My first statement for my Citi Professional Card closed recently, and I just checked my rewards balance for the promised free $100 gift card. To my delight, my 10,000 free ThankYou Points have already been deposited! I swiftly went to the ThankYou Rewards site and traded them in for two $50 Target Gift Cards. I shop regularly at Target, so it’s basically the same as cash for me.
It seems that once you get to the $50 range, 1 point = 1 cent in gift cards. It was hard to find the Target reward option, but the search function saved me. Other good rewards options I found were Shell and Exxon/Mobil Gas Cards or Gap/Banana Republic/Old Navy Gift Cards. For those with student loans, you can even get a $100 loan payment for the 10,000 points. Here’s a screenshot of my points:
Click on the ‘ThankYou Network’ button to easily register your card. If you already have this card, you can check your rewards balance online under View My Account > Rewards > Current Activity:
Time/Value Summary
Total time spent: ~5 minutes
Total money ‘earned’: $100 in Target Gift Cards
This was so easy, I convinced my wife to apply for one too. She usually stays away from the bonus-seeking, but apparently $100 in free clothes is worth it. 😉
The Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – November 2024
Big List of Free Stocks from Brokerage Apps
Best Interest Rates on Cash - November 2024
Free Credit Scores x 3 + Free Credit Monitoring
Best No Fee 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers
Little-Known Cellular Data Plans That Can Save Big Money
How To Haggle Your Cable or Direct TV Bill
Big List of Free Consumer Data Reports (Credit, Rent, Work)
I remember reading that someone mentioned you could actually do the student loan and all Citibank does is send you a check for the amount, payable to you. Any way you can confirm this? Maybe contact Citibank and ask? If so, this becomes even more of a hot deal!
I selected two $50 amazon.com cards, but it said they would arrive within 4-6 weeks.. I hope they will deliver them quicker!
Michael – haven’t heard of that. I’m already out of points, so I’ll ask next time.
Hmm… you may actually be right. 4-6 weeks sounds more like the normal fulfillment time given for this type of thing. Now what did I order last night that was to take 5 business days?
I ordered a Home Depot Card it was more along the lines of a 1-2 week wait.
The Amazon.com is a good deal, it makes the mtvU card a much better card than even the Amazon Chase Visa card that only gives 3 points. It’s cool that mtvU gives 5 points for shopping on Amazon.com, I hope the reward stays even after graduation.
Hey guys, I did do the student loan credit. And yes, it *sounded* like she was just making a check in my name. But she asked for the name of my lender also. I asked if the check was filled out to me AND them or what… I was kinda confused (and still am). I asked her what I was supposed to do with the check and she said I would sign it and send it to the student loan company… Anyway, sending signed checks in the mail doesn’t sound like a great idea. Why not just write the check to the student loan company instead of me??? Well, I’ll be getting it in the mail soonm and I’ll let everyone know…
Jonathan, after I saw I could simply get $100 to help my student loans, I signed up for the Simplicity card too (even though I have a “personal” card in the form of the Plat Div Select card). Sure enough, as you had commented in one of your BT blogs, my credit limit was set quite low compared to what I normally get from Citi. But that’s okay because I will just “transfer the credit line over” as you mentioned a few weeks ago. This way I can get two substantial BTs and the $100 bonuses!
just got my 10,000 points as well. thanks for reminding me to check. got the gas cards.
How would my credit report be impacted if I got a new credit card every time a great deal came along, then closed my acct shortly after getting the deal?
Depends, how many are you talking about? I value each credit check, so if I’m not getting at least $75 out of each application, I pass. I try to keep it under 3 new cards every rolling six months, and my credit is fine.
WOW! I just read this post because I was looking for a card with a bonus and get this (!!!):
Interested in the $100 promotion (which now seems pretty old judging from the last posts on this item), I went to the website and looked around for a second. I then decided it was something I could do later and tried to leave and whammo! They stopped me as I was exiting and offered me another 5000 in points, for a total of $150.00 in gift cards if I applied immedidately! COOL DEAL! Did it and was approved instantly. Looking forward to my first purchase and $150 worth of gifts!! Yahoo!!
Does this card have a yearly fee?
No annual fee.
can you get amazon gift cards or certificates outside of the online store? such as getting them from wal-mart or target?
Great blog! I was already thinking about getting a balance transfer and putting it into savings! But I was able to use 4 our of 5 (already have the cell disount and have the realy cheap cable) of you topics!
I signed up for the citi card you suggested! At first they were offering 10K pts but I tried to close the page and it poped back up with an offer for 15K pts. So I set up the card and got 15K pts. I just called and order the checks for my student loans.
They initially gave me a balance $6K, but I requested an $14K increase(I guess I should have asked for more). And they gave it to me! I got the balance transfer check for $20K and put it in the bank yesterday.
I also open an account with Countrywide yesterday. Their Savings-Link has an APY of 5.25 for balances over $10K! So in a year I will have made $1090 off the balance transfer and another $150 paid towards my student loans which are almost paid off.
Next year I going to ask for $40K!
Good Luck everyone
It seems my greed never ends ;>. Thanks Jonathan, it was great! I ended up with 15000 thank you points, which was $100 target gift card (they gave it to me on one card) and 5000 extra points (6000 would have gotten me another gift card). Anyway, I traded the 5000 pts for a play putting green for my husband, which he loves.
Anyway, now I see that I also have 0% balance transfer offers available. But Citi is very confusing with this. On the website it’s pretty clear that I could get a check mailed to myself (with no fee at 0%), but when I talk to someone to confirm this, they’ve given several different answers. One is that this is a business card, so I can’t send a check to myself, it would be considered a cash advance (doesn’t say anything like that on the webpage). Another one told me I can send money to my mother or husband, but not myself. Another one said only to other creditors. But the offer is still hanging out there and looks very tempting. I’m really considering ignoring them – it really seems like they are trying to go against the web access version of the balance transfer (like as if they are competing with it). Maybe I’m just getting suspicious …
just to update — you were right again Jonathan! I got the money with no fees and it is now sitting in my new HSBC account earning 6% (until 4/30). Wow, $100 in Target cards, a putting green, and now a chance to make between $200 and $300 dollars in the next year! You’re the best! Thanks Again!
Jonathan,
Not to nit-pick, but when your blog says that you can redeem 15,000 points for $150 in gift cards, that is a little misleading. I checked the ThankYou website and the best I can find is a $100 gift card for 10,000 points. That leaves a balance of 5,000 points, but in fact it takes 6,000 to get a $50 gift card, as Mimi pointed out in her Feb 21 post. No big deal, especially if all you have to do is spend another $1,000 to get up to 6,000 points.
Oops! I guess I’ll have to take back my criticism. I just checked one last time, and there IS one gift card for $150 available for 15,000 points. It is from SpaWish.com, something my wife would sure love. Another option is to get 1 $100 card for 10,000 points and 3 $10 cards from whomever at 1,500 points each, leaving a balance of only 500 points.
Hi Michael,
Just wanted to say I recently applied/approved for the Citibank card, and I was just checking out the ThankYouNetwork website when I saw the target cards and everything else is up to 6,000 points for 50$. Thanks to you I got the extra 5,000 points, but now I find myself perplexed on which way to go. Taking straight cash is the worst for the money, but easily the most fluid.
I just tried calling their hotline for more details about the Student Loan rebate, but no one was there. Hopefully, I can finagle the most money of these bastards somehow.
If anyone knows how the Student Loan rebate works, do tell. It’s the only thing left where you get 50$ for each 5,000 points, and I want the most money for my points.
I want a Target gift card.
What next?
How can I earn money on your web site?
Happy to report I received 150$ from this offer via the student loan rebates. I merely found someone who had a student loan, was mailed the check, and exchanged the checks with the person.
I now owe them one, but also I’m 150$ richer 🙂
I just got my 15,000 Thank You Points! One bummer is that the Thank You Network seems to have discontinued the $100 Target gift card for 10,000 Thank You Points. I didn’t see it on their website anymore. And when I called, they said that they no longer offer that option. Not sure what I’m gonna use with the rest of my points now.
Also, the popup for an extra 10,000 points seems to be gone now. I must have just caught the deal on the tail end.