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This card has been discontinued and is no longer available for application. The future of existing cardholders has not yet been determined.

Citi Hilton Credit Card Review

Application Link

  • This card has been discontinued and is no longer available.

Key Features

  • Welcome bonus: 40,000 Hilton points after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months
  • Earning rates: 6x at Hilton hotels, 3x at supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations; 2x on everything else
  • Point redemption: redeem points at Hilton properties
  • No annual fee

Highlights

  • Complimentary elite status: This card comes with Hilton Silver status, which includes late checkout, a 15% bonus on hotel-earned miles or points, and a fifth night free on award stays. If you complete four stays within the first 90 days after opening the card, or spend $20,000 in a calendar year, you can earn Gold status, which includes free breakfast (Hilton member benefits)

Citi card benefits

  • Price Rewind: if something you bought drops in price, you may be able to get Citi to reimburse the difference
  • Free FICO credit score: provided by Equifax, with historical data shown in chart form. See: comparison of free credit scores
  • Private Pass: they once offered free movie tickets, but I missed it anyway
  • Generous retention offers: if you threaten to cancel the card, you may receive some promotions. See: Introduction to retention offers
  • Many product change options: after holding the card for one year, you can convert it to almost any Citi credit card. This can help you avoid an annual fee, or switch to a card that fits you better but does not have a sign-up bonus. See: Credit card tricks — product changes

Cons

  • It has foreign transaction fees, so it is not a good card to use outside the US.

Introduction to the Hilton Loyalty Program

Hilton currently has about 5,000 hotels and resorts worldwide across 13 hotel and resort brands.

  • Elite status: Gold and Diamond members get free breakfast and may receive room upgrades
  • Points: Hilton points are worth about 0.5 cents per point (a $100 hotel stay usually costs around 20,000 Hilton points). Award nights range from 5,000 to 95,000 points per night depending on the hotel price and category. There is also a promo where redeeming points for four consecutive nights gets you one free night; family pooling (combining points among family members) was also expected to become available soon
  • Strategy: award stays can still qualify for some stay-based bonus promotions, so you can earn points back quickly; there are frequent promotions, making points easy to earn; Hilton points can be especially valuable in Asia; and status matches can help you get Hilton elite status quickly
  • More details: Hilton guide 1, Hilton guide 2

My Take

As one of the few no-annual-fee hotel cards on the market, this card is a great starter option for learning about hotel credit cards and hotel loyalty programs. Since it has no annual fee, you can keep it for the long term without worry and increase your average age of accounts.

Silver is the entry-level hotel elite tier. Its benefits include late checkout, a 15% bonus on hotel-earned miles or points, and a fifth night free on award stays. Of course, if you matched to Hilton Diamond last year, then Silver status is not all that meaningful. This welcome offer is the highest ever; when OneMoreDay applied for this card last year, the bonus was only 60,000 points.

This card cannot be churned in a short period of time (if you do not know what churning is, see this article). To receive the welcome bonus, you must satisfy the rule that you have not opened or closed the same card within the past 18 months. So if I applied for this card last year, I would not be able to get the 75,000-point welcome bonus by applying again this year.

Hilton points are relatively low in value. I personally value them at 0.4 cents per point, so the welcome bonus is worth about $300, which is still very good for a no-annual-fee credit card. It is not a good card for everyday spending, because even the supermarket/drugstore/gas categories still do not provide a high enough return (for a comparison of category bonuses across cards, see this article). However, if you redeem points at low-category hotels in China (Category 1 hotels cost 5,000 points per night, and Category 2 hotels cost 10,000 points per night), you can get excellent value.

Application

  • Approval difficulty: average; it is recommended to have at least one year of credit history before applying
  • Application status: check online (requires Application ID); phone: 1-888-201-4523
  • Things to note: Citi has an 8/65 rule and a 24-month rule for welcome bonuses. See Citi application rules. If you do not get a decision right away, you can try reconsideration

Application Link

None