Review: Is Citi Prestige Mastercard still good in 2022?

Basic information

• This credit card has an annual income requirement of S$120,000 (4 times more than most credit cards)
• Annual fee of S$535 is non-waivable
• Cardholders receive 62,500 points (25,000 miles) at the start of every membership year

Additional note: Some readers shared that you can bypass the income requirement by placing a S$10,000 fixed deposit and applying for a “secured” Citi Prestige card. By doing so, you will have to convert all existing Citi cards to secured cards. Share your experience on Suitesmile Chat Telegram group if you’ve done it!

Citi Prestige Card

Suitesmile card rating:

Sign-up bonus

120,000 points
(48,000 miles)

more infoReceive 120,000 points (equivalent to 48,000 miles) upon spending at least $800 within 2 months from card approval.

Existing Citibank cardholders qualify too, as long as you have not cancelled a Citi Prestige card in the past 12 months.

Key benefit

Airport lounge,
4^th night free
on hotel stays

more infoGet unlimited airport lounge visits +1 guest. Receive a cash rebate of 1 night on hotel stays of at least 4 nights (excluding taxes and fees).

Annual fee

$535
(no waiver)

more infoThe annual fee of this card cannot be waived. However, you'll receive 25,000 miles (worth $500) every time you pay the annual fee. That's more than half the amount of miles required to fly in Business Class from Singapore to Europe on Turkish Airlines!

Min. Income
requirement

$120,000/yr

more infoYou will have to submit prove of income during the application process.

Apply now

Why we like this card

Other than the amazing 4^th night free benefit, cardholders get complimentary unlimited Priority Pass airport lounge access around the world +1 guest. Receive 1.3 MPD on local spending and 2 MPD on foreign currency spending.

Unlimited Priority Pass airport lounge access

A key benefit of this card is unlimited complimentary airport lounge access through Priority Pass. Cardholders can also bring along 1 guest for each visit.

Related: Reviews of airport lounges that I’ve accessed for free with this benefit

Is Citi Prestige’s “4th Night Free” still a good benefit?

If you are new to this benefit, it may sound like a lovely 25% discount at first. That’s until you dig deeper into the terms and conditions and find that you will probably only get a maximum of 9% in ACTUAL savings by using this card, instead of other specialized cards, provided you meet all the strict conditions.

Here are some quirks that you should know about this 4th Night Free benefit:

• All stays must be booked through Citi Prestige Concierge via phone or email
• Stays can only be booked directly with the property or on Expedia (via the Concierge)
• No promo codes are allowed
• All stays must be prepaid. If the rate is not prepaid, the concierge team is able to reach out to the hotel to request for a prepayment.
• Member rates are not allowed
• You will receive a rebate of the rate of 1 night, without taxes and fees. In other words, you will be paying the taxes and fees for that “free” night. This can go well over 20% of the gross nightly rate, depending on the city/country!
• You will receive Elite member benefits like points, upgrades and breakfast, if any.
• Apartment bookings can only be made on Expedia (via the Concierge).

Related: Hotel stays that I’ve booked with Citi Prestige’s 4th Night Free benefit

Example 1: Staying in an overseas Marriott hotel

Let’s take a look at what you will be paying with each credit card when booking directly with a Marriott property, through Citi Prestige Concierge.

Assumptions:

• 20% taxes and fees (typically 15% to 25%)
• 5% cashback via shopping portal (typically 3% to 10%)
• 5% discounted member rate (typically 2% to 10%)

The table above shows that Citi Prestige’s 4th Night Free benefit will only save you about 9% if you stay exactly 4 nights in a hotel. This saving starts to shrink if your stays are longer than that.

FAQ: Can you book 4 nights with Citi Prestige and other nights with another card?
This is against the card’s 4NF terms and conditions. However, I’ve heard of cardholders who’ve done this successfully. Just tread carefully.

Example 2: Staying in an overseas hotel booked through OTA

Let’s now take a look at what you will be paying with each credit card when booking through Expedia and other online travel agency (OTA).

Assumptions

• 20% taxes and fees (typically 15% to 25%)
• OTA instant discount of 20% (typically 15% to 25%)
• Online payment

Citi Prestige’s 4NF saving is pretty much non-existent for OTAs bookings as you would be missing out on other ongoing discounts.

Related: Great Deal: Get 20% off hotels worldwide on Agoda with Mastercards

Is Citi Prestige’s S$535 annual fee justified?

tl;dr: Yes, it is easily justified if you use Citi’s annual points for high value airline redemptions and are able to utilize the airport lounge benefit on your travels.

To recap, the annual fee comes with 4 noteworthy benefits:

1) Get 62,500 points annually

Cardholders get 62,500 Citi points (25,000 miles) upon paying the annual fee every year. I value 25,000 Citi miles at ~S$500. Receiving these miles alone almost justifies the annual fee of S$535!

Here are a couple of high-value Business Class redemptions that you can use Citi’s Miles and Points for:

1. 75,000 miles for one-way Qatar Airways Business Class to Europe
2. 45,000 miles for one-way Turkish Airlines Business Class to Europe

2) Unlimited airport lounge access

Cardholders get unlimited airport lounge access + 1 guest. This is a valuable benefit, especially for long layovers and crowded airports.

There is only one other card in Singapore that matches or better this benefit. That is the AMEX Platinum Charge card with an annual fee of S$1,712 and a laughable general-spending earn rate of 0.78 MPD.

3) 4th Night Free on hotel stays

This unique benefit is a bonus that keeps me a little more interested in keeping this card. However, I do not go out of my way to fully take advantage of this “9% discount” benefit and stay exactly 4 nights in every hotel (although I used to, when I could stack with BRG for a further 25% discount).

4) 1.3 MPD on general spending

I value Citi’s miles and points more than those from other banks as they give me access to a larger range of Business Class seats through Frequent Flyer Programs from Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Etihad.

Although UOB PRVI offers 1.4 MPD on general spending, having 1.3 MPD from my Citi Prestige card is more valuable and the miles/points don’t expire!

Bottom line

With its unique benefits, this is still one of the best credit cards in Singapore. With all the strict rules in place, I personally do not see 4th Night Free as a benefit any more. I’ll let go of the card if/when the Priority Pass benefit is nerfed.

Unless if you redeem your annual Citi points for shopping vouchers (please don’t), the annual fee on this card can be easily justified.