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As the airline and hotel industries have consolidated, devaluations have become the norm. Mileage programs are less lucrative than ever and they can afford to be as consumer have few alternate options.
Credit cards have been a bright spot. Competition there is fierce and for the most part, benefits and rewards are better than they ever have been. Bank rewards are poised to be better than airline miles as those programs delete their award charts and devalue their programs.
That’s why I’m flabbergasted at Citi’s devaluation today. You can login here to see the benefits being removed from your cards.
As of 9/22, all Citi cards (including the premium Premier and Prestige cards!) are losing the following benefits:
- Car Rental Insurance
- Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection
- Travel Accident Insurance
- Trip Delay Protection
- Baggage Delay Protection
- Lost Baggage Protection
- Citi Price Rewind
- Return Protection
- Roadside Assistance Dispatch Service
- Travel & Emergency Assistance
- Medical Evacuation
- Missed Event Ticket Protection
The no annual fee Citi Double Cash and Citi Dividend cards will also lose:
- Extended Warranty
- Damage & Theft Purchase Protection
Purchases made by 9/21 would still be covered under the current policy.
Citi Price Rewind’s 60 day price drop protection means that Citi won’t have to pay out for Black Friday price drops, as that will fall out on November 29.
Due to these changes, you can cancel your card by 1/1/20 and receive a pro-rated refund of your annual fee.
One of the benefits of paying with a credit card are these protections, so this is pretty brutal. Hopefully other banks will retain their benefits and use them as a competitive advantage rather than eliminate them in a race to the bottom.
In general, I find that AMEX cards have the best return protection, extended warranty, and dispute resolution.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Sapphire Reserve offer a plethora of travel protections, including Primary rental car coverage worldwide, Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection, Lost Baggage Protection, Baggage Delay Reimbursement, Trip Delay Protection, and more. Together with double or triple points for travel purchases, that makes those cards a no-brainer over Citi cards without any protections.
Quite frankly I’m not sure what Citi is thinking here. They will save money on these benefits, but people will switch to using cards that offer protections. I’ve reached out to them for comment and will report back if they have any answers.
Do you think other banks will follow Citi’s lead in eliminating credit card benefits and protections? Will you close your Citi card over these changes?
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107 Comments On "Brutal! Citi Will Nuke Most Of Their Credit Card Benefits And Protections, Will Other Banks Follow?"
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Costco citi card affected at all?
Shall we all cancelled our Citi cards to give them a nice and loud message?
The rental car insurance elimination is a huge unforced error, but I will miss the event ticket coverage the most (never made a claim, but felt good having the protection).
Citi cards have been outlier cards for the longest time. Chase and AMEX have been leading the pack. Furthermore, I used to like to accumulate A”A points, but now that they wiped out most saver rewards, whats the point?
Stick to Amex and Chase
+1
Unbelievable! “Purchases made by 9/21 would still be covered under the current policy.” So prior purchases would still have, say, extended warranty? What if I switch to a no-fee card before my +24 months warranty are up? Lose it due to new card not having the benefit?
I’d assume you would lose it if you downgrade to one of those cards.
Thanks for your reply. Is that even if the no-fee card currently (before the switch) DOES have the extended warranty benefit?
Im confused I thought they just added the cell phone protection insurance benefit for the Prestige card. Has that also been discontinued a mere 2 months after adding the benefit?
That is one of the few protections that will survive.
Then I will definitely take advantage of that before that too goes away.
i would speculate that being that the current trend is that the majority of financial transactions are done electronically anyway, everyone needs a credit card to do business. The incentives and perks that a credit card offers are not as necessary to draw a consumer as they once were.
The incentives are necessary due to the competition.
It’s not a question of cash vs Citi. It’s a question of AMEX/Chase/Cap1/Barclays/BOFA/USBank/Wells Fargo vs Citi.
Debit cards are just as electronic as credit cards. There is also a simplicity aspect to just using a debit card instead of a credit card.
The main reasons people (who are paying cc’s in full) use a cc to begin with is for the points or cashback and the protections.
Wow! Will the prestige retain its 4th night free perk?
It will, but it will be limited to 2 uses per year and will have to be booked via their online portal at whatever rate that it quotes.
Banks will definitely follow. They should have done this years ago! Cheaper to give away extra 5x 10x points then pay all these stuff which they have no reason to.
If one doesn’t follow they will gain a lot of users. We shall see.
Or will start to use debit cards, where they make almost no money at all
If I cancel a citi card within first year using this as my reason, will they claw back my sign up bonus?
No, only AMEX claws back signup bonuses for cancelling within the first year.
The removal of car rental CDW coverage is particularly brutal. This would be a significant problem, especially overseas, if other USA credit card companies removed this coverage. We’d have to pay more for “inclusive” insurance coverage, like Europeans do.
Yup. Here’s hoping AMEX/Chase don’t match. They’re certainly watching this one play out.
The problem for Chase/AMEX is that this move probably doesn’t really make us “more loyal” to them, it just means we put our car rental charges on their cards. And then they shoulder more of the risk!
Once you’re putting airfare and car rentals on your Sapphire instead of Prestige, you may just realize that you shouldn’t be paying for a Prestige.
Do they just want us to go back to debit cards lolz
In order to get a prorated value on the annual fee does the card have to be already opened or as long as it is opened prior to 9/22 and closed before 1/1/20?
I think the reason for this is quite simple. In fact it never made too much sense that almost all the benefits afforded by credit card companies are travel benefits. Many consumers don’t travel that much, and if they travel once or twice a year they’re not constantly looking for travel and protections. I would guess that most consumers are not even aware of most of the travel protection. It probably makes sense for them to focus on benefits that target their whole consumer base, such as cash back.
It made sense because the competition is offering it.
Why would I use one card without benefits when a competing card offers lucrative benefits?
But if most people are not comparing cards because they aren’t even aware of those benefits, then who cares?
Sholom, just the point.
It costs very little to add benefits that re rarely used.
The CC issuers feel their margins are squeezed by some people that overdo the bonus game, ergo 5/24 etc.
Goodbye citi! Nice knowin’ ya!
Price Rewind was your secret weapon:)
I sure do. Citicards started this “Citi flex” spending trying to get me to switch my cards, and it’s now crept into Chase disclosures.
I have 5 cards with Chase and all have this new “flex spending”. What a bunch of malarkey. I hope your readers don’t fall for this trick. I don’t use Citicards because they are horrible to deal with in my estimation.
Wanted to close my Citi card for a while now as I’ve not been using it. Won’t it hurt my credit though?
That’s complicated. Cards don’t fall off your report for 10 years, so cancelling won’t affect your average age of accounts for a long time.
You will lose credit line, which can affect your credit utilization ratio. You can downgrade to a free card and keep that line. Or you can open a card from another bank to make up for that lost line.
“avg. age of accounts” is a hoax created by CK
Used to use citi for car rentals in australia because amex didn’t cover that.
Now I guess I’ll be paying for cdw…
Why not use AMEX or Chase?
Afaik, Amex excludes Australia, (at least the sgp card that I have), no?
And I don’t have any chase cards atm.
And Chase?
Well if you’re going to ask… Don’t have one. Are there any without annual fee that have the coverage?
They all do.
Dan, don’t most free cards only have secondary coverage?
I think he’s asking if there’s any annual fee cards that offer primary coverage.
All cards are primary outside of the US.
Awesome, thanks for your help.
S, I didn’t mean specifically primary or secondary, but primary is always great!
In general, cdw in australia works completely different to how it works in the US, so its really great to have US stlye coverage in aus.
(Rentals there have an excess, and not always can you bring it down to $0).
Next thing I’m wondering, is if someone lives in australia, and has an active acoubt with a US card that does offer this coverage, could they use that every time they rent on long term basis? Would there be any issues with this.
From what I understand, the system in the US is far superior to the australian system.
Btw Dan, if you can confirm, it seems that Chase quietly removed Primary CDW from the United Explorer card? Maybe this is a trend….
I checked on the Chase website and it states that its Primary CDW including in the USA, but when I requested a letter from them stating coverage it mentioned that its secondary within the USA. Also when I called the 1800 number is says in the automated recording that coverage is secondary in the USA.
Do you know anything about this?
PS nice seeing you at the Kosel for Vasikin 🙂
United Explorer is still primary CDW worldwide. You can ask for a guide of benefits to confirm this.
The no-fee United card does not have primary CDW.
We thought that DL going revenue based and hiding award charts was going to be their biggest mistake, but unfortunately everyone else followed shortly afterward. Hopefully this won’t cause the same domino effect…
Do you think we’d have a chance of getting some money back if we paid an annual fee. I assume Citi customer service wouldn’t help but how about filing a complaint at the https://www.consumerfinance.gov/
Read the post – you can get a pro-rated AF refund.
It’s a little crazy that the Prestige Card is losing this too. After a number of changes earlier in the year (downgrades in my opinion) and an INCREASE in the large fee, seems very poor form to then take more things away.
The phone agents are quoting what they added earlier in the year as an offset, but they already used that excuse when they “offset” the increase in price and deterioration of the 4th night benefit!
Yup. Would be one thing if only no-fee cards were being cut.
But taking this away from Premier/Prestige when they’re fighting against Sapphire Preferred/Reserve is just insane.
Didn’t Amex cut out car rental insurance a while ago on some of the cards?
No, they improved it by extending it worldwide.
This is a significant factor for me as I’ve used the extended warranty, damage protection, and price rewind in the past and knowing I had those steered me to charging purchases on my Citi card. Now I’ll be looking at AMEX and Chase. Bad move Citi! I can’t imagine it really cost them a lot–there’s a lot of paperwork to be filled to take advantage of those benefits and I can imagine a lot of people don’t bother!
Would the Fidelity 2% back card be a better deal than the citicard double cash card?
This would be a good option with extended warranty, price protection, and no forex fees:
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/earn-2-cash-back-pay-no-foreign-transaction-fees-paypal-cashback-mastercard/
I actually applied for the PayPal card ($100 bonus for spending 1k in 3 months) but the approved me for only $800 credit line, which is equal to $1 for each point on my 800 credit score!
Dan where would you purchase travel insurance instead?
he will just use Chase or Amex cc that give travel insurance.
#just my 2 cents
My name isn’t Dan, but you can try Squaremouth.com (you need madical when overseas.)
It is so annoying dealing with chase on trip insurance . They ask for impossible documents sometime … citi was quite easy to deal with . Might be worth to just pay 40 dollars a year proper insurance
whats with chase ink preferred ?
What about it?
its have all the travel benefits for personal use ?
No
Thanks, Dan. This is helpful info! Other than the PayPal card you linked, what other cards offer price protection ?
I was always under the impression that those benefits are provided by VISA or MasterCard, and not directly from the bank.
Thus I would assume that these changes were triggered by VISA MC, perhaps by increasing the cost of those to the banks. And I would expect others to follow suit.
Was I wrong all along?
Sometimes it is from Visa/MC and sometimes it’s from another party.
Citi is gambling that it’s not worth paying for these benefits. We’ll see how it works based on whether people switch to other cards.
Dan
As being a huge expert in credit cards, can you call Citi card executive and explain them that this decision is the worst thing they can do for themselves??
I spoke to some folks in the know. In short, the benefits were too costly and they don’t think they will lose material business over it.
Time will tell.
We got a letter a few months ago with a change in their terms and cancelled our card after over 20 years. They gave my husband a hard time about cancelling on the phone but maybe that is what people need to do. We have other credit cards which we assume most people do.
Is double cash card affected? I saw nothing when I logged in to my account.
Their travel charge volume is going to evaporate. Back to the Sapphire Reserve. 3 points with trip cancellation, interruption, delay, lost bags, delayed bags, Accident and evacuation is a no brainer vs. 5 Citi points and having to buy a policy every trip.
Yup
I only keep the Premier card for the double points on entertainment and the triple points for gas. Are there any other cards that can replace the Premier card for those 2 bonused categories.
The “Cap1 Savor card” (search for the link on the credit card tab above) offers “unlimited 4% cash back on dining and entertainment, 2% at grocery stores and 1% on all other purchases”
However, it’s not really unlimited. A couple friends who spend big bux on entertainment purchases for their business (millions/yr) had their accounts closed pretty quickly
keeping the citi card for the American Advantage free bag and boarding privileges, unless there is a better card that does this?
Barclays
Will they feel the dent if people stop using the card but keep it open … Or they need to see people closing accounts?
Seems like the right time to transfer Citi points out for a bonus and close the card: https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/get-25-bonus-transfer-citi-thankyou-points-air-france-klm-flying-blue-miles/
YES! WILL CLOSE MY ACCOUNT!
Wish amex would create a card with 1k annual fee but gives free bags on all airlines and status at the airlines as well… That would be a game changer….
I wrote my Citi branch manager and she didn’t believe it was true, and escalated it to upper management. I told her you were a solid source :). Also, if you already bought flight and hotel with Citi Prestige, now before September 22, are you still covered with insurance like trip interruption if the travel is not until next June, 2020 for example? I would think this might still be considered a purchase.
Yes according to the terms
I have to believe they did their research and found that 1% of the customers were causing 99% of the work and payments on claims. The question is whether the other 99% of customers saw some value in the “peace of mind” they got from knowing it was there. Or was it like health insurance — the healthy people got tired of paying for the smokers and alcoholics?
any ideas with citi I disputed a fraud charge and citi does not want to honor it for some reason
To be clear, and I’ve not seen bloggers analyzing this at all, the only thing being removed is Citi’s above and beyond protections, right? So for instance, their Worldwide Car Rental insurance was best in the industry because it covered countries and car types not usually covered by CC rental insurance. However, they’re not removing the standard MasterCard or Visa car rental insurance, are they? So we’d still get the standard MC World Elite car rental insurance coverage with the Prestige, for instance, right?
They are removing the standard coverage.
I’m reading this differently when I logon to Costco Visa:
Effective September 22, 2019, Trip Cancellation & Interruption Protection and Citi® Price Rewind will be discontinued and will no longer be provided for purchases made on or after that date. Coverage for purchases made before that date will continue to be available, and you may continue to file for benefits in accordance with the current benefit terms.
You will continue to have Worldwide Car Rental Insurance, Roadside Assistance Dispatch Service, Travel & Emergency Assistance, Damage & Theft Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty on this account. You can view Your Guide to Protection Benefits on this site under “Quick Links”. It contains complete coverage details, including coverage limits, what’s covered and what’s not covered. Coverage details for these remaining benefits are not being changed.
As a cardmember, you will also continue to receive a range of other card benefits including FICO® Credit Score, Citi® Identity Theft Solutions, and Citi Entertainment.
Interesting. Seems like that card will keep a decent amount of benefits.
trip cancellation & interruption…..plus 3% rebate was good reason to use Costco VISA vs, say Chase Sapphire. Perhaps no longer
If I’m closing my account, where do you think is the best place to send the points to sit?
For me my main CONSIDERATION of which cc to use are these benefits. AMEX’s ease of utilizing return and purchase protection and help with disputes makes it my goto card, except when I can get 5 points on my ink cards.
If I reserved flights and a car using the citi thank you points, is there any type of travel insurance and/or car rental insurance that i get? (the trip is for this August)
Is the citi card worth it to buy a fridge with a one year warranty to get the extra 2 years? Do they honor their warranties like amex?
I have a Citi AADVANTAGE EXECUTIVE card $400+ fee per year. I booked a trip to Europe for March 2020. If I cancel the card in September and buy a trip insurance it will cost me more than $500. I will keep the card and will cancel it after our March trip. I will get the Chase Sapphire Reserve next month and will do all my new purchases using the Chase card. Only keeping Citi to insure my upcoming trip.
i wanted to downgrade my citi premier card because of the reasons above and they said even i downgrade it will not be pro-rated since its after 60 days!
Can you post a reminder
Hi – do you know of any other cards that offer the price rewind feature? It is great!