Who else still holds the Citibank Free For Life Premier Card?

[JohnGlav]

This is actually a big problem. Even reading the insurance PDSs from AmEx, they do specify that, if you buy something on one card, then you change to another card, then you claim, and your second card does not have the coverage you had with your first card, then you are not covered.



We got it for free for life. You tell us, where can you get a card which is free and give you free Priority Pass access? This itself is free money. Don't you like free money? Then you get VA points, travel insurance.

I have learnt that when you get something which is too good to be true, you don't throw it away. Here are my lessons.

I am currently on an AmEx promo package from decades ago, $400 annual for Reserve + Edge + Gold charge. I get $600 travel credit, yes, AmEx is losing $200 to me every year, and I get access to AmEx lounge at Sydney Airport, I also get Priority Pass access, travel insurance, and $100k rental car insurance. Where can you get all these for $400 a year today? When AmEx offered me the Edge then Gold charge, I didn't have any need for them, I could have ignored the offers, but I didn't, I took them. Imagine if I only thought about churning and didn't take this package up.

Another lesson which I regretted. Diners sent me an unsolicited offer in the mail, for a no annual free Diners. That's a Diners Diners, not Citi Diners. I thought no one takes Diners, useless most of the time, so I didn't take up the offer. What a mistake. Diners included unlimited access to lounges worldwide. Imagine if I had taken up on that offer, I would have had 20 years of free unlimited access to lounges around the world. Who cares if Diners is useless in Australia? This is the mistake I made, only focus on earning points, ignoring other considerations.

Imagine, if RBA cut interchange fees to 0% one day. Point earning cards would charge $1000 annual fees, and earn you 0.0001 VA point per dollar spend. I would still have this free for life card, which may only earn 0.0001 VA point per dollar, but at least, I would not have to pay $1000 annual fee, and I would have travel insurance without having to pay $1000 annual fee.

Hence I have learnt my lessons, if something is too good to be true, take it, don't miss it. You can always throw it away if it turns into rubbish in future; but you cannot take it back if you don't grab it when it's here.

Very well said.

 

[Buzzard]

I really don't get this.
A thread devoted to holding on to an incongruously free product from 15 years ago (which used to be great).
Card churning is a fundamental premise of this website, so why is everyone so desperate to hang on to just one card?
The benefits are now cough --- Velocity only - even for Prestige!

OPTIONS

1. Get a fee-free card.
2. Get a new card from another bank, with travel insurance included, whose benefits and introductory points outweigh the 1-yearcost.
3. Fight with NAB
4. Get over it, and acknowledge it was great while it lasted

Please feel free to respond as angrily as you like (wasn't Smith v Archer just brilliant tonight)

As a retiree, which card can I apply for that gives me complimentary travel insurance where only $500 has to be spent on said card for the TI to kick in?

 

[CaptJCool]

As a retiree, which card can I apply for that gives me complimentary travel insurance where only $500 has to be spent on said card for the TI to kick in?

My CommBank card has that facility
Not that I like using it

The citi card is now a dud
Well, this is what happens in mergers & acquisitions
Cut the earn rate
Cap the monthly spend
Get rid of the free travel insurance
Increase the annual card fee (does the new owner need to honour Past practices). Seems not and since they completely closed down Diners cards, clearly don’t

 

[JohnGlav]

Very well said.

For clarity I have not cancelled my card account. I agree that would be premature and is not in any card holder’s interests.
For further clarity I did not write a basic letter to Citibank / NAB which simply asked them if they planned to introduce fees and did nothing more. That approach doesn’t require any thought, skill or strategy. The letters (plural) that I did write took days to conceive after much thinking and took me hours to write.

 

[JohnGlav]

For clarity I have not cancelled my card account. I agree that would be premature and is not in any card holder’s interests.
For further clarity I did not write a basic letter to Citibank / NAB which simply asked them if they planned to introduce fees and did nothing more. That approach doesn’t require any thought, skill or strategy. The letters (plural) that I did write took days to conceive after much thinking and took me hours to write.

What my letters achieved was to extract a written narrative from NAB.
A written narrative which I have shared in part with you.
A written narrative which wasn't well thought out and which has content that isn't supported by their actions, the timeline or the documents they issued.
A written narrative which NAB now cannot deny or depart from without losing credibility when cardholders decide it is the correct time to challenge NAB's decisions.
Leverage against NAB isn't gained by wrestling with the bear.
It is gained by limiting the bear's room to maneuver.
Have a think about the possibilities.

 

[CaptJCool]

Imagine writing that letter to Ansett after its collapse.
“I’d like my 80,000 points back please”

At the time Citi offered Feefree for life I already had a card and loyalty. And there’s no reward for loyalty ….

 

[JohnGlav]

Imagine writing that letter to Ansett after its collapse.
“I’d like my 80,000 points back please”

At the time Citi offered Feefree for life I already had a card and loyalty. And there’s no reward for loyalty ….

Hopefully we can come through and succeed together this time Capt.
But we can't slay a bear with one stroke.
It has to be done incrementally.