New cards from Citi with good sign up bonuses

From the start of 2015, Citi seems to be very intent in coming up with new and creative offers. The marketing strategy has been to use big bang offers to attract the new as well as veteran crowd. Like last year, when they came up with a 100,000 bonus offer for a Citi American Executive card, this year they did something similar with the Citi Prestige card. Note that both cards have very high annual fees, about $450 which is not waived for the first year. Yet, note the high degree of interest and applications that these two cards have generated implying that if you put a really good product out there, people might come out to buy. I am still on the fence as to whether to quantify this as a good card. I did apply for the Citi American Executive card last year and have more or less used this 100k points in various travel related activities.

Citi Prestige is a different ballgame altogether. My skeptical reviews are here. However, Citi seems to be going aggressive and released better bonus offers for two more cards.

All in all, here are the links sans any sponsorship and direct link to citi website:

1. Citi Prestige card: $450 annual fee, $200 statement credit per calendar year, 50k Thankyou points and that's pretty much it apart from some fringe benefits. Minimum spend is 3k.

2. Citi Thank you premier card: 50k bonus points after you spend 3k on the card. Annual fee waived for the first year.

3. Citi AT&T card: Now this card is interesting. There is an annual fee of $95, a free unlocked phone worth up to $650 from AT&T is awaiting once you spend $2k on it within the standard 3 months. It is pretty interesting card. I would give it that. I am not a big smart phone user but this card is too hard to resist. A 2k spend is pretty average for  most US households - rent, gas, groceries simply add up to that amount quickly in a month or two. If you are living in big coastal cities, then this is an easy task. It is as if you are going to get an unlocked Apple iPhone 6 or Samsung S6 for under 100 bucks. Not at all a bad deal if you have to get a smart phone quickly.

My order of recommendation remains the above three in the numbered order. Given that there is virtually no other provider right now with any exciting offers, it is rather obvious that most people, new and veterans are applying for one of the cards from Citi. In the first quarter of 2015, given the slow pace of the sign up bonuses, this seems a decent start and no harm in applying for one or two cards that Citi seems to limit per user.