Review of the CitiBusiness® Premierpass(SM) Card

The CitiBusiness® Premierpass(SM) Card was last reviewed on 6th February 2008

Summary - The CitiBusiness® PremierPass^SM Card is a great small business reward credit card that will suit small businesses which requires employee air travel. With this card, you not only earn points for the dollars you spend, but also for the miles you fly. Its key features are :

You earn 1 point for every dollar you spend

You earn points for the number of miles you and your employees fly

You earn 3 points for every dollar you spend on business purchases and professional services

Points never expire as long as you make one purchase every three years

Let us look at this card in closer detail.

Reward Formula - 3 points/$1.00 on Business Purchases and Professional Services - The reward formula for the CitiBusiness® Premierpass(SM) Card is based on Citi's ThankYou Redemption Network reward program. You will earn 3 ThankYou Select Spend Points for every dollar you spend on business purchases and professional services. Business purchases are defined as stand-alone office supply merchants that primarily sell stationery and office supplies for business consumption. Professional services are defined as stand-alone tax preparation, accounting, bookkeeping, and legal services providers that provide their respective services to businesses. You earn one point for every dollar you send on other purchases. New cardholders get 15,000 bonus points after first purchase.

Earn points on the miles you fly - In addition to earning points for the dollars you spend, you also earn points on the miles that you and your employees fly. For example, if the ticket cost is $200 and the flight is 5,000 miles, you will earn 200 ThankYou Select Points and 5,000 ThankYou Flight points.

You can earn up to 200,000 ThankYou Flight Points in one calender year (of which up to 100,000 can be ThankYou Flight Points). Points do not expire as long as you use the card at lease once every three years. The

Unlimited Companion Travel - You can get a free companion ticket whenever you book a ticket that is at least $299 within the continental US or Hawaii. You can use the companion ticket feature unlimited times. If you just use this feature once, it will more than pay for the $75 annual fee.

Annual Fee and APR - The annual fee of the CitiBusiness® Premierpass(SM) Card is $75.00. However for the first year, the annual fee is waived. The apr is prime rate plus 5.99%. You get a 0% apr on balance transfer for 12 months from the date of transfer as long as the first balance transfer is made within 12 months of account opening. There is no balance transfer fee for the introductory offer. The average daily balance method (including new purchases) is used to calculate monthly balances.

ThankYou Redemptions Network Program - The Citi PremierPass Card's reward program is the ThankYou program, which is a great all round reward program. It has a unique travel rewards program for airlines. Cardholders have two choices. Firstly, you have a variable flight option plan where they can book any ticket or itinery online through expedia. The number of points required to redeem for your ticket purchases will depend on the price. But you will have the flexibility to book any tickets you want.

The other options is the fixed flight option whereby the number of points for a particular destination is fixed. At this moment, the ThankYou Redemptions have one of the best deals in the market. For example, you only need 20,000 points for an airline ticket within the continental US or Alaska versus 25,000 points for most program (In this example, 20,000 is good for up to a $400 value ticket). If the ticket cost more, then you can use points to make up the difference. For example, if it cost $450, then you need an additional 5,000 points. With this program, you need to book your tickets through a thankyou specialist over the phone. There are also no seat limits, blackout dates, advance booking requirements or saturday night stays requirements.

However, to qualify for the fixed flight option, you either have to a Salomon Smith Barney FMA client, have a citibank account or have an eligible citicard. The Citi PremierPass Card is an eligible card for the fixed flight option.

Additional Citi Benefits - The CitiBusiness® PremierPassCard(SM) also offer a few other very useful benefits. Firstly, you can call up Citi's Personal Business Assistant to make plans for travel, dinners etc. Citibank has also assembled a panel of Business Experts, who would respond to your emails on any business advice. You also get free quarterly and annual account summaries and automatic online bill payments.

Reports to Credit Bureaus - Unlike many small business credit cards, Citibank reports your credit card activities to business credit bureaus like D&B. This will help you build a business credit history, which may enable you to get business financing in the future without using any personal guarantees.

Verdict - We highly recommend the CitiBusiness® PremierPassCard^SM Card to the small business who does a lot of air travel as this card allows you to rack up your rewards points very quickly if you travel a lot. Furthermore, there is a great companion ticket feature which will save you money if you fly frequently with a companion.

Note : - Citi is no longer offering this card here. The equivalent of this card is now called the Citi ThankYou Premier Card.

Positives

Earn 3 points on business purchases and professional services

Earn points on the miles you fly

12 month 0% apr on balance transfers

Unlimited companion ticket

CitiBusiness® Premierpass(SM) Card
Reward Benefits
Point Accumulation	Earn 3 points for business related purchases and professional services Earn 1 point per dollar spent on other purchases Earn points on the miles you fly.
Points Expiration	Do not expire if card is used within 3 years
Caps on Points	200,000 (100,000 for Flight Points
Cost/Fees/Interest rates
Introductory rate	0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months from date of transfer. Transfers can be made within 12 months.
Annual Fees	No annual fee for first year, thereafter $75.00
Purchase APR	Prime Rate plus 5.99%
Balance Transfer APR	Prime Rate plus 5.99%
Cash Advance APR	Prime Rate plus 14.99%, min 19.99%
Penalty/Default Rate	Prime Rate plus 23.99%
Min Finance Charge	$0.50
Grace Period	20 days
Balance Calculation Method	Average Daily Balance (including new purchases)
Balance Transfer Fee	3%, min $5.00, max $50.00 (waived for introductory offer)
Cash Advance fee	3% ,min $5.00
Over-the-credit-limit fee	$39.00
Late Payment fee	$15.00 - less than $100 $29.00 - $100 to $250 $39.00 - $250 and above

Apply for the Citi PremierPass® Card