5X ThankYou Points at Grocery, Gas, and Drugstores

February 28, 2013 - Rick

This find as first reported on the Personal Finance Digest and followed up guardedly on the Frequent Miler blog, changed how I will be buying tickets for awhile.

The link in this post is to a 2011 application page for the Citi ThankYou Preferred card that pays five points on gas, grocery and drugstores. Drugstores that sell Vanilla Reloads may be included

I saw Greg’s post and couldn’t wait to get home to my computer with a printer so I could apply for the card before the link was gone. Well I didn’t actually apply, Katy did as I’m still holding the Preferred card I got in October of 2011. Katy was immediately approved with a nice credit limit and we will buy reloads with this card upon arrival.

Five ThankYou Points is a nice haul, cuts out all the buying gift cards crap, and because Katy also has a ThankYou Premier card we actually earn 1.33 cents per point on tickets purchased when we redeem through the ThankYou Network.

Our current combined ThankYou point balance is about 240K right now and I can see it increasing nicely for the next year. The sign up bonus is not good, only 6K points when meeting a $300 minimum spend, but there is no annual fee and the 5X lasts for a full year in the bonus categories mentioned above. They categories then revert back to one point per dollar.

We have had some bad news lately with devaluations and revenue components in the airline programs starting. It is nice to see a positive option come back in play and thanks to bloggers for bringing the opportunity back to all of us.

If you are looking for a decent card with no fee, the opportunity to earn some bonus category points on your bills, I’d take this one ASAP.

This is a non affiliate card link. Be sure to print all information on the offer for your records.

Ryan from MA

I’ve heard you can have more than 1 Preferred card, no?

Richard Ingersoll

I’m not sure, but may try it in my march churn

Jeff

Rick, did you end up applying for one of these yourself? I’m thinking of pulling the trigger but also already have a TY Preferred card.

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/ Frugal Travel Guy

He did – Howie

darlak8

Rick/Howie, I’m curious why Katy & Rick each have the 5x TY card at the same time? By waiting until Katy’s 5X term runs out to apply, Rick could extend the bonus another year for them. Even if the 5x offer isn’t around 12 months from now, if you buy $10K VR per month now on Katy’s card you’ve really lost nothing by waiting.

ddavid1101

Did your wife confirm 5X for a year after approval?

Richard Ingersoll

no but it says so right on the landing page. I’ll fight it if I have to

ddavid1101

Any way she can send a secured message or give a call and confirm? I have not read or seen anyone confirmed the 5X after applying other than seeing it on the landing page. It would be greatly appreciated.

http://twitter.com/Mileage_Update Mileage Update

No need for all that until you start spending a see if you are getting 5x

Richard Ingersoll

now we have confirmation. First year five points per $ in category

http://www.facebook.com/rachelcmurphy Rachel Murphy Leimkuehler

I don’t suppose you can combine Thank you Points with AAdvantage miles can you? Since both are Citi cards?
Dan

5x TY points really isn’t a big deal, the amount you save on airfare is negligible. You may as well continue to use your UR cards since in the end you get a higher return. All together TY points have a HORRIBLE redemption rate, so until they change the program I’m out.

BubbaJoe123

If you can buy VR with these, then it is pretty darn attractive. For every $1k in VR you buy, it costs you $8, but you get 5000 TY points. 5000 TY points, if you have a TY Premier card, are worth 5000 * $0.0133 = $67 on airfare, or $58 net of the cost of the VR. Do $10k/month in VR over the course of that year, and you’re looking at $7k in airfare. That’ll buy a lot of tickets.

Dan

Good luck with that one, I’m sure Citi will just turn a blind eye to that.

5X ThankYou Points at Grocery, Gas, and Drugstores

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