Credit Card Combo: Why You Should Pair Citi PremierMiles Card & Citi Rewards Card

Many of us presume that credit card combinations are best reserved for home ground, but did you know that you can definitely adopt a credit card strategy to optimise your travels, too? 

Being savvy and strategic is paramount for us mere mortals who don’t roll around in cash. So how can we maximise credit card miles and rewards points then? Use Citi PremierMiles Credit Card and Citi Rewards Credit Card to your advantage, of course.

As far as travel credit cards are concerned, the Citi PremierMiles Card is a decent and versatile credit card that lets you earn expiry-free Citi miles on literally every purchase you make, including big-ticket items. 

There’s no cap on how many miles you can earn and no minimum spend to start earning miles. That’s the beauty of this credit card. 

Here’s a quick rundown of what this card has to offer: 

Note: "Mpd" refers to "miles per S$1 spend".

To reiterate, Citi Miles do not expire and can be redeemed for frequent flyer miles, hotel stays, cash rebates and other rewards. 

Credit cards that offer very generous miles-earn rates typically come with caps on the number of miles you can actually earn at that rate per statement or calendar month. For instance, despite offering above-average rates, bonus miles for the HSBC Revolution Card and UOB Lady's Card are capped at S$1,000 spend per calendar month.

This is why Citi PremierMiles is especially handy if you tend to spend on big-ticket items such as watches, bags, shoes or even medical, beauty or wellness treatments.

In this day and age, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say most of us are fans of online shopping. If getting everything online is what you’ve already been doing and you aren’t using Citi Rewards Card yet, it’s definitely time to add this rewards credit card to your arsenal.

For starters, you get to earn 10X Citi ThankYou Points (4 miles per S$1) on in-store shopping purchases and online purchases (excluding mobile wallet and travel-related transactions).

Here’s a quick rundown of what this card has to offer:

To be honest, although the 10X Citi ThankYou Points rate is capped at 10,000 points (9,000 bonus points + 1,000 base points) per month i.e. S$1,000 spent, it’s still much better than what many other credit cards offer. Plus, there’s no minimum spend required to start earning those generous rewards.

But just when you think that's all there is to these Citi Credit Cards, think again; your hard-earned ThankYou Points and Citi Miles are so much more useful than you realise. 

The Citi Pay with Points function allows cardmembers to offset purchases using accumulated points and miles. Under this feature, there are 5 different ways to leverage your points for payments:

Alternatively, you can always redeem your Citi Points/Miles for cash rebate directly via the Citi Mobile®️ App too.

Simply navigate to your rewards balance and open your Rewards Dashboard. Thereafter, tap on "Cash Rebate" and key in the amount you'd like to redeem for, and voila! You have easy cash at your fingertips.

Do note, cash rebate can only be redeemed in blocks of S$10, capped at S$50 per redemption. That said, there is no limit to the number of redemptions you can make; you can redeem your hard-earned Citi Points/Miles for cash as and when you want.

Last but not least, Citi cardmembers can redeem merchant vouchers from the Citi ThankYou Redemption Catalogue. This exclusive catalogue offers a whole host of exciting offers and deals that you don't want to miss! Enjoy rewards across dining, travel, shopping, and more.

For starters, it takes time to earn and accumulate enough miles to exchange them for Business Class or First Class tickets. This is true for the majority of us who are normal spending consumers i.e. not high rollers. 

Having miles or rewards points that don’t expire is one part of the equation; knowing how to earn those precious rewards strategically is another. That’s why we highly recommend you look into Citi Rewards despite the fact that the generous 10X Citi ThankYou Points that you earn are not expiry-free (valid for a period of 60 months). 

Pairing the Citi PremierMiles Card and Citi Rewards Card is a feasible strategy that I personally use as they let me earn and accumulate rewards on the ground while spending on non-travel related expenses like I normally would anyway. As the Citi Rewards Card does not allow accelerated points for travel spend, Citi PremierMiles should be the card for travel spend.

Plus, it’s really convenient for me to keep track of my Citi Miles and ThankYou Points via the Citi Mobile app. 

Need more convincing? Those who pay the Citi PremierMiles Card annual fee can earn a whopping 10,000 bonus miles every card anniversary year!

Both credit cards are accessible; applicants only need a minimum income of S$30,000 to apply for these cards.