The Citi Diamond Preferred® Card has a couple of excellent benefits and is one of the best 0% intro APR offers.
0% intro APR for 21 months on balance transfers
This Citi credit card has a 0% intro APR on balance transfers for the first 21 months. Balance transfers must be completed within four months of opening the card to qualify for the introductory rate.
If you’re trying to get out of credit card debt, the Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card is a great choice. You can transfer balances to it and pay them down interest-free for nearly two years. There aren’t many balance transfer credit cards that can match that.
0% intro APR for 12 months on purchases
The Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card also offers a 0% intro APR on purchases for the first 12 months. If you plan to buy anything with it, you’ll have a year to pay off purchases with no interest charges. Just keep in mind that if you’re getting this card to refinance debt, it’s best to keep spending to a minimum until you’ve paid off your balance transfers.
No annual fee
The best 0% intro APR credit cards keep fees to a minimum. The Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card doesn’t charge an annual fee.
Free FICO® Score monitoring
Many Citi credit cards, including the Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card, provide you with free access to your FICO® Score. This makes it easy to monitor your credit.
It’s worth noting that there are multiple credit scoring models. Citi provides the FICO® Bankcard Score 8, which has scores ranging from 250 to 900. Many credit scoring systems use a scale of 300 to 850, so Citi’s tool may provide a slightly different range than you’re used to.
Citi® Identity Theft Solutions
Identity theft can happen to anyone. If it happens to you, Citi® Identity Theft Solutions can help you resolve the matter and get your life back on track.
$0 Liability on Unauthorized Charges
You’re completely protected against unauthorized charges on your account. At Citi, you will not be responsible for a charge that you did not authorize, online or otherwise.
Citi Entertainment®
Citi Entertainment takes the once out of once in a lifetime. Get special access to purchase tickets to thousands of events, including presale tickets and exclusive experiences for the year’s most anticipated concerts, sporting events, dining experiences, and more.
4/7 Customer Service
Our customer service representatives are available to assist you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Automatic Account Alerts
Alerts keep you informed and stress-free. Once you’ve set up alerts, we’ll remind you about your balance levels, payments due, or when you go over your credit limit by email or directly on your mobile phone.
Choose your Payment Due Date
Choose to pay your bill on any available due date at the beginning, middle, or end of the month. Enjoy the flexibility of paying your full balance or just the minimum payment due each month.
Digital Wallets
Digital Wallets let you shop with confidence in millions of places online, within apps, and in stores. With digital wallets, you can speed through checkout and continue to enjoy all the great benefits that come with your card. Learn how to get started and how digital wallets can help protect your card information at citi.com/digitalservices.
Tap Your Card with Contactless Pay
Shop safely with a contactless chip-enabled card. Just tap your card on the payment reader and go in seconds.
Security Features
Citi’s Fraud Early Warning system will notify you of suspicious account activity by text, email, phone, or mail to keep you in the loop right away. And if you want another layer of protection, you can generate a virtual, temporary Citi credit card number to take the place of your real one while shopping online.
If your card is lost or stolen, use Citi Quick Lock online or via the mobile app to instantly lock the card and block new charges and deter fraud. That feature also conveniently allows recurring transactions to proceed uninterrupted until the matter is resolved.
If fraud does occur, you can call Citi Identity Theft Solutions to help resolve identity theft situations by identifying compromised accounts, filing police reports, and sharing resources to help you and your credit bounce back.
Fees
Most of the Citi Diamond Preferred’s fees fall in line with industry standards. Take note: If you do carry a balance after the promotional period ends, there’s a minimum interest charge of 50 cents, and foreign transactions carry a 3% fee. Also, remember balance transfers have a $5 or 5% fee (whichever is greater), even during the promotional period. These are also common fees, but you can find balance transfer cards without them.
Unique sign-up bonus offer
Unlike most dedicated balance transfer cards, the Citi Diamond Preferred features a welcome offer: You can earn a $150 statement credit after you spend $500 in your first three months as a cardholder. This not only beats out competing offers from balance transfer cards like the BankAmericard® credit card – which comes with a statement credit online bonus of just $100 after a $1,000 spend in your first 90 days – but also holds its own against several popular cash back and rewards cards. And given the low spending requirement, it should be easy to earn the bonus just by using the card for everyday expenses like groceries and gas – purchases you need to make anyway.
While earning a sign-up bonus shouldn’t be your primary reason for applying for a credit card – much less if you’re looking for a card to pay off debt – an offer like this can make a big dent in the total cost of your balance transfer. For example, let’s say you needed to transfer a $3,000 balance to the Citi Diamond Preferred card. Even if you managed to pay off all your debt during the card’s intro APR period, the 5% (or $5, whichever is higher) balance transfer fee would cost you $150. If you used the Citi Diamond Preferred for everyday expenses and earned the sign-up bonus, you would offset that charge entirely. This could make it a better deal than even some cards with lower balance transfer fees.
For example, take the Wells Fargo Reflect℠ Card, which – on paper – carries what looks to be a better overall balance transfer offer: a 0% intro APR for up to 21 months on qualifying balance transfers and a 3% (or $5 minimum) balance transfer fee for transfers made within the first 120 days. This may seem like a better deal since the intro APR period can be just as long with a lower balance transfer fee. The catch is that you can’t offset the cost of the balance transfer fee – you’re out at least 3% of your transferred balance, no matter what. Even with its potentially higher balance transfer fee, transferring your balance with the Citi Diamond Preferred card could be less expensive overall, thanks to its bonus offer.
Extended 0% APR Offer: The biggest advantage of the Citi Diamond Preferred card is its long-term introductory rate on purchases and balance transfers. Cardholders currently pay 0% APR for 21 months on balance transfers made during the first four months of card membership and 0% on purchases for 12 months. When the introductory period ends, the regular rate ranges between 13.99% and 23.99%, depending on creditworthiness.
Special Access to Concerts, Sporting Events, and VIP Packages: Cardholders receive access to exclusive VIP packages, presale tickets to events, and other perks like exclusive experiences through Citi Private Pass. In most cases, cardholders must pay for tickets and packages, but it’s also possible to find complimentary tickets and experiences.
Outstanding Benefits of Citi Diamond Preferred Credit Card
Citi Identity Theft Solutions
Choose your payment due date
Virtual account numbers for shopping online or by mail
FICO Score access each month
Citi Concierge services
Citi Flex Loan
Citi Flex Loans allow you to borrow money against your Citi card credit limit at a fixed rate and pay it back over a set period, with no additional fees, application, or credit inquiry required. This could be a useful tool should you need a personal installment loan down the line. The catch is you must be targeted for a Citi Flex Loan by the issuer—they’re not available for all cardholders. Cardholders may also have the option to finance Amazon.com purchases with Citi Flex Pay and, depending on the size of the purchase, choose from one to five equal monthly payment plans.
Citi Easy Deals
Citi Easy Deals are a collection of discounts and daily deals on everyday purchases, including local offers from restaurants and retailers. Depending on how much you spend per year, you can also unlock promotions for gift cards, magazines, travel, merchandise, and more. Again, this is a minor perk that’s unlikely to save you a ton of money—but it’s welcome, nonetheless.
The Citi Diamond Preferred Card also comes with standard features like contactless payments.
