Citi Select (post March 2013) - ? worth $700 annual fee

[cove]

Thanks infinity. I have a week of work in the US with 5 staff.

 

[Foreigner]

I had my limit increased by 50 per cent today. Useful, especially when certain payments may not be made with Amex cards.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

 

[thehound]

Does anyone know if Bpay payments from the Select credit card account in online banking earn points? Can't recall and was trying to avoid the 0.6% credit card fee paying through my local council's online payment portal...

 

[asg29e]

Does anyone know if Bpay payments from the Select credit card account in online banking earn points? Can't recall and was trying to avoid the 0.6% credit card fee paying through my local council's online payment portal...

Yes. One of its useful features.

 

[thehound]

Yes. One of its useful features.

Thanks asg29e!

 

[diningdecadence]

data point for those interested.
S$14,000 transaction = $12,238 via biz FX rate, $12,586 via citi select = $348 for the privilege of earning 62,930 citi points = 41,953 SQ points (3:2 transfer)

as a reference point this is just shy of enough for a one way J SYD-SIN at 46,750 + approx. $270 in taxes.

let's say the extra approx. 5,000 SQ points cost you 1c = $50, you're looking at <$700 for the ticket, which for me is good value.

i'll have to do a comparison with LM, however the T-14 does play a bit in the decision

 

[diningdecadence]

had my annual fee recently charged. rang up to see what i could do.

fun and games with phillipino(?) call centre was the exact opposite.

best they could do on initial call was $350 fee + 10k bonus points. pushed harder for "a referral to sydney". took them more than a week to get back to me after promising a 24 hour turnaround, and multiple phone calls on my behalf. best they came back with was $350 fee + 20k points, so i took it as am currently overseas and pumping everything through for the 5x earn rate. will consider cancelling on my return as i don't think the fee justifies the latest offering. may look to switch to a fee free for life signature card.

has anyone else had any luck in getting the fee waived in full? i think there was mention of being a citigold customer previously?

 

[Kimster]

Citigold only reduces your fee by half. You've got a good deal for $350 +20K points in my opinion.

 

[albyd]

My annual fee came thru this week. They don't like discounting on select. After I told them I was "considering my options", they put me through to retentions who gave it to me for $350 + 5000 points.

Thought that was fine given feature downgrades this year. Worth it for the points earn at this price similar price to altitude black & a better card IMHO.

 

[ted123]

Mine came through in June and they also gave me at a lower fee of $350 as well. I did not get any points though. I am hoping they introduce greater enhancements to make it a little more attractive.

 

[Kimster]

With al you guys discussing the merits of halved Annual Fee, I thought I would give it a try and rung Citi. The outcome is that my Annual fee ($350) was waived altogether. I did not haggle for extra points as I thought no annual fee on the card itself was a good deal. Thanks to all AFF forum folk

 

[albyd]

Wow that's a great result I didn't nominate half they nominated half and I accepted when it sounded like that was their final offer.

Did you have to put up much of an argument?

What sort of spend did u out through for the year? I've done about $250k. Figure might be a little small compared to some other members of this forum.

Albyd.

 

[FrankC]

With al you guys discussing the merits of halved Annual Fee, I thought I would give it a try and rung Citi. The outcome is that my Annual fee ($350) was waived altogether. I did not haggle for extra points as I thought no annual fee on the card itself was a good deal. Thanks to all AFF forum folk

A few questions:
You mentioned that your annual fee is $350 (I assume perpetual), which is half of the usual $700 - is that because you are a gold customer?
Is that $350 fee waived a one time thing or perpetual?

Cheers

 

[Kimster]

I was always on half (was citigold few years ago) and No!! not much of an argument really. I said I am reconsidering options since some of the benefits have been reduced.

I can only say that Citi is probably happy to have me as a customer/client with my spend

Frank: The offer is a one-time offer - but will push for the same outcome again next year. The point is - if they open the free annual fee floodgate for one - it may follow for others. Not a good business strategy, but O well if it benefits the AFF's then its all good.

 

[albyd]

Thanks for that. Sounds like you were already halfway with citigold so it would've been an easy decision.

Albyd.

 

[dein_gesicht]

I'm not Citi gold and called up to request my Singature to be canceled unless I got the Select for free. I was nice about as I said I had another good offer from ANZ. At the moment, I'm putting through ~$25k a month through the car, but this will reduce once my parents stop putting through their business expenses through it.

The best they could do was $350, so I said I would think about it....I want the extra 0.5 pt. Any other good cards out there I should be considering?