It’s been a while since we’ve had a new Unsung Hero candidate for two major reasons:
Plenty of would-be candidates are at smaller banks and credit unions, and the volume of the greater internet would likely kill them
Venture capital investment in the FinTech and credit card space has been declining annually every year since 2017, at least in terms of deal volume
Don’t worry though, a decrease in venture capital has been met with increased annual fees and coupon book crap benefits at most major banks. Oh wait, no do worry.
It earns 3x at grocery, gas, and restaurants, uncapped
Citi payments can be shenaniganie
It doesn’t have any coupon book credits, other than a hotel credit you don’t need to worry about and probably won’t use
This card’s approvals are relatively loose
Citi’s transfer partners are surprisingly great
ThankYou points can be simply cashed out for a penny each
In other words, in a face of $195 annual fees, $25,000 bonus caps, $7 ride share credits, 0.6 cent point cashouts, Bilt cash, and lounges with 90 minute long lines, the Citi Premier card is easy, valuable, and unobtrusive.
Have a nice day friends!
It’s not all Strata Premier roses though: Leaked upcoming monthly Strata coupon.
You’ll pay about $70 over 14 months to be a member, so portfolios over $7,000 in value will do better with paid membership. You’ll also earn $150 by going through Rakuten. You can ACATS transfer in and out with this promotion, no need to liquidate assets and incur a taxable event. Apropos of nothing, SPIC insurance limits are $500,000 on securities. (Thanks to DoC)
This card is an absolute banger for the right use cases when you link it to a Rakuten account that earns Bilt or Membership Rewards if you’re good at grocery store spend. It is, shall we say, bordering on Unsung Hero territory.
The current sign-up bonus end date of July 9 (today)
The conversion of the Sears variant of the card to a ThankYou card a few months ago
… it’s easy to draw a conclusion that the writing is likely on the wall and the card will be pulled for new applicants shortly. My normal advice is to not apply for credit cards on blogger’s timelines, but this might be an exception. If you want the card, I think there’s a decent chance that you need to apply for it today. (Thanks to Derthsidious)
But, questions often come up around the card, so let’s answer ’em like a boss:
[Q] When do I start getting offers? [A] Usually 3-5 months after getting the card
[Q] What’s the offer cadence? [A] Citi sends offers on the 1st and the 15th of each month via email, and sometimes earlier via snail-mail
[Q] What’s the sign-up bonus? [A] I dunno, but it’s crap, and it’s always been crap – that’s not why we get the card
[Q] How long until the sign-up bonus posts after hitting spend? [A] Forever, it probably won’t post (unless you’re really lucky or you bug Citi)
[Q] When do semi-monthly spend offers post? [A] For points usually within a week. For statement credits, either (a) a few weeks after the statement close, or (b) the middle of the next month depending on the offer
[Q] Can I have multiple Shop Your Way Rewards cards? [A] Historically yes, but now now (since about mid-2023)
[Q] What counts as an online purchase? [A] ymmv, but: some floosie things, your online utility payments, and probably whatever counts on the AT&T Access More card which would also be an Unsung Hero if you could still get it
[Q] Can I product change to this card? [A] No
[Q] Can I switch to the ThankYou Points version of this card? [A] Not since 2021
[Q] What’s the best redemption of Shop Your Way Rewards points? [A] Almost always Visa gift cards
[Q] What’s an unknown feature of the card? [A] It has special payment-fu, and lacks the Big Bank Energy™ that Citi’s known for
[Q] How do I get a credit line increase? [A] They award them automatically on most card anniversaries
[Q] I don’t see any offers in the ‘Offers’ tab on the account dashboard [A] That’s not a question, but sounds about right for this card. Don’t worry, no one else sees their offers either
[Q] What’s this card’s annual expectation value? [A] Almost as much as a maxed American Express Resy Platinum sign-up bonus
Good luck, and Happy #CitiGonnaCiti day.
[Bonus Q] In the year 2025, I get this message while trying to log into the card’s dashboard, what’s up? [A] #CitiGonnaCiti
The sign-up bonus for both is 5,000 Mileage Bank miles after $5,000 spend in three billing cycles, and the Premium tier has an additional 5,000 miles after another $2,000 spend. For ongoing spend, you’ll earn 0.5x on the Basic or 1x on the Premium. Both cards earn 2x on JAL flights.
The Whale Angle
The Premium tier earns 5 Life Status Points (yes, that’s really what they’re called) for every $1,500 in spend. After 1,500 Life Status Points earned, you get JAL Global Club Three Star status for life, which also gets you JGC Premier status (second to highest JAL frequent flyer tier), which includes at least oneworld Sapphire status, and potentially also includes oneworld Emerald status; the terms are rather-unclear and no-one’s had time to try this yet to be sure. So, just spend $450,000 and get lifetime Sapphire or Emerald status, provided you pay 2,000 miles as a “membership fee” annually. Quirky enough yet?
Oneworld Sapphire is great because it grants you access to:
AA lounges including Flagship even when flying domestically
Alaska lounges, even when flying domestically
If you end up with oneworld Emerald, you’ll also get access to:
Qantas First lounges, even when flying domestically
Cathay Pacific First lounges, even when flying domestically
If $450,000 in spend is just another couple of days for you and you could easily burn 450,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles, then you can have some fun and some weird status if nothing else.
The Other Quirks
There are more quirks to contend with:
Mileage Bank miles expire after three years even if you hold the card, unless you hold JGC Three Star status or higher in which case they don’t expire
Paid tickets earn 10% “sector bonus” miles for every flight for cardholders
You earn 5,000 bonus miles on your first flight paid for with the card
You earn 5,000 bonus miles when booking your first flight with JAL International
There’s a promotion code to use during application, but it’s prefilled and non-editable: AFSPG1024
There’s more too, but the main quirks are covered.
Bonus: JAL MileageBank Sweet Spots
JAL MileageBank is traditionally a great program with a few (surprise) quirks. Sweet spots include:
140,000 miles for JAL first round-trip awards
100,000 miles for Emirates business one-way awards
24,000-30,000 miles for an upgrade from paid economy to business on JAL metal
Distance flown based partner redemptions with three stop-overs, including mixed partners
Fortunately there’s still plenty going on with manufactured spend even though gift card resale prices still stuck in the sewers. Here are a few goodies:
1.Chase Merchant Offers has an offer for 10% back on up to $250 in spend at BestBuy now through March 3rd. Resale rates are at round 93% though, so I’d hold off until closer to March to get a higher rate.
2. There’s a better version of last week’s monster credit card offer for $3,000 back with Capital One: it’s $3,500 instead of $3,000 back if you apply through a business relationship manager (you can call a Capital One branch and ask to speak to their business relationship manager if you don’t already have one). Reportedly approval standards through a relationship manager are lower than if you applied for the public offer.
Side note: You can freeze one or two credit reports with Capital One and still get approved, just make sure you leave TransUnion unfrozen.
3.American Express Offers has $100 off of $400 in Delta flights booked through AmEx travel by March 31. (Thanks to batrick)
4. The most unsung of all the Unsung Hero credit cards, the no-annual fee Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, is sending out targeted offers for 5% back on “online shopping” spend up to $100 as long as you spend $1,200, and the credit is once per month for three months, for a total of $300 cash back in addition to normal spending bonuses. Other variations have been reported too:
10x ThankYou Points per month for between $1,200 and $1,300 in spend (thanks to Katie)
5% back for spending at least $800 online, up to $90 cash back
I’m sure there are other offers too. Mine came in with the subject line: “Matthew, a limited-time offer just arrived. Activate now.”
5.Meijer MPerks is giving $50 back on $500 in third party gift cards in the form of a grocery credit for your next visit through February 12. Ok, technically it’s $5 back on $50 up to 10 times but you can knock it out with a single gift card.
Of course you should have multiple MPerks accounts to take advantage of this one, and double check that your gift card isn’t excluded (notably Apple is excluded, but BestBuy and Home Depot aren’t).
How did Sears (pictured) bring us this and the Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard at the same time?
I finally got a kick in the pants to write this post after Rocky emailed and asked why I keep talking about the Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card but haven’t ever posted any real information about it. Why haven’t I posted anything when I clearly love the card? Well, I guarantee you don’t want to know what’s going on inside my head at any given moment, so let’s skip the why and jump into the what. The what:
This no-annual fee card will pay you $700 or more a year, seemingly in perpetuity.
I think it’s obvious to about everyone in the known universe that if you could choose to earn ThankYou Points or Shop Your Way Rewards, you’d choose ThankYou Points. Unfortunately, the only way to get the ThankYou Point version of the card is to call in and ask to convert your Shop Your Way Rewards earning to a ThankYou Point earning version, but I haven’t heard of anyone having any success doing that since 2020. So, if you’re like me, you’re probably going to be stuck with the Shop Your Way Rewards version.
What do you do with Shop Your Way Rewards? You can redeem ten of them for a penny toward merchandise like toilet paper, iPads, or neoprene dumbbells at shopyourway.com, or you can cash them out for a gift card to resell. I definitely do the latter.
Value
Here’s why this card is really valuable: After you’ve had the card for two to three months and it’s been sock-drawered, you’ll start getting spending offers in your email inbox and those offers stack. And unlike everything else about Citi and Sears IT, they post automatically every-time. For example, I have the following spend offers all running concurrently and all from within the last 30 days:
$70 statement credit after spending $2,000 anywhere
10x points at Best Buy (lol) and home improvement stores up to $1,250 in spend
10% back in statement credits on utilities every month through January 2022 (min spend $400, max earn $50 per month)
All of these offers obviously pair really well together. For simplicity, I’ll buy 3x$500 BestBuy gift cards at BestBuy for resale and send a $500 “utility payment”. After those two transactions I’ll earn $120 in statement credits plus another $125 worth of Shop Your Way Rewards points, all from a no-annual fee card.
And while not all months have offers stack as nicely as this month, it happens a lot. A lot.
MS Hint: This card is like other Citi Mastercards in many ways, but it does a few things better than other Citi cards too so don’t forget to probe.
ZOMG Wha??
Circling back to the introduction: this no-annual fee card will pay you $700 or more a year through targeted spend offers. Why? The rumor I’ve heard is that the Sears Shop Your Way Rewards card is one of the most valuable cards in Citi’s portfolio because it’s typically held by older generations that grew up with Sears, and those cardholders typically carry a monthly balance which earns Citi plenty in interest and fees so they want to encourage more spending and bigger balances. The story sounds truthy, but I have no independent confirmation so let’s just call it a likely possibility.
How come you haven’t heard of this card before? Well I’m sure the main reason is Sears, though I don’t think it pays a commission to affiliates so there’s not a financial incentive to write about it. Finally, the Shop Your Way Rewards program isn’t exactly on-par with AAdvantage or Hyatt, so there’s that.
(Special thanks to Garth for introducing the card to me.)
What’s going on in my mind at any given moment: trying to get one of these stupid wheels to turn.
It bonuses at 2x on department stores, restaurants, car rentals, and airfare
It has no annual fee
You can transfer to airline partners
You can cash out Membership Rewards to your Morgan Stanley account at one cent per point
The last bullet is the kicker, though the others are noteworthy too. This card may now be the best option for converting Membership Rewards to cash in an above-the-board sort of way. Yes, the Schwab Platinum gives you an extra 10% uplift on cash-out, but you also have to have a Schwab Platinum card and pay its $695 annual fee, which I guess you can offset slightly with Clear and a stupid gym membership.
Running the numbers quickly by moving the decimal, you’d have to cash-out more than 695,000 points with the Schwab Platinum at 1.1 cents per point to offset the annual fee of the Platinum card versus just cashing out at 1.0 cents per per point with the no fee Morgan Stanley Card; if you’re cashing out any number less than that over the period of a year, you should really be using the Morgan Stanley card and not the Schwab Platinum. As a really, really small incentive for getting the card, you’ll get 10,000 Membership Rewards as a sign up bonus after spending $1,000 within three months, and I’m guessing you’ve never gotten that signup bonus before. Right? It’s not exactly been high on my list.
As promised, the Morgan Stanley Card is no where to be found on my top credit cards list, but it will be in my wallet soon anyway.
