Tag Archives: citi diamond preferred card

Goodbye Citi Diamond Preferred Credit Card, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

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The Citi Diamond Preferred card and I have been going steady for more than 6 years, and I was very happy with the card, we had a great time together going on vacation and spending time and money on great enjoyable products such as new computers, TVs, and other life enhancing appliances and toys.  When my son was injured as a toddler, you (Citi Diamond Preferred Credit Card) were there to help me cover the cost.

So when I say that you were a gem (a diamond to be exact), it was no understatement.

Unfortunately, you changed your colors on me (from Black to Blue), and the way that you’ve been treating me, well, I can no longer tolerate!

It pains me that after 6 solid years, you now treat me like someone new just coming through the door to your house.  The fact that you now only reward me 1% (unlike the max of 5% when you were a diamond card) for the times that we spend money together.

After numerous calls to you trying to straighten our relationship out, you just bounced me around having people speak for you instead of you talking yourself, is very irratating.  My last attempt to resolve our spat, involved you transfering me to talk to people from Europe (I think), Asian, India and some other represenative that I couldn’t identify because they (mistakenly?) hung up by accident?

I’ve been good to you, Citi Diamond Preferred Credit Card, even writing love letters to and about you in “My Best Credit Card: Citi Diamond Preferred”  and “Citicard Diamond Preferred Card Update“. 

I’ve always paid you back after borrowing money from you, and always within a month’s time frame!  I’ve proudly showed off your black sleek looks to those that comment on what a cool card you were!  I really thought you had it going on in during those particular moments!

But the way you turned colors on my and the way you treat me like someone new, I can’t stand anymore.  So goodbye, we are no longer going steady and I will drop you after a few months, just enough time to get your out of my system!

Good day Citi, I wish you well…

-MR (Sad)

Citicard Diamond Preferred Card Update

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During “The Great Recession“, one of my favorite credit card the “Citi Diamond Preferred” card seemed to have discontinue the Best Buy $100 gift card for 10,000 points option.  In fact, they seemed to discontinue most of the $100 gift cards for 10,000 points options!  Instead they seemed to be offering a $25 gift card for 3,5000 points and other less beneficial deals.  So as you can imagine, I was very disappointed!

Well, I’m happy to say that they have included the $100 gift certificates for most (if not all) of the companies in the program again, but you have to be on your toes!

If you just go to the thankyou.com site that Citicard uses, you have to dig a little to get to the $100 for 10,000 point option!  If you just glance at the gift cards offered, there only seems to be the “$25 for 3,500 points” option!  The trick is that you have to go to “View Details“, the click on the denominations pulldown box to select the $100 for 10,000 option!

 

Citi Diamond Preferred reward points

Tricky Thankyou Rewards Site

 

 

So what did I decided to do with the now my now once again valuable points?

Well, now that I can get a decent value for my points, I decided to cash out 70,000 points for $700 so we can finally buy a 50 inch HDTV (note, I still have $500 leftover from the previous “thankyou rewards” order for Best Buy cards).

In addition, if things go as planned and the credit card companies don’t discontinue their rewards program, I should have enough points to buy a new computer system by the end of the year.

The best thing is that these purchases are effectively free!  The money I spend with my Citi Diamond Preferred card was on things that I would have purchased anyway!  By using my credit card, I receive a discount in the form of reward points with each purchase!

Now some may say, that they would rather have cash, and I’m definitely cool with cash!  But, at the same time, by using this rewards programs, I have to spend the points instead of saving the money like I typically would.  Now as long time readers may know…  I have an unusual problem with not spending money.  But by using the thankyou rewards program, I have to spend the points that I saved on fun stuff, or at least on something!  So for me, this is a win-win, because it’s spending without the money coming out of my checking account!

UPDATE:  I should mention that if you have this card or if you decide to go with this card, you should only use it to order gift certificates, and in denominations that are $100 for 10,000 points!  Any other options is subpar in my opinion!

Today (4/8/2011) I got replacement cards for my City Diamond Preferred card a year earlier than expected, and surprise, the card is now called “Citi Preferred”.  Apparently, the lost the diamond…

The new cards are blue instead of black.  So much for the cool looking black card.

I hope others that have a citi credit card that use the Thankyou rewards site find value in my little tip!  Do you have any additional tips on any credit card?

-MR

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My Best Credit Card: Citi Diamond Preferred

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Please see this new page about my best credit cards, the Citi Diamond Preferred card I reference below no longer exists with the beneficial properties that I wrote about. It was great until they retired it, then years later brought it back in an inferior form. I do not own the Citi Diamond Preferred card and I won’t because it’s not a good match for me anymore.

It use to be a great card for a lot of reason that are now struckout below, but sadly now is subpar compared to the ones in the link: best credit cards …

Citi Diamond Preferred

Citi Diamond Preferred

My best credit card is the Citi Diamond Preferred credit card offer by Citi.

As you can tell by the picture above of the card, it’s not all black.  But here is something you don’t know…  Some of the  non-black colors wear off the card shortly after you get it!  It wasn’t intentional on my part, it literally was just rubbed off from use.

So while it wasn’t planned, the card looks like a Black Card.  I always get a chuckle when a retailer or restaurant thinks that it might be something more than it is.  While this is a good card and on the higher end, it does have spending limits, unlike the American Express and Visa Black Cards.  More than once, I had to explain that it’s not like one of those very high-end cards!  I do get plenty of compliments on how cool it looks.

So, other than the fact that the card becomes mostly black shortly after using it a few times (including the text that identifies the type of card), why else do I value this card?

Let me say this upfront, I didn’t really give a rat’s arse about the color of the card!  I’m got in it for the excellent rewards program that they offered (one of the best).

List of cool benefits of the Citi Diamond Preferred Card:

5 ThankYou® Points for every $1 spent on purchases at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations for 12 months; 1 point thereafter

1 point for every dollar spent on all other purchases.2 No matter what you are spending on, you’re earning ThankYou® Points

Rewards start at just 1,000 points2 . You’ll be rewarding yourself in no time

Annual Fee: No Annual Fee (for the most part)
Purchase APR: 0% Intro APR on purchases for 12 months; after that the variable APR will be 12.99%-20.99%, based on your creditworthiness

Diamond Perks: Access to Private Pass, which gives you the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of exciting events and unique experiences

So has the card benefited me?  Yes, I’ve already earned and spent over $1000 dollars via the rewards program!  It’s still one of the best cards out there in my opinion!  I’ve never used the Diamond Perks, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have value!

What is your best Credit Card?

Don