging is a good addition, seeing how the card already earns 3 points per dollar spent on gas purchases.
Since the refreshed Citi Travel portal launched in March 2023, eligible cardholders (including those with the Premier) have been able to earn bonus points on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through the portal.
This perk was slated to end June 30 but is now an ongoing benefit of the Strata Premier. While this can provide value to cardholders and boost their ThankYou Rewards points balance, there are many reasons why booking directly is usually better.
It might have been nice to see the introduction of new bonus categories like streaming services, online retail purchases or drugstores. However, this card already has strong bonus categories.
Related: How to earn over 300,000 points in one year
Reintroducing travel protections
The next set of benefits is quite interesting. Citi will introduce — or, rather, reintroduce — four new travel protection benefits for cardholders:
- Trip cancellation and interruption
- Trip delay
- Lost or damaged luggage
- Car rental coverage
In 2019, Citi removed travel and purchase protections across several cards; the Citi Premier lost 10 travel and purchase protections.
This is where things get interesting because back then, Citi inserted the following statement in the frequently asked questions for the Citi Premier:
Citi continuously evaluates our products to ensure that associated benefits best meet the needs of our customers. As such, we will no longer offer select protection benefits on your card so we can continue providing key benefits that our customers use and value most at no additional cost. As a cardmember, you will continue to receive a range of valuable card benefits including FICO Credit Score, Citi Identity Theft Solutions, and Citi Entertainment.
This begs the question, what changed? Perhaps it was the COVID-19 pandemic, during which people who booked their travel on the Citi Premier card were not covered by changes, and customer satisfaction decreased.
Regardless, adding back benefits that were removed about five years ago is a welcome change. However, it really just brings the Strata Premier back up to the standard of many of its competitors, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Related: The best travel insurance policies and providers
Elevated sign-up bonus
For a limited time, new customers who apply for the Citi Strata Premier can earn 75,000 bonus ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within the first three months of account opening. Existing Premier cardholders are not eligible for the bonus on the new card.
The highest offer we’ve seen on the Citi Premier card is 80,000 bonus points, which was last offered in January 2023. The regular offer on the Citi Premier has been 60,000 points for a while now, so picking up 75,000 points now is a good deal.
Bottom line
The new Citi Strata Premier doesn’t vary much from the Citi Premier.
Although we expected more elevated benefits or perhaps the addition of new transfer partners, maintaining existing bonus categories for the same $95 annual fee is (somewhat unexcitingly) welcome.
We are seeing one new bonus category with EV charging, an extension of bonus points on select Citi Travel bookings and the reintroduction of travel protections.
All in all, not much is changing — this card still has a strong value proposition.
We’re much more interested in the Citi Prestige‘s successor. This premium card stopped accepting applications in mid-2021, and it is expected that Citi will launch a “Strata Elite” card later this year, which will hopefully give the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and The Platinum Card® from American Express a serious run for their money. Stay tuned.
The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Premium credit cards vs. mid-tier credit cards: Which should you get?
