Excellent Deal: Get 120,000 Points (48,000 Miles) With Citi Prestige, Existing Citi Cardholders Qualify Too

Deal has been extended to 30th June 2023

In a sentence, Citi Prestige is a card that gives you miles, complimentary hotel nights, unlimited lounge access, and limousine service. You do have to pay an annual fee of S$540 (S$545 from 2024 with 9% GST) for these perks, but the deal is a lot more attractive with a 48,000 miles sign-up offer.

I previously wrote about whether the promo was worth it a few months ago when the promo was 40,000 miles (spoiler alert: yes), and the deal has since been upped to 48,000 miles.

Quick TL;DR summary:

• paying annual fee is like buying miles at 1.11 cents each (fair value) with sign-up bonus
• get free limo rides if you hit S$12,000 of spend
• PayAll works, so you can just use this to pay all your bills and no retail spend is required
• concurrent PayAll promo lets you buy more miles at 1.11 cents each
• 4th night hotel stay free
• unlimited lounge access + 1 guest
• works for existing Citi cardholders too; new cardholders should get another Citi card first to stack both promos
• don’t apply don’t know; bank may give leeway for not hitting the S$120,000 income requirement

Use Citi PayAll for buying miles (or free cashflow) and get free limousine transfer

In my opinion, the most fuss-free way to optimise this promo is to use Citi PayAll to pay for bills to clock the S$800 minimum spend required for the sign-up promo, and S$12,000 for free limousine rides . This way, you can avoid having to put retail spend on this card, and use other high-earn cards for those expenses instead.

There’s a variety of items you can pay with PayAll and you can add anyone as a payee as long as you know their bank account and details. If you pay the fee of 2.2%, you get 1.3 miles per dollar spent. This is about 1.69 cents each, which is rather pricey in my books, but a good cost for those who enjoy business class. This rate gets more attractive when Citi PayAll promos come along as they do every now and then. There is one until 20th August 2023 which allows you to essentially buy miles for 1 cent each.

Don’t forget also that you get some cashflow since you pay your credit card bill bill up to 5-6 weeks later. It’s easy to get 4% p.a. interest from bank these days, and S$50,000 can get you over S$200 of interest per month. Also, let’s not forget the free limousine rides you’d get just using this for your bills.

Complimentary 4th night stay

The deal is a lot sweeter when you consider the other perks of the card, and the headlining feature of the Citi Prestige card is getting the the last night of your hotel stay paid for when you book at least 4 nights. I’m having at least 3 trips in the near future and will be using this to great effect.

The discount given isn’t exactly 25% off as one may think (see this article for calculation), but even using the perk once or twice represents pretty good savings that add up to defray the annual fee. A pricey enough hotel can offset most if not all of the S$540 fee.

Unlimited lounge access with guest

Citi Prestige also comes with a Priority Pass membership that gives unlimited lounge access not just for you, but also allows you to bring along a guest each time. It’s extremely useful when you’re travelling with a companion who is too lazy doesn’t have their own lounge membership, and even if you rely on free cards that give you lounge access, it might not be sufficient for more than a trip a year.

I already used 4 visits for my recent Da Nang trip, and will use it at least 8 to 12 times for the next 3 trips I’ve scheduled. Now that is value.

GST is increasing

You should sign up sooner rather than later. GST is increasing to 8%, which means that the card’s annual fee will go up ever so slightly. Signing up in December rather than January also means that you can renew your card in December 2023 at 8% GST rather than January 2024 at 9% GST.

2023 update: Well it is now 2023, but the same thing applies for 2024; GST is going up to 9%.

Things you spend on with the card to meet your minimum spend will also go up, so there’s that.

Conclusion

Just taking this as a mile-buying opportunity is good enough, but the card even gets you free limo rides to and fro the airport if you hit at least S$12,000 of spend. The overall deal gets way better with each additional perk that you use.

The only crimp might be the annual income requirement of S$120,000 but anything above the MAS-mandated S$30,000 annual income requirement is entirely set by the bank. This means they can be very flexible when they want to, and I’ve heard of people being approved for not hitting the income requirement. Basically: don’t try don’t know.

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