The Citi Strata Premier is an underrated mid-range card that deserves a lot more attention. For $95 a year, you get 3x points in five categories that cover most of your everyday spending, a $100 hotel credit that can pay for the annual fee, no foreign transaction fees, and full access to 20 ThankYou transfer partners, including American AAdvantage.
Pair it with the Citi Double Cash Card for 2x points on everything else, and you’ve got one of the best card duos available. You’ll earn 2-3x transferable points on all your spending for under $100 in total annual fees.
With the ThankYou ecosystem stronger than ever, the Strata Premier is the card that ties it all together. Whether you’re looking to earn cash back, airline miles, or hotel points, this card gives you the flexibility and earning power to make it happen.
Sounds like a great credit card, especially because of the supermarkets and restaurants. I shop mostly at Whole Foods, so I wouldn’t use it anyway because I use the Amazon card (5% back) and am happy with the CSR.
Hear horror though about Citi customer service.
“Travel” does not include train tickets and taxis. Possibly not ride-share either .
Sounds like a great credit card, especially because of the supermarkets and restaurants. I shop mostly at Whole Foods, so I wouldn’t use it anyway because I use the Amazon card (5% back) and am happy with the CSR.
Hear horror though about Citi customer service.
“Travel” does not include train tickets and taxis. Possibly not ride-share either .
But to compare to Wells Fargo Journey still worse?
Yes, it's worth it. ChaseSP has better credits, but CitiSP is better card. And for $95, I'd argue credits are not the most essential component of this card, and you can still make your money back with $100 off $500 travel. CitiSP combo with 2x DoubleCash is simply better than combo with 1.5x ChaseSP/Freedom Unlimited and just creates such an easy setup for most people (including most P2s). Chase probably has better customer service, but you can still get a human on the phone with Citi.
Right now I'm splitting the difference between Cita Strata Premier/Double Cash and the CSP/Freedom/Freedom Unlimited.
On CitiSP, I transferred to Hyatt (1:1) before the ratio got worse to get 3 nights when otherwise I would've had to shell out more $400/night. On other occasions I used the $100 credit on an independent hotel where the rate was slightly cheaper factoring in the credit.
Doing the same on Chase for an upcoming Marriott booking. For me the jury is still out.
These mid-tier cards are solid choices. Prefer not to think too hard about which card I should use for which transaction haha.
The card is a great earner for all of the 3x categories (including, notably, grocery) all on a single card and is the cheapest card that will give you 1:1 transfers to American. Having said that, the $100 hotel credit is surprisingly worthless; I've had the card since shortly after it came out and I've never been able to use it as it requires a single $500 charge in the portal, which is often overpriced. By contrast, the Sapphire Preferred (which I'm not especially a fan of but I keep as my effective Chase transfer tax) will give you $100 (up from $50) off a $100 minimum stay, and I've been able to use that every year since I've had it. For this reason, I think of my Strata as a $95/year card and my Sapphire as free.