Citi Premier rebrands as Citi 'Strata' Premier — and changes very little else

12.05.2024 - 17:25 / thepointsguy.com

You may have heard the rumors that the Citi Premier Card would be refreshed. Now we can confirm that those rumors are true.

As of May 12, the Citi Premier Card has been rebranded as the Citi Strata Premier Card.

Credit card changes can either be positive or negative — or a mix of both — but rarely do they evoke such a neutral response. In our opinion, the changes are lackluster and do not warrant a change of the card's name.

So, let's dive deep into what changes existing cardholders and new applicants can expect.

The information for the Citi Premier and Citi Strata Premier cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

What isn't changing:

What is changing:

Existing Citi Premier cardmembers will receive the enhanced benefits on the Strata Premier card effective immediately. They will receive a new card with the new Strata Premier name and card art when their current card expires.

The new card has two changes to its earning structure:

All other bonus-earning categories are staying the same.

Earning bonus points per dollar spent on EV charging is a good addition, seeing how the card already earns 3 points per dollar spent on gas purchases.

Since the refreshed Citi Travel portal launched in March 2023, eligible cardholders (including those with the Premier) have been able to earn bonus points on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through the portal.

This perk was slated to end June 30 but is now an ongoing benefit of the Strata Premier. While this can provide value to cardholders and boost their ThankYou Rewards points balance, there are many reasons why booking directly is usually better.

It might have been nice to see the introduction of new bonus categories like streaming services, online retail purchases or drugstores. However, this card already has strong bonus categories.

Related: How to earn over 300,000 points in one year

The next set of benefits is quite interesting. Citi will introduce — or, rather, reintroduce — four new travel protection benefits for cardholders:

In 2019, Citi removed travel and purchase protections across several cards; the Citi Premier lost 10 travel and purchase protections.

This is where things get interesting because back then, Citi inserted the following statement in the frequently asked questions for the Citi Premier:

Citi continuously evaluates our products to ensure that associated benefits best meet the needs of our customers. As such, we will no longer offer select protection benefits on your card so we can continue providing key benefits that our customers use and value most at no additional cost. As a cardmember, you will continue to receive a range of