Citibank running a PayAll promotion targeted at Citi Prestige cardholders, earn 1.6 mpd if you spend at least $15,000 through PayAll

Citibank is running yet another promotion, this time targeted at Citi Prestige cardholders through their PayAll facility.

To recap, Citi PayAll is a payment facility to payees who traditionally don’t accept credit card payments (such as private landlords, education institutions, income tax, etc). Citi charges a 2% fee for PayAll payments, so that effectively means that you are paying 2 cents per 1.3 miles (i.e. 1.54 cent per mile) earned on your Citi Prestige card.

The promotion mechanism

From 24 Feb to 31 Mar 2020, Citi Prestige cardholders can earn up to 11,000 additional miles on top of the usual 1.3 mpd when using the Citi PayAll facility. 

There are simply two tiers:

• Spend $15,000, get an additional 4,500 miles, or
• Spend $30,000, get an additional 11,000 miles.

Note that there’s a 2% fee on the PayAll facility, so to clock $15,000 or $30,000 spend, there will be a $300 or $600 fee respectively.

The additional miles lowers to cost to buy miles from 1.54 cents per mile to about 1.2 cents per mile, making it a pretty good deal. Note that this 1.2 cent valuation is if you spend exactly $15,000 or $30,000, and that rate will increase if you spend over this threshold.

For example:

If you spend $20,000, you will get the base rate of 26,000 miles plus a bonus of 4,500 miles for a total of 30,500 miles, at a fee of $400. That works out to 1.31 cents per mile.

If you spend $50,000, you will get the base rate of 65,000 miles plus a bonus of 11,000 miles for a total of 76,000 miles, at a fee of $1,000. That works out to 1.32 cents per mile.

Note that all spend must be made between 24 Feb 2020 and 31 Mar 2020. For the avoidance of doubt, the payment must be transferred and posted to your account within this date to qualify as a spend.

Final thoughts

I’m really not sure who is Citibank targeting with this promotion, given that it has a very high spending threshold for limited types of payment.

Off the top of my head, I’m not sure who has a $15,000 tax bill to pay or even a $15,000 rent to pay. This is also not the month for school fees payment in a typical year as well.

The only way to clock this spend is if you can have an agreement with your landlord to pay your rent upfront for a period of, say, half a year.