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Key takeaways
- When you sign up for a Citi credit card that offers concierge services, you’ll gain access to your own personal assistant who can help you with travel planning, shopping, restaurant reservations and everyday needs.
- Premium Citi travel credit cards typically offer this benefit, but it’s a good idea to log in to your account or call Citi’s customer service line to confirm access to this benefit.
- Concierge service is typically considered to be a supplementary benefit when compared to other travel card perks like airport lounge membership or annual travel credits, so don’t choose a card based on concierge service alone.
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Most consumers sign up for travel credit cards to earn points or miles toward airfare, hotel stays, rental cars and more, yet many premium cards also come with concierge services. This underrated feature can help you plan your day, smooth out road bumps during your travels, nab hard-to-get reservations and more.
If you’re looking for a Citi card with premium travel benefits like a concierge service, the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card is the only Citi credit card currently available that offers Citi Concierge. To maximize the Citi Concierge perk (and your Citi card in turn), it’s important to know the full extent of what the service can assist you with.
What is Citi Concierge?
When you sign up for a Citi credit card that offers concierge service, you’ll gain access to your own 24/7 personal assistant. Like a concierge at a hotel desk, the concierge through your Citi card can help with planning your trip, including setting up an itinerary, getting tickets to hard-to-reserve restaurants or events and even finding the closest place to get an oil change. The concierge can handle personal and business event planning as well, even if it’s something as small as asking the concierge representative to do some last-minute gift shopping.
The only requirement to use Citi Concierge services is having a credit card that offers this perk. What’s more, there’s no charge to using Citi Concierge either — except for any purchases you authorize the assistant to make, which are then added to your card balance.
Which credit cards offer Citi Concierge?
The Citi Strata Premier is the only credit card Citi currently provides that offers Citi Concierge. In fact, the Strata Premier is the only card in the entire Citi ThankYou rewards portfolio with other premium travel perks like a credit toward eligible hotel stays and trip cancellation/interruption insurance. Citi Concierge pairs well with perks like these since the travel assistance can help you book an eligible stay or dispute any potential cases where your travel insurance is needed.
Even if the card you have in mind doesn’t come with Citi Concierge, you may have access to a similar concierge service through its credit card network. Both Visa and Mastercard credit cards may come with concierge assistance, starting at the Visa Signature and World Elite Mastercard tiers. However, it’s up to the card issuer to choose whether each card comes with select card network perks. Contact your issuer to see if your Citi cards offer Visa or Mastercard concierge services.
How to use Citi Concierge
The benefits of using a concierge service depend entirely on the type of help you ask for. Citi Concierge offers a generous variety of functions it can perform around the clock when you call or email, including:
- Travel itinerary planning
- Shopping on your behalf
- Locating specific pharmacies, hotels, restaurants, auto mechanics, etc.
- Obtaining tickets to dining, music, entertainment, sporting and tour experiences
- Personal and business event planning
Are concierge services worth it?
Concierge services are a supplementary benefit compared to travel card features like rewards rates, annual credits and airport lounge memberships that have a specific value that can offset your annual fee. For most people, it’s not worth it to choose a premium card solely for its concierge services. Instead, pick a travel credit card based on the other cardholder perks that best fit your needs.
Granted, a solid concierge service like Citi Concierge can be an effective travel feature — especially when paired with a card that has solid travel protections. For example, Bankrate senior credit cards writer Ana Staples once called on her card’s concierge service to help get reimbursed for canceled travel plans.
“Overall, I’d say my experience with a concierge service was very helpful and worth calling. A couple of years ago, I had to cancel a trip to Europe I’d booked for my mom and I. I bought the plane tickets with my Chase Sapphire Preferred, so I was entitled to a refund thanks to its travel protections. However, trying to get a refund from the airline was a nightmare, so I called the Visa Signature Concierge and they got on a three-way call to clear things up with the airline. Although the airline customer representative’s solution led to a dead end, I disputed the transaction with Chase and got the charge reversed — no questions asked.”
— Ana Staples, Lead Writer, Credit Cards
The bottom line
With Citi Concierge, you can reach out for help with everyday tasks, complex trip planning questions or assistance locating an item or service. Although it doesn’t carry a monetary value like annual travel credits or other primary perks, you get as much value from this benefit as you put into it. The true value of concierge services is the time, effort and — potentially — sanity you’ll save while keeping your travels running smoothly.
*The information about the Citi Premier® Card and Citi Prestige® Credit Card has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.
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