The Two Ways to Value Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses

A note from Sarah Page: Scott originally wrote this post years ago, but it is still very much valid and important today. 

Once a month we update a list of what, are in our opinion, the best travel credit cards on the market. We also update a similar list, but for small business credit cards, monthly. How I rank them is largely defined by their sign up bonuses. So the next logical question would be, how do I value those sign up bonuses?

There are two equally valid ways to value a credit card sign up bonus.

ThankYou Premier 50k Bonus Changing Tomorrow

The Citi ThankYou Premier Card currently has an offer of 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $4,000 in purchases within the first three months of account opening.

According to One Mile at a Time, that sign up bonus is changing tomorrow, August 22. This is not shocking considering that, for the majority of 2016, the ThankYou Premier had no sign up bonus whatsoever. Then in December of 2016, Citi came back with 40k points for a $3k minimum spending requirement bonus.

How to Get Part of Your Annual Fee Back from Citi

The offer mentioned in this post is out of date, so all links have been removed. For the best current rewards card offers, see here.

In my experience, if you cancel a Citi card, Citi will refund you a prorated portion of your annual fee.

Why You Shouldn’t Get the 75k AMEX Gold Business Card Available Today Only

The Enhanced Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN

Get 30,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $5,000 in purchases with your new Card in the first 3 months following approval of your new Card account
Plus, get a statement credit for your initial Amazon Prime membership fee after you sign up for a new membership with your Card and meet the spending requirement in the same time period
As an Amazon Prime member, you get unlimited FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of items on Amazon.com
Built with business-sized purchasing power and fast rewards
3X points on