Does citi thankyou preferred have foreign transaction fees

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The Citi Premier® Card is a solid rewards credit card that comes with a variety of benefits aimed at travelers. It earns bonus points on a broad array of popular spending categories, has no foreign transaction fees, comes with a yearly hotel credit and more. But, the card does come with a $95 annual fee.

While you can offset the annual fee by using all of the perks, it's important to evaluate if the card is right for your needs and spending habits.

Below, Select breaks down the Citi Premier's rewards, benefits and fees to help you decide if it's the right card for you.

Is the Citi Premier worth it?

The Citi Premier is a great card for travelers who want to earn transferable points, but don't need luxury perks like airport lounge access or travel insurance. The card also has no foreign transaction fees making it useful when traveling outside the U.S.

In the first year of card membership, you can quickly earn over $900 in value from the welcome offer and annual hotel benefit alone.

The Citi Premier's welcome bonus is currently 80,000 Citi ThankYou® Points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of card membership. And if you complete the minimum spending threshold, you'll have at least 84,000 points — worth a minimum of $840. You can get even more value from your points when you transfer the points to one of Citi's several travel partners.

And with the card earning 3X points for every dollar spent at restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets, air travel and hotels — you can earn lots of Citi ThankYou points quickly. These points are valuable because they can be redeemed either through the Citi ThankYou travel portal or with 15 different hotel and airline loyalty programs. But if you want a simple redemption option, you can easily redeem for gift cards at major brands, or use them to shop on Amazon or BestBuy.com.

Here's a list of the Citi Premier's benefits:

By using these perks you can quickly make the card worthy of a spot in your wallet. However, after the first year, the $95 annual fee becomes harder to justify. But if you're spending in the bonus categories often, the amount of points you earn may be worth the fee.

Additionally, if you have the Citi® Double Cash Card, you can convert the 2% cash back (1% when you buy and 1% as you pay) you earn into Citi ThankYou points — essentially giving you 2X points for every dollar spent on all eligible purchases. This combo can make for a great credit card strategy.

The value of the hotel benefit can also quickly make up for the card's entire annual fee, plus $5. All you need to do is book a $500 or more hotel stay (before taxes and fees) through the Citi travel portal, and you'll receive $100 off. You can use this benefit once per calendar year.

However, there are alternatives listed below that could be a better fit for you.

What to know if you're considering the Citi Premier

Before applying for the Citi Premier® Card, there are a few things to consider.

First, be sure to map out your next few months of expenses in order to earn the welcome bonus of 80,000 Citi ThankYou points. It's never a good idea to overspend to earn credit card rewards, but by preplanning, you can avoid that.

Next, consider if Citi's transfer partners are valuable to you. When you earn Citi points, you can redeem them through the Citi travel portal, or you can transfer them to any of the following airline or hotel loyalty programs:

• AeroMexico
• Avianca
• Cathay Pacific
• Choice Hotels
• Emirates
• Etihad
• Air France/KLM
• JetBlue
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar
• Singapore Airlines
• Thai Airways
• Virgin Atlantic
• Wyndham Hotels

While the majority of these partners are international airlines, keep in mind that many of them are part of airline alliances — which means you can book airlines within the U.S. For example, you can transfer your points to AeroMexico and redeem them for flights on Delta Air Lines, or transfer to Singapore Airlines and book flights on United Airlines.

When you redeem rewards through the Citi travel portal or for cash back, ThankYou points are worth a flat one cent per point. However, when you transfer them to partners, the value of points can be much higher. For example, a one-way flight from the mainland U.S. to Hawaii that is $300 would cost 30,000 points in Citi's travel portal. However, if you transfer your points to Turkish Airlines (which is partners with United) you could book that same seat for as little as 7,500 points. So when booking a flight, it always pays to compare the credit card's travel portal to the airline loyalty program to see which one is more effective.

Alternatives to the Citi Premier

Bottom line

The Citi Premier® Card is a great credit card for someone who wants to earn points useful for both international and domestic travel. Additionally, if you regularly make purchases in the bonus spending categories of the card such as groceries, restaurants, gas stations, it may be a valuable card to keep in your wallet.

Overall, the Citi Premier is worth the annual fee if you can use the benefits. But if you're looking for a few more features to use during your travels you may want to consider one of the alternatives mentioned above.

But before you apply for the card, be sure you'll be able to earn the welcome bonus and also budget for the annual fee.

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Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.

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