Citi Prestige - 2nd Year Rollover

I have a Citi Prestige CC, that I got during the promotion with annual fees of $350 and valid till next year March 2024. After that, I have to pay $700, if I want to keep that CC for another year. Like a good Oz Bargain user, I have been using Payall to my advantage and already setup monthly Payall payments till Citi system was letting me do it. So, I already got a lot more worth than $350.

Question - Is it worth, keeping this CC for another year and pay $700 or just cancel this one and churn another CC ? Given NAB has bought Citi and will make more changes by end of this year or early next year, not sure if NAB will keep using Payall like quite a few of us are doing :)

Any other thoughts or suggestions that anyone else is implementing or doing would be appreciated as well.

Thank you!!

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Citibank Australia
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Comments

  • +1

    The unlimited priority pass sealed it for me keeping for another year. I already saved the fee multiple times over using 4th night free and PayAll, it was justifiable even just from that. I also probably got about 5 pass entrances (plus guest) this year plus about $200 worth of free food and drinks with PP experiences.

    Better than AMEX platinum at half the price imo. Guess it comes down to how much you travel though really.

    • +1

      vs. Amex platinum? yes and no.

      I had prestige for years during the heydays and it was an amazing card - it was also $350 annual fee for me so an absolute no brainer. The unlimited PP is the only real benefit now. Back then we had:

      1) free night at top hotel a year - gone and now this 4th night free BS
      2) 2x airport transfer (Australasia) - now only 1x and its Australia only
      3) hotel status with a couple of chains - now gone
      4) Sydney Airport fasttrack pass

      Amex Platinum has its perks tho:

      1) $450 travel credit
      2) $400 dining credit
      3) PP (tho limited)
      4) hotel status
      5) Accor hotel free night once a year
      6) Free amazon membership

      The other bonuses are these random credits throughout the year that most people can use. I honestly reckon I get over $2000 worth of credit each year and the point conversion is much better too.

      YMMV of course.

      • +2

        Sorry should've worded better, if AMEX plat was $700, arguably a better card for sure

        • +1

          well what i'm saying is I dont think prestige is worth $700 these days.

    • +1

      That is a good point, if someone is using PP then we can get CC worth. However, for a person, who don't travel much then I guess it is not much of a value.
      It also depends on Payall as well. People who have Prestige at the moment and setup their Payall for another 2 years or so, are not sure either if NAB will honor the 0% fees for any recurring payment setup before 31st October.

    • In regards with PP, isn't that is valid till 31st December 2023 ?

    • @blocky27 - hey mate - hope you’re well. Wondering how does the PP membership get extended? I’m coming up to the 12 month anniversary for my card and looking to keep it. Does the expiry date for PP just get automatically renewed after payment of annual card fee? Thanks

      • Yep automatically re-extended. Didn't have to do a single thing

        • Thanks mate for confirming!

  • +1

    Following this as mine is valid until Feb 2024.
    I am thinking of signing up to the Premier card as well and setup payall until 2025.

    • As signup my partner to the Premier card.
      I dont think u can own both the Prestige and Premier and claim 20k points per card for a total of 40k

  • +1

    As a good churner i still have rule to not keep a card for a second year as it prevents the cooldown period.
    It also sounds like the free payall might be coming to an end.

    But hey if you think you get $700 value then keep it, i struggle to get that much out of a card personally and would rather spend 3-400 on an AMEX that has a free flight or holiday value attached.

    • I think most of us are or will hang on to this card because of 0% Payall fees.
      And lot of ifs and buts are going around on multiple forums regarding free Payall. And I guess this makes it bit confusing for people like me, If free Payall is continued for another 2 years then people who cancel it will regret.

  • For folks here who are using Payall service, how do you make most out of this service to recoup the portion of the card fee? I am planning on keeping the card for another year and have used the 4th night free but wanted to check payall to cover the remaining fee.

    • Put 20k into a high interest account or an offset account.

      • I am assuming you can repeat this a few times without triggering the fraud team?

  • Same boat as OP.

    I don't use the 4th night free, only use the PP for me and one guest x 4 times a year. Use the airport transfer. I also have, but never use the travel insurance which covers the family over 30 days trips.

    Got to figure out what to do with these points. Coles vouchers.

    I don't use PayAll to game the system, but if I keep the card I may have to.

    • +1

      If you didn't set up before November then you wissed the boat. You'll nees to pay fee for payall, then it won't be worthy.

    • Got to figure out what to do with these points. Coles vouchers.

      Exchanging them to flybuys is better value as it is 1:1 and you can still use them at Coles.

      • And flybuys to velocity at anytime

        • I don't have FB, but it appears 2,000 FB points = $10

          104,200 = $500 Amazon AU/Hammerbarn/Coles/All of them.

          I crap house at maths, but does that mean $500 FB = 100,000 points, which is better value, but a whisker?

          • @mrhugo: you lost me at whisker

            • @CodeXD: Should say "by a whisker", i.e, 100K/$500 points is better value than 104.2K/$500 cash equivalent, well about $21 better (4.2k points x 0.005c a point), I guess over half a mil points that $100, two cases of Australia's finest. IDK maybe worth it. Don't have FB so no idea if there are any "conditions" when using using FB as a payment.

              Might just send it all to Bezos at least that way I will use it and not have to keep tabs on whats remaining.

  • +4

    Just a PSA - called Citi for my 2nd year rollover and they offered a 50% discount to stay - so I'm keeping it.

    • +1

      How long before the annual fee due date did you call? I'll set a reminder for myself to do the same.

      • I was told the 2nd year annual fee needed to first be charged before they can seek approval to for a once off 50% off discount.

    • +1

      Good to know - what did you say specifically to trigger their discounted offer?

    • @faze I plan to do the same. What exactly did you say for them to offer 50% off annual fee?

      Also, did you call when the 2nd year was already charged or before?

      • +2

        Sorry didn’t get a notification til now - but I called after I had been charged and basically said I was planning to cancel unless they could drop the annual fee, which they then did!

        • Wouldn’t you be on the hook for the full fee if they didn’t offer a reduction after it’s charged?

    • I called today and ask for the fee to be waived.

      the Operator said that for Prestige card, nothing can be done, either you close it and get approval to reverse the fee or nothing.

      I will keep calling until some fee being waived

      • Any luck? I was also told they cannot reduced mine. Tried 2 different operators and they said the same thing.

        • I tried 4 and no one care to retain me

          • @SnoozeAndLose: I see. Did you end up cancelling it then or do U think it's worth keeping?

            • @runamuck: i have 20K payAll set up until 2024 so i am keeping it. Not worth to keep it next year

              • @SnoozeAndLose: Mine payall setup for 2024 was just randomly cancelled overnight by Citi and they sent me a message that if still required I would need to set up again - cancelling card now.

                • @Fancydancer: did that happen before 2nd year annual fee was charged or after?

                  • @VQLD: Yes, about a week before due so it was a race to close ;)

  • I got an offer for Citi Quick Cash last month (November) for 0% interest and a small establishment fee with the offer of receiving a $200 JB hifi gift card if I converted at least $2,500 into Quick Cash. I accepted the offer and converted $2,501 into Quick Cash and paid the establishment fee. Now just waiting for my JB Hifi gift card. However, this month (December) I got literally the same offer from Citi. Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them? Is it possible for these offers to stack i.e. convert $2,500 x 2 = $5,000 to Quick Cash and get 2x $200 JB Hifi Gift Cards??

    • Yes they stack, you most likely won't be able to combine with PayAll since payment over the required repayment will auto contribute to quick cash and close them.

      • Thanks! I have a $30k limit so Quick Cash wont affect my PayAll. So if I take out another $2,501 Quick Cash, I'll have $25,002 outstanding balance in total ($20,000 PayAll + $2,501 1st Quick Cash + $2,501 2nd Quick Cash) and I'll receive $400 (2 x $200) in JB Hifi Gift cards?

  • anyone had any luck with getting the fee discounted?

  • Bumping this also ask if anyone has successfully gotten the annual fee discount? More specifically if they finally succeeded in getting a discount after failed couple of attempts to other agents initially.

    I've had two calls so far, and it sounds like their system automatically flags whether an account is eligible for any "offers" upon renewal - the customer support agents can't do any decision making themselves…

    In saying that the first agent offered to try and give me 50,000 citi reward points to sweeten the deal of forking over $700.

    • When you call, make sure you get to the retention team, it is one of the prompt to discuss fees

      • Hey code, so you ended up getting your renewal discounted?

        I think I end up with the correct team? It's the option that comes right after the card cancellation option on the hotline prompts. Will try to ask directly for that team on my next call though.

        • +1

          Yep I originally called twice when I got charged the annual fee and got rejected. Then tried again the next day and listened through all the prompt to make sure I get to the right area.

          I started with something like "I was just charged the $700 annual fee for my prestige card for second year rollover and I’m considering the various credit cards I currently hold. Before I make a decision to cancel this card, could you let me know if you can offer any incentives to keep it? Something like reduced annual fee"

          • @CodeXD: Nice!

            That gives me hope that it indeed is possible with Citi. Was it a local or international call centre that handled the successful attempt?

            • @muzzheng: every call I've ever made for citi bank has been international lol

              • +3

                @CodeXD: An update on this - I actually succeeded in getting the halved annual fee. It took me 5 phone calls in total, which is a fair bit of effort.

                It's pretty much luck of the draw depending on which agent you get. I was saying the same script everytime and the first four agents flatout refused, as well as their managers.

                The 5th person took twice as long speaking to their manager, and then came back with something along the lines of "since you've been a good customer, making repayments on time etc we'll do an exception for you".

                So it really is possible - despite the first 4 out of 5 agents saying they had zero ability to do make it happen, it's impossible etc etc.

                Cheers Code!

                • +1

                  @muzzheng: Good job on perservering on- glad to hear it's paid off! Did you ring up to query after incurring the 2nd year annual fee or before?

                  • @Craze: Has to be after you've been charged

  • Got 50% off after 4 phone calls. Will keep for another year.

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