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Update 09/13: Citibank has discontinued this promotion. You can find more sign up offers like this one here

Credit cards are my passion, I don’t seem to miss a single decent offer. They save me money (cash back rewards and 0% balance offers), they offer convenience (not having to deal with cash), some provide extra warranty and insurance coverage. I use credit cards a lot!

I have spent some time today to examine all on-going credit card promotions and this $100 gift card from Citi looks like the hottest deal out there (excluding probably just the last offer from AmEx which I was told is expiring this week). Let’s take a closer look at what this card is worth.

Citi Professional Card with ThankYou network (offer link)

• $100 gift card after $250 in purchases (promotion!)
• 3 ThankYou Points for every dollar you spend at restaurants, gas stations, on auto rentals and certain office supply merchants
• 1 ThankYou Point on every other dollar spent

$100 sounds very tempting. Let’s see if I miss anything on the rewards part should I switch to this card permanently. I think any cash back card offering same rewards is superior to a ThankYou card because you don’t have to deal with the hassle of converting points to the things you need. Here for comparison are 3 popular cash back cards from Citibank. (this promotion has expired)

Alternative cards

Citi Professional Cash Card (offer link)

• 3% cash back on purchases at restaurants, gas stations, on auto rentals & at certain office supply merchants.
• 1% on all other purchases

This card is identical to the one above except you miss on the promotion bonus ($100 gift card) but will be getting cash instead of ThankYou points (ThankYou points are rewards points that you can exchange for merchandise or for gift cards from participating merchants at ThankYouNetwork).

Citi CashReturns Card (offer link)

• First 3 months: 5% on all purchases
• Thereafter: 1% on all purchases after

Straight 5% for 3 months sounds like a good deal. This would be the card of my choice if I expected a lot of upcoming expenses. For example airline tickets for my trip to Ukraine for the entire family were around $5000 which means I would get $250 right there. Otherwise, I would not sign up to this card. 3 months is too little time to rip the benefits. (this promotion has expired)

Citi Divident Platinum Select (offer link)

• First 6 months: 5% cash back at gas stations, supermarkets and drug stores, convenience stores, and utilities including cable. 1% on all other purchases
• Thereafter: 2% cash back at gas stations, supermarkets and drug stores, convenience stores, and utilities including cable. 1% on all other purchases

I currently have this card. For the first 6 months it offered very good cash back rate but after 6 months were over I had to switch to Chase Freedom which offers 3% on similar spending categories plus each time you collect $200 in rewards account, Chase will add $50 which effectively increases your cashback rate from 3% to 3.75%. (this promotion has expired)

Conclusion

Citi Professional with ThankYou network is designed for professionals with significant auto rental and office supply expenses. If it wasn’t for the $100 gift card bonus I would suggest Citi Professional Cash Card instead since it offers the same rewards but in cash.

For us, the average folks with full time jobs, I recommend Chase Freedom. The cashback rate is slightly higher (read above) and rewards categories are a better fit. By the way, it comes with a signup bonus as well, although currently only $50.