The ultimate Card - Citibank Platinum??

[Lindsay Wilson]

Well I think that I have found the ultimate card which will take over as my sole card other than ANZ Q Visa.

Whilst difficult to obtain (entry level income requirements are high), it's issued as either a Visa or Mastercard (with or without photo ID embedded onto top rhs of card), they offer:

Take Flight - a service that lets you use your points with any airline, anywhere in world (even using cash and points option) - no need to transfer points to FF programs. Points are transferred to Qantas (preferred airline) on a 1-for-1 basis. Points never expire.

Balance transfers - either 1-for-1 on normal balance transfers, or 2-for-1 if you close the card (they do it for you!!)
Bye Bye Mastercard and AMP Amex.

Bonuses for introducing friend - introduce a new cardmember and receive 10,000 points.

Personal Concierge Service - find anything, anytime, anywhere.

Complimentary International Travel Insurance - you and certain members of immediate family automatically covered when you travel on tickets bought on your Platinum Card, or taken using the Take Flight or Frequent Flyer Points.

Rewards Program - you choose anything you like as a Reward - if Citibank can find it to buy it, it's yours!

And there's more, but you get the idea...check it out. I can see this is now my Card of choice and cuts the others to ribbons.

:D

[oz_mark]

Given the annual fee for a platinum card, it would want to be good.

While the features sound good, when I look at the features additional to what I get as a Citibank gold card holder, I am not sure that the extra cost warrants it.

[pleitnes]

One thing the original poster forgot to mention is the enrollment in various other loyalty programs... For example, when I joined the Hilton HHonours program and advised them that I was a Citibank Platinum VISA cardholder, I was instantly awarded Gold status. Likewise, with Hyatt Gold Passport I was automatically pushed up to Platinum level.

This is enormously useful for anyone who travels a bit and stays at these hotels. Anything that lets me pay for the broom closet (cheapest room) and gets me a suite is fine by me :)

I also have to admit that the service level I receive from the Citibank Platinum people has been excellent. The higher fee (difference from the gold card) is justified by this alone in my mind (I hate getting messed around by service centre people who don't do their job - ie. service me).

P.S. I am not associated to Citibank in anyway other than being a very happy Platinum card holder...

[oz_mark]

I don't doubt that the service from Citibank is excellent, and indeed they did offer me a platinum card. I guess it comes down to whether you gain benefit from the card.

After reading your post, I investigated the platinum visa web site, and found a few things that may make it worthwhile for me after all.

Cheers,
Mark

[Rune]

I use the Citibank Platinum Visa and have found it very useful (even better now that Taxi's accept Visa).

I can get the magical 2 points per $ for all flights via Harvery World Travel, as well as full comprehensive travel insurance (including on award flights!) - a combination I have sought after but was unable to find previously. Their travel insurance also covers hire car excess when overseas.

I also use the card to get upgrades at Hyatt hotels (usually to Club level) - but I was not given Plat status by virtue of the card (seems they have now stopped this).

The "Take Flight" is only really useful when red-e specials are available but award flights are not - ie 20,000 QF pts is the base award SYD-MEL, whereas 20,000 pts = $200 flight using "Take Flight". I have never tried it, so not sure if you actually get QF points and status from a "Take Flight" booking.

My only problem has been trying to get Citibank to list Platinum Mastercard benefits - it'd be easier to pull teeth!! Visa Platinum has a nice website, but info on Mastercard is very difficult to find (but includes status with InterContinental Priority Club, I believe).

Compared to the almost $1K for a Amex Platinum, I think $250 is good value if you travel a lot. I'd be interested see a comparison with amex benefits to see how it stacks up....anyone with a plat amex? :)


-Jamie.

[shillard]

Compared to the almost $1K for a Amex Platinum, I think $250 is good value if you travel a lot. I'd be interested see a comparison with amex benefits to see how it stacks up....anyone with a plat amex?
-Jamie.

Platinum Amex isn't cheap, but worth it if you travel frequently.

For example, by purchasing a full business-class fare on an international service, you get a second one for free for your partner.

There's also an extended repayment plan, the usual Amex extended warranty, advance booking service for shows/ concerts/ etc, and so on.

Also offers free membership to the St James Club in London (a poor imitation of the East India club). They should pay you to go there. :-)

The Platinum Amex used to be something for the ultra-elite, but it's pretty easy to obtain now if you've got a strong monthly spend, and long history with them. Not sure if it's in Australia yet, but in Europe and the States there is a "Centurion" Amex, a black card that tips platinum.


I use Amex religiously, as the "charge card" concept and rewards programme suits me just fine. If a business doesn't accept Amex, I usually walk. I also keep a Qantas Visa as a backup.

[Lindsay Wilson]

Just returned from a 24 day overseas trip where I used my Platinum Card fairly extensively...no problems at all. Agree that being made HHonors Gold was excellent - still haven't received my confirmation as to upgraded status with Hyatt or Marriott. Got upgraded at 4 of the 5 Hiltons I stayed at (no availability at the Stockholm Hilton to upgrade) and certainly treated well. Nice considering I was trying out Hilton for the first time and comparing to my usual Starwood service.

Brilliant part was being able to use Concierge Service to book me (at short notice) a ticket to Les Miserables on Broadway, all at no telephone cost to me (as I used toll free numbers that linked me back to Australia) - the seat was middle upper deck for $60USD.

[brucek]

Whilst I think the above postings are probably quite valid given that they are from travelled folk who have experienced the facilities offered by CB platinum card, read on for an alternative view albeit from a humble gold card holder!

I posted this under the heading "Citibank" last month.

************************************************** ***********

After the collapse of Ansett we looked very closely at alternate credit card
reward schemes. After much reading and telephone converation we decided to throw our lot in with Citibank (Gold Visa) and continue with Diners Club.

Despite being an existing Citibank (CB) cheque account customer and having been a Diners Club (DC) member since 1993 (DC is owned by CB) we initialy had hurdles and bariers put in the way of our application and eventual acceptance to become credit card customers.

When we tried to contact a person of responsibiblty at CB both in writing and verbaly in regard to the problems that we were encountering we got no where. CB's customer service staff are obviously well trained to keep the customer away from, and provide protection too, their managers and decission makers.

Once we eventually got our credit cards we then went about trying to set up automatic payment of the card account through the CB web site. We used to schedule all of our bill payments through B-Pay via the Westpac web site (very convenient for busy people) and once the payees details have been entered they remain their for 6 months so that you don't have to re-enter all of the payees detail in again to make a future payment.

When we got into their web site to try and set up payment schedules and automatic account payments we found it to be very user unfriendly, not having many of the facilities of a full blown banking web.

E.g. You can only execute a B-Payment on the day you wish to pay the bill, you cannot schedule it for a specified date as you can with Westpac and other financial institutions. Once you enter payee details and the payment has been executed, all details are lost so when you want to pay your power bill again next month for instance, you will have to re-enter all of your power companies details in again. They are not retained for future use.

Given that financial institutions are forcing consumers to use electronic means to conduct there business I find the problems and lack of facilities with the CB site to be at odds with their competition.

As a result of this we find ourselves having to retain our Westpac credit cards so as to take advantage of the excellent facilities provided on their web site. It is totaly impractical for either of use to have to remember to pay bills on a certain day when we may not be in our offices and at a computer in order to execute same.

If you are like us and run a line of credit, having the facilities to schedule payments is vital.

From our position the bottom line appears to be:

1. CB have the external appearence of being a slick organisation and being a cut above the rest. The reality is that they are just another bank albeit with a good card reward scheme.

2. If you need a bank with a good web site to transact your banking business, think twice before throwing all of your eggs into the CB basket because you will be dissapointed. Both the CB and DC sites are primitive from a functional view point. They look nice, provide information, but lack user friendly features and functionalty. (DC do not even provide an e-mail address or portal to contact then via, merely a fax number!)

3. Until CB remedy the above and provide a web site with functionality similar to Westpac and the other major financial institutions we will continue to use the Westpac web site to pay bills.

4. We had converted many friends and colleagues to the Ansett FF scheme and their partners Westpac and DC. We often get asked what FF scheme and cards we now utilise. We would not recomend CB to anyone, at this time, until they remedy the problems and improve the quality of their web site.

[arun]

What is the joining fee and annual fee for Platinum? What is the minimum annual income - is it $100K?

[Lindsay Wilson]

Arun, it certainly is $100K. They contacted my accountant to verify and ask for the usual - last two years tax returns. Once they had the verification from my accountant, I got the card within a week.

I don't disagree with Bruce K on the web site. Primitive, yes - I also use web sites to pay bills, but haven't bothered to use the Citibank one yet.

Shillard, Platinum Amex would be interesting - I'm Gold but happy. Not that I wouldn't knock back a 2-for-1 deal with International tickets (presumably booked through American Express Travel only). Like you, have Amex as persoal card and ANZ Qantas Visa as back-up, now that Citibank Platinum is main business card. Found that Amex wasn't as popular around the traps.

:wink: