CITI® CREDIT CARDS – COMPARE ALL SIDE–BY–SIDE      

What Is "Thank You" From Citi?
• More than just a rewards program, Citi has brought together a network of some of the most desirable merchants around, so the customer can get the finest in retail stores, restaurants, travel and much more.
• ThankYou Network gives the customer many ways to get points - like simply for using your credit card the way one normally does. And because the points add up so quickly and effortlessly, the customer can get rewards a lot faster and more often than one would think. Rewards start at just 1,000 points.
• Get 1 or more ThankYou Points® per $1 spent everywhere the customer shops with a participating card.
• Plus, the customer can sign up to get 1-10 extra ThankYou Points per $1 spent every time one shops at our partner merchants...hundreds of great stores participate.

CitiBank Credit Cards That Offer "Thank You"
• Citi® Diamond Preferred® Rewards Card
• Citi Simplicity Rewards (sm) Card
• Citi PremierPass (sm) Card
• Citi PremierPass (sm) Card-Elite Level
• AT&T Universal Rewards Card
• Citi® Driver's Edge® Platinum Select® Card
• CitiBusiness® Card with ThankYou Network (sm)
• CitiBusiness® PremierPass (sm) Card
• Citi® Professional Card
• Citi® mtvU™ Platinum Select® Visa® Card for College Students (see our Student Section)

• Scroll to bottom and learn more about Rewards

* TIP :  Citi's Best Cards are reviewed below. Experience the Financial Power and Security of Citi® Cards – no matter which one you choose. Most consumers choose the cards listed below, read on to learn why...

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CITI DIAMOND PREFERRED REWARDS CARD:
The Top Pick by SmartMoney Magazine for Best Rewards Credit Card
As the credit card industry has found, one of the most powerful ways to create loyalty is also one of the most logical: free stuff. That's been the draw with so-called rewards cards. These cards accrue points that can be redeemed for coupons or merchandise and are now issued in association with airlines, retailers, restaurants and almost any other type of service or product imaginable (the American DreamCard MasterCard even gives cardholders a shot at a monthly cash jackpot of $25,000 each time they spend a buck). More than half of credit card offers now dangle some sort of reward component, says Curtis Arnold of CardRatings.com.

And while in the past they've been linked with one type of reward per card, the latest cards allow customers to choose from freebies of all types. Bank of America's Power Rewards program offers 250 different rewards ranging from electronics to restraurants; Citibank's ThankYou Network allows customers to cash in points for everything from movie tickes to hot air balloon rides.

But be careful--these freebies aren't as free as they seem. For one thing, these cards tend to have higher interest rates and, since they're costly to administer, often come with annual fees. But the real catch is that it takes an awful lot of spending to earn anything in return. On MBNA's Gold Points Visa, for example, you need to rack up 8,500 points or $2,833 in charges, just to earn a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card. You'd have better luck collecting change on the sidewalk.

All it takes to figure out which of these cards are worth their weight in bonus points though, is a little math. Picking sample rewards from each program, we came up with an approximate dollar value for each point earned. Bank of America's Power Rewards Visa Platinum, for example, accrues points at the rate of one per dollar and requires 50,000 points to earn a Bose Wave Radio worth $500. Using those figures, each dollar charged on the card yields roughly a penny toward a merchandise freebie. By comparison, the rate of return we got on MBNA's Gold Points Visa is almost laughable: You get three points for each dollar you spend, but each point is worth one-fifth of a penny or less.

That said, the right reward card can be a good choice--as long as you don't carry a balance. Interest charges can easily wipe out the value of freebies on even the highest-returning cards. the best deal, it turns out is also one of the oldest: the American Express Preferred Rewards Green Card awards freebies at the standard rate of a penny per dollar. Like most AmEx cards, it has a hefty annual fee: $110. But unlike aany rewards cards, there's no cap on the number of points you can earn, making this one a no-brainer for big spenders. Another card we like: Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards MasterCard. It has no annual fee, awards points worth slightly more than a penny per dollar, and racks up points at five times that rate at supermarkets, drugstores and gas stations.

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CITI PREMIERPASS CARD:
The Top Pick by SmartMoney Magazine for Best Travel Credit Card
If all you want to do is get out there and see the world, you should probably focus your efforts on travel rewards cards. In the past your only choice was an airline-speciffic credit card, which required you to pick one airline and stick to it for all your travel (though some cards have had affinity deals with two or three airlines). These cards were a huge boon to the airlines' attempt to corral as much loyalty as possible and are still worthwhile for some consumers who frequently travel an airline that isn't going into bankruptcy--which, of course, would limit the chances of any free travel.

Now, however, there's a whole new subset of rewards cards that focus on travel, and they offer a lot more freedom. These cards work in the same way as general rewards cards and often have a higher freebie value. the upside to these progrsms is simple: You earn generic travel points instead of miles on a specific airline. And since you cash them in only when you're ready to purchase a ticket, you're not left holding a useless currency if the airline you've been so loyal to suddenly folds.

As with regular rewards cards, these cards are best for consumers who don't carry a balance. And they, too, usually come with an annual fee, so it fyou're not spending big on the card, your travel may not be as free as it seems. If you charge $5,000 a year on a card that costs $60 annually, for example, it could take you five years to earn a free ticket. But in that time you would have paid $300 in fees.

Our favorite? Citibank's Citi PremierPass MasterCard. It rewards at the rate of roughly a penny per dollar, and while there are travel cards with higher reward rates, the PremierPass has no annuala fee and no blackout dates (when free travel is prohibited). Unlike any other of these travel cards, it also awards bonus points for the miles you fly. Charge a 3,000-mile flight from New York to San Francisco, for example, and get an extra 1,000 points--one for every three miles--just for getting on the plane. Our runner-up: MBNA's WorldPoints Visa. It has no annual fee, earns more than a penny per point, and there's no cap on the number of points you can earn, common on other travel cards.The new Citi Premier Pass Card, the only credit card that lets you earn points in a way that no other card does.

There's a $100 Gift Card to Start!—The Citi Premier Pass Card has a no annual fee rewards program. After your first purchase is made within 60 days of account opening, we'll give you 10,000 bonus points.1* Once these points become available for redemption,2* which may take 1-2 billing cycles, you can redeem for your choice of a $100 gift card good at restaurants and leading stores such as the HomeDepot and Gap. Of course, you can also save those 10,000 bonus points and use them for other great rewards like tickets on any airline with no blackout dates. Round-trip airline tickets start at just 25,000 points and with 10,000 bonus points you're on your way to getting travel rewards.

Earn points in more ways—points for buying and additional points for flying any airline.3*
• 1 Flight Point for every 3 miles you fly on any airline, when you purchase your ticket with the Citi Premier Pass Card.
• 1 Purchase Point for every dollar you spend on purchases, excluding returns, cash advances and balance transfers.
• Start off with 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase that you can redeem for a $100 gift card.
• Points never expire, as long as you make 1 purchase every 3 calendar years.

Plus, when you use your Citi Premier Pass Card to buy airline tickets for friends or family, you'll not only earn points for the purchase of those tickets, you'll earn points for the miles flown on each of those tickets, too. That's a benefit no other rewards program offers.

0% on balance transfers until January 1, 2007:
As a responsible lender, we want to help you make the best choice. This 0% APR offer applies to balance transfers, not purchases and cash advances, until 1-1-07. This 0% APR may increase if you default under any Card Agreement that you have with us or fail to make payments to another creditor when due. Your payments will be applied to low APR balances before higher ones.

1* Bonus points can only be earned by new Citi Premier Pass Card cardmembers approved through this offer. In order to be eligible for this special offer, you must respond by 2-15-06.
2* All points become available for redemption when they are transferred from your Card Account to your Thank You Member Account.
3* The total number of purchase and flight points that may be earned on your card is 100,000 per calendar year, only 50,000 of which may be flight points. For further information, please see Citi Premier Pass Card Terms and Conditions.

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CITI PLATINUM SELECT CARD:
The Top Pick by SmartMoney Magazine for Best CashBack Credit Card
According to consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co., 20 percent of American cardholders say, when given the chance, they prefer the simplest type of reward: cold, hard cash. There are now dozens of these cards, which return a predetermined percentage of your balance in cash, usually in the form of annual or semiannual rebate checks.

But these cards are not always as simple as they sound. For one thing, just how and when cards hand back the cash varies. some, like Chase CashBuilder and MBNA's Motley Fool Cash Back Platinum Plus, reward only once a year. With american Express' Blue Cash card, you wait a year for payback--and if you're late on three payments during that time, you lose your refund. Many cards also limit how much cash you can earn in a year.

But by far the trickiest part of cash-back cards is the reward structure. The amount of cash and the rate at which you earn it varies by how and where you use your card. the highest pay back comes from smaller, "everyday" purcjases at the drugstore and gas station; heftier purchases from clothes retailers and airlines generally earn lower returns. You can spend $25,000 on the sme card and earn as much as 1,250 or as little as $250 depending on the kinds of purchases you make. Some issuers increase your rebate if you carry a balance; Chase CashBuilder, for example, promises to double your rebate if you carry at least $500 on your card. That sounds like a great deal--until, of course, you realize you'll be paying for this cash back in the form of interest.

Cash rebate cards can be worth it, however, if you know where--and how--to shop. Rachel Lewyn, a conference director in Jersey City, N.J., charges everything she can on her Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard, shopping as often as possible at supermarkets, gas stations, and Citibank's so-called partner retailers in order to get 5 to 7 percent rebates. She estimates she charges at least $30,000 on the card each year; last year she earned $300, and she pays off her balance each month, so she accrues no interest charges. This year she expects to earn more.

In fact, Lewyn's card gives you the best all-round deal. You earn a minimum of 1 percent no matter where you shop and how little you spend, and you can earn 5 to 7 percent at certain places. Yes, the higher rate applies to those smaller, everyday purchases, but not exclusively; it also applies to certain partner retailers, and there's no cap on how many of those points you can rack up. Since you earn the cash incrementally throughout the year, you don't have t wait around to get your money back--and there's no risk of forfeiting your entire rebate due to a late payment. Capital One's No Hassle Cash Rewards Visa is another good bet; it has a 9.9 percent interest rate and rewards at a flat 1 percent from the first purchase.

The worst deal in this category? Chase's CashBuilder card. Unless you carry that interest-bearing $500 balance, you have to spend at least $6,000 to get a 1 percent rebate. Plus, you get paid back only at the end of the year.

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ONE OF MANY WAYS THAT CITI® STANDS APART FROM OTHER CARD ISSUERS :
Citi® Identity Theft Solutions :
This free service for Citi Card Holders will help you get your life back if you suspect you've been a victim of identity theft. One of CitiBank's Identity Theft Specialists will provide you with the support you need every step of the way until your case is closed. Remember, you have $0 liability, which means you won’t have to pay for any unauthorized charges on your Citi card.

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 Everything you need to know about Citi® Card Rewards