The Citi Premier Credit Card earns 1 Citi Rewards Point per dollar spent. The card has a $300 ongoing annual fee and includes two Priority Pass lounge access each year, plus the ability to transfer points from Citi Rewards Program to a number of partners.

Citi Premier credit card – the basics

When you sign up for the Citi Premier credit card, you’re going to receive the bonus in Citi Rewards points (but you could swap to Qantas Rewards later as a cardholder). We explain this a little later in the guide.

Using the card for overseas spend incurs a 3.4% fee, with earn rate at 1 Qantas point or 2 Citi Rewards points per $1 spent capped at 100,000 Qantas Points for the Qantas Rewards variant and 200,000 Citi Rewards Points for the Citi Reward variant both over a 12 month period.

Card Details

CardCiti Premier Credit Card
Loyalty programCiti Rewards Program
Citi Rewards earn rate2 Rewards Points per $1 spent on Eligible Transactions online or overseas
1 Reward Point per $1 spent on Eligible Transactions everywhere else
Points cap200,000 Citi Rewards points over a 12 month period
Minimum credit limit$15,000
Earns points at ATONo
Travel benefitsPriority Pass lounge access and two included lounge visits
Regular Annual fee$300 p.a. ongoing
Overseas transaction fee3.40% of the converted amount
Minimum income requirement$75,000 p.a.

Effective Frequent Flyer Program Point Earn Rates

Frequent Flyer ProgramAll other eligible spendInternational Spend
Qantas Points*0.5 point / $1 point / $
Velocity Points0.5 point / $1 point / $
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles0.4 point / $0.8 point / $
Emirates Skyward0.4 point / $0.8 point / $
* Qantas Points are only earned through the Citi Premier Qantas Visa card

Digging into the benefits of the Citi Premier Credit Card

You’ll earn 2 Citi Rewards points per $1 on eligible online and international spend and 1 Citi Rewards points per $1 everywhere else capped at 200,000 Citi Rewards points over a 12 month period.

There’s a minimum income requirement of $75,000.

The Citi Premier Credit Card can also be linked to Qantas Frequent Flyer, with points earned from spend earned into one program or the other. If you decide to use the card to earn Citi Rewards points, have a read of our full guide to the Citi Rewards program here.

Citi Rewards transfer partners for the Premier Credit Card are low in number but high in quality:

  • Virgin Australia Velocity
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Emirates Skywards

For Citi Premier cardholders, points transfer out to Virgin Australia‘s Velocity at 2 Citi Rewards point to 1 Velocity point and to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program at 2.5 Citi Rewards points to 1 KrisFlyer miles.

The minimum number of Citi Rewards Points required to make a transfer varies depending on the partner program, and are as follows:

  • Velocity Frequent Flyer – Minimum 2,000 points in 1 point increments
  • Singapore KrisFlyer – Minimum 20,000 points in 1 point increments
  • Emirates Skywards – Minimum 15,000 points in 1 point increments

Any balance less than the minimum is ineligible to be transferred to frequent flyer programs until the minimum threshold is reached.

You can swap the card between Citi Rewards points and Qantas Points earn once per year, so do this only when you need to.

Priority Pass benefit

The card also comes with Priority Pass lounge membership, valued at US$99 per year, and two included lounge visits valued at US$32 each.

The way this works in practice is that you’ll receive a promotional pack from Citi with a Priority Pass access code soon after receiving your card in the mail. The code then lets you sign up for the relevant membership from Priority Pass.

Insurance

Finally, you’ll also get a range of insurances, including extended warranty, purchase cover and international travel insurance. As per usual, you’ll need to read the PDS and assess if these insurances meet your individual needs and offer you substantial value.

This guide references some of the benefits of insurance policies provided with this card. You should read the PDS and obtain independent professional advice before obtaining this product.

Citi Payall

You can now earn Citi reward Points on larger everyday expenses such as rent, taxes, education fees, property management fees, childcare and miscellaneous bills with Citi Payall. Offers are subject to eligibility and are only available if your account is in good standing.

Citi Apple Pay & Samsung Pay support

Citi cards supports Apple Pay & Samsung Pay, meaning you can use this card on your smartphone for easier payments. Unfortunately, Google Pay is currently not supported.

Summing up: the Citi Premier credit card

The Citi Premier credit card remains to be considered for high volumes of points earn outside of Qantas Frequent Flyer on a Visa or MasterCard, however, the annual fee is higher than many others on the market, so you’ll need to be using the card a lot on online and overseas spend to make the fee worthwhile, also note that points earn is now capped at 200,000 Citi Rewards points over a 12 month period.

The flexibility of points transfer to Velocity or KrisFlyer is really useful, as well as the possibility of swapping the card (infrequently) between Qantas or Citi Rewards points earn.

Editorial Note: Opinions expressed on this guide are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by Citi.

Citi Premier Card Guide was last modified: June 27th, 2022 by Daniel Sciberras