Citi - Diamond Preferred Rewards Card Review

Overall 4.17 of 5 view all 12 reviews

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LoveisJoy
Chicagoland, IL

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Never Earned a Diamond Reward, But I did Get a $50 Gift Card

budget conscious

Pros

Great list of rewards for points earned, easy to pay on line, extra points certain purchases, web site easy to negotiate, My reward shipped quickly

Cons

Takes a while to earn enough points, Buying extra points is expensive

JUN

2008

In my opinion, credit cards are a great convenience but they can also make it easier to spend more than you intended. For that reason, I almost never carry a balance but I do use the card for most of my spending in order to get the reward points. I didn't seek out the Citibank Diamond Preferred MasterCard by comparing rewards cards. It just so happened that I had been a Citi Card customer for years, and they upgraded me to the card when it came out. I've been pretty happy with my Citibank card, and find no reason to switch.

My Citibank account can be accessed online, where I can pay my bill, check my activity, access a virtual account number, and see my monthly rewards activity. From the Citibank website, I can click straight through to the ThankYou Rewards Network website.

The ThankYou Rewards Network is the place where I begin my online shopping. There is a directory of online merchants where you can earn bonus points. For example, if I click on the link to Overstock.com, I will earn 4 points per dollar instead of just 1 point per dollar. It makes it quicker for me to reach my goal of 6000 points. Of course, there are rewards for as low as 1500 points for a Newsweek subscription (if you're really impatient), or as much as 280,000 points for a Sony HDTV (if you have the patience of a saint). As for me, I stop at 6000 because that's enough for me to get a $50 gift card. It usually takes me about 6 to 8 months to earn enough for a gift card. I typically select a Target card, but I've also gotten cards from Home Depot, Barnes and Noble, Marshalls, and T.J. Maxx. I've always received my gift cards in the mail promptly with no problems.

I don't go out of my way to spend money just to get a few rewards points, but if I'm going to buy something anyway, I always use my Citibank Diamond Preferred MasterCard. It may not be a million dollar reward, but it's always nice to get a free $50 gift card a couple of times per year.