Citi Rewards Card
Earn 4 miles per dollar on online spend and selected retail
Citi Rewards Card Overview:
Local Earn Rate | 0.4 miles per dollar (1 TY point) |
Foreign Currency Earn Rate | 0.4 miles per dollar (1 TY point) |
Bonus Earn Rate | 4 miles per dollar (10 TY points) |
Foreign Currency Fees | 3.25% |
Min. Miles Transfer | 25,000 TY points (10,000 miles) |
Miles earned in blocks of | S$1 |
Transfer Fee | S$27.25 (including 9% GST) |
Points Pooling | No |
Lounge Access | No |
Airport Limo | No |
Points Expiry | 5 Years |
For a quick and easy overview of Citi Rewards, check out my TikTok video where I break down its key features and benefits!
Eligibility & Fees:
- Minimum Age: 21 years old
- Minimum Annual Income: S$30,000 (locals/PRs); S$42,000 (foreigners)
- Don’t worry if you income is below this threshold, there is a more secured version of this card where you can do a S$10,000 fixed deposit
- Annual Fee: S$194.40 (inclusive of gst), waived for the first year
- Since minimum income requirement by MAS is S$30,000 per annum, this card is an entry-level card that should be pretty easy to get an annual fee waiver (I have a annual spending of around $5-8K on this card and have not had a problem getting a waiver on subsequent years). You can check out my TikTok video on getting annual fee waiver.
Key Benefits:
- Earn 4 miles per dollar (10 TY Points per S$1) for online transactions (including ride-hailing, groceries, restaurant delivery, and more). This excludes travel-related transactions.
- Earn 4 miles per dollar (10 TY Points per S$1) for retail offline purchases
- Earn 0.4 miles per dollar (1 TY Point per S$1) for any other purchases
- No minimum monthly spending required
- Spending cap of S$1,000 on eligible transactions per statement month applies to 4 miles per dollar earn rate
- Points are earned for every S$1 spent
Best Used For Online Non-Travel Related Transactions and Retail Stores (Bags, Shoes, and Clothes)
- To earn the most out of this card, you should use this at any online transactions at shops like Lazada, Shopee, Qoo10, and even on ride-hailing and food delivery apps. You’ll also get 4 miles per dollar when you shop online or offline retail stores such as in department stores, fashion, and apparel stores;
Merchant Category Code (MCC) | Description |
5311 | Department Stores |
5611 | Men’s and Boy’s Clothing and Accessories Stores |
5621 | Women’s Ready to Wear Stores |
5631 | Women’s Accessory and Specialty Stores |
5641 | Children’s and Infant’s Wear Stores |
5651 | Family Clothing Stores |
5655 | Sports and Riding Apparel Stores |
5661 | Shoe Stores |
5691 | Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores |
5699 | Miscellaneous Apparel and Accessory Shops |
5948 | Luggage and Leather Goods Stores |
Best Used With Amaze Card for Overseas Offline Spending
- For when you have to spend overseas, this combo is great to lessen the FCY fee while still earning 4 miles per dollar. See “Any Hacks/Promos” below.
Work Around the Spending Cap of S$1,000 per statement month
- Unlike most cards that have spending caps per calendar month, the Citi Rewards works by statement month. Therefore, I have explained in the below section how to use the spending cap to your advantage under “Any Hacks/Promos” below.
Instarem Amaze Card
With the recent updates, Citi Rewards x Amaze is best used to convert offline overseas spending to online, this is because this combo reduces FX fees from 3.25% to 2% while still earning 4 miles per dollar.
- Pay in Singapore Dollars abroad (as transactions in FCY is converted by Amaze, you do not incur the credit card usual FCY fees of 3.25%, but you do suffer a 2% FX spread loss)
- Connect up to 5 Mastercard cards
How to use it:
- Load the Amaze card into Google Pay and Apple Pay and use contactless payment via Amaze.
Use the Spending Cap to Your Advantage (when using Citi Rewards Card by itself)
- If the statement date on your statement, is 11th of the month (see picture below), it means your spending cap of S$1,000 will run from 12th of the month to 11th of the following month. This means your 4 miles per dollar spending cap resets on the 12th of each month. It matters because, let’s say you have a large spending of S$2,000 in a month, you could spend S$1,000 on the 9th and another S$1,000 on the 12th to earn 4 miles per dollar for the full S$2,000 spending.
Exclusion List:
Other than the standard exclusions, Travel-related and in-app mobile payments do not earn 4 miles per dollar for Citi Rewards Cardholders.
Travel-related transactions:
In-app mobile wallet payments:
Using the Citi Rewards Card directly with Apple Pay or Google Pay for online transactions will not earn you 4 miles per dollar, as these are considered in-app mobile wallet payments. For instance:
- If you order food from Mcdonalds app using Google/Apple Pay in the app and pay with the Citi Rewards Card, you will not get 4 miles per dollar.
- If you order food from Mcdonalds using the credit card option in the app and pay with the Citi Rewards Card, you will get 4 miles per dollar. The best way to avoid this is to choose to pay directly with your credit card for most online payments, instead of using Apple or Google Pay.
- Using Citi Rewards directly with in-app mobile payments (Google/Apple Pay) will not earn you 4 miles per dollar, however, when you link the Amaze card with Google/Apple Pay, Amaze converts it into online transaction, allowing you to earn the 4 miles per dollar!
*Take note that SMRT falls under Passenger Railways. Therefore using Citi Rewards Card for SimplyGo does not earn you any rewards.
*Card Specific Exclusions can be found here
Here is the list of their current transfer partners:
*All of these has transfer ratio of 5:2 so that’s 25,000:10,000 with a S$27.25 transfer fee inclusive of 9% GST
Advantages:
- Most versatile card that you can use for everything except travel
Disadvantages:
- You cannot earn 4 miles per dollar on travel-related or mobile wallet in-app transactions (Apple or Google Pay)
- Points cannot be pooled together across Citi cards – therefore you need to pay a separate transfer fee for each card
- How to redeem the Citi ThankYou points to a frequent flyer program: Check out my Tiktok video for the step-by-step guide.
- When is the ThankYou points credited: This usually credits when the transaction is posted, usually takes 24 hrs, or in some, it could take 2-3 days.
- How long are my ThankYou points valid for: All Thank You points earned on the Citi Rewards Card expire every five years (+ three months grace) from card approval/renewal, not from when points are earned.
Eg. If your card was approved on 1 June 2020, your points earned from 1 June 2020 to 31st May 2025 will expire on 31 August 2025. From 1st June 2025 starts the new cycle of your Thank You points.
Final Thoughts:
- Citi Rewards alone is still a strong card to use for online transactions and offline retail shopping (except travel related) giving you 4 miles per dollar. Citi Rewards x Amaze is not the best combo as of the moment for converting offline SGD spends to online because of the updated 1% fee for all SGD transactions. However, you can still pair it with amaze but only for overseas spends to reduce the FCY fee while still earning the 4 miles per dollar.
- For Travel-related spending, I use the DBS Women’s World Mastercard now.
💳 Credit cards change their T&Cs every so often and it is difficult to stay updated. That’s why I created a Telegram Broadcast where you can receive timely bite-sized updates to get the most out of your spending.
💡 We believe in always paying our credit card bills on time and in full. It is only by doing that, can we fully maximise our credit card benefits.
