Best Point Earning • Credit Cards

A 10% Cash Back Offer From Citi That Failed To Excite Me

8 years ago
3 Comments
by Charlie
10% Cash Back
Written by Charlie

Getting a 10% cash back offer can seem really exciting. But what happens when it comes with a low cap? Not so exciting!

 

‘Tis the season for credit card spending bonus offers. I have seen several floating across my twitter feed today, all targeted, as we head into April. I have seen some for Chase over at Travel with Grant as well as receiving my own offer for 2x miles up to 2,500 bonus miles.

A 10% Cash Back Offer From Citi That Failed to Excite Me

10% Cash Back

Nice offer – but with a $25 cap

I received another targeted offer tonight with a header line that read “Earn 10% Back on Eligible Purchases Through 06/30/2017.” Of course I was a little excited about such an offer but I knew there had to be a low cap. I was planning to do a post on this targeted offer to tell others about it as well but then wondered if people would feel as let down as I did when I saw the cap. 🙂

10% Back … Up to $25 Credit

Sure enough, the cap is a max cash back amount of $25. That means I can use my Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card for $250 in spending to get $25 back. Yes, I know that $25 is $25 and I get excited about Amex Offers that return that amount. But, the difference is that most Amex Offers that are giving me back $25 are doing so at a much higher percentage than 10%.

Better Than Amex Offers?

However, this Citi offer is not limited to a specific retailer, like Amex Offers are. So, this is essentially a $25 back offer on $250 that I spend anywhere – except for dining and entertainment. I could purchase a $250 grocery gift card and then have 10% off all groceries up to $250. That would work and, again, it is giving me $25.

I just couldn’t get as excited as the e-mail wanted me to be after making broad claims of the 10% back and then hiding the $25 cap in the regular text with no highlighting. If I have a single purchase of $200-$250, I will probably use this card. But I am not sticking it in my wallet when I have other cards that I prefer to use for other categories and that I get more value from than $25 – even getting cash back on Chase Freedom categories is more exciting since I can transfer that to Ultimate Rewards.

But, I went ahead and clicked to activate it – except…

10% Cash Back

Oh well!

Have the abundance of great rewards and mile offers jaded me a little? 🙂

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About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

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3 Comments

  • Are you trying to sign-up to the offer from abroad?

    I am in Europe at the moment, got the same error when trying to enroll to the American/Citi offer, managed to get it working by connecting to my home VPN, and applying from a US IP address.

    • Actually, I am and was but it still did that even when I had the VPN on. I will have to give it another shot. Thanks for the data point!

  • We get these offers all the time. They are always capped at $25. Toys, pharmacies, most recent, anything online, etc. This last one was 5% off up to $500 on anything purchased online, was naturally used for utility bills. Who can complain about that? I am certain we will have amassed more than a Dividend card yet this is just a Diamond Preferred!!!