Check Your Citi ThankYou Point Accounts To Unlock Trapped Rewards
This is one of the stranger things I have seen with Citi, and that is saying a lot. Our buddy PDX Deals Guy let us know that he found something weird on his Citi ThankYou point account. He had located some trapped rewards on his account. These were ThankYou points that Citi held hostage for some reason and all he had to do was click to reactivate them. So I figured it was worth a quick PSA for everyone to check their accounts to see if they have anything similar showing up. No point in letting your points sit there in limbo if you don’t have to!
RELATED: (Rumor) Is Citi Looking To Make Changes To Their Cashback Cards
How To Check Your ThankYou Point Accounts
Here is the quick process to check your ThankYou point accounts for trapped rewards:
Step 1
Sorry to be captain obvious here but step 1 is to log into your Citi accounts 😁
Step 2Â
Once logged in, select Point Summary for ThankYou points on the right side of the page.
Step 3
Step 3 will be more of the same. Select the dropdown at the top of the page and select Points Summary once again.
Step 4
The final step is to scroll to the bottom of the page to the Points to Reinstate section. You will scroll past all of your ThankYou point earning cards and their current balances to the bottom of the page. If there is nothing there then you are all set but PDX Deals Guy noticed this at the bottom of his. There were almost 9,000 points that needed to be “reinstated”. He checked the boxes and the points were automatically added back into his balances.
Final Thoughts
We are still unsure what causes this or why some points need to be reinstated, if you know what is going on let me know in the comments section. Regardless of why it happens it is worth taking the few seconds it takes to check your accounts to see if you have any trapped ThankYou points. This is just yet another weird twist that is Citi’s IT. Why would you push points to the side and require someone to check a box in order to get them back? Unless you are simply hoping they don’t notice and that they will eventually expire. Who knows how many points we have lost over the years because of this system.
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Worked for me and reinstated 820 pts. Thank you!
Awesome Billy
I guess you were the chosen few. I didn’t see any Reinstate points option. I’ll assume all is well.
+1
Citi’s FAQs clearly state why points can become unavailable and how to reinstate them:
“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE YOUR THANKYOUⓇ POINTS
UNAVAILABLE FOR REDEMPTION?
If you do not make the required minimum payment due on your participating Citi®
credit card account by the payment due date, any points that have been earned
or acquired with your credit card during that billing cycle will not be posted to
your Thank You Member Account. As a result, those points will not be available for
redemption. Additionally, points previously earned on the credit card may be
unavailable as well.
HOW DO I ACCESS/REDEEM MY THANKYOUⓇ POINTS THAT HAVE
BEEN MADE UNAVAILABLE FOR REDEMPTION?
Your Thank You Points will remain unavailable for redemption until you make all
payments due on your participating Citi® credit card account. Once all payments
are made, your unavailable Thank You Points may be reinstated either online at
http://www.thankyou.com under the My Account / Points Summary section or by calling
1-800-THANKYOU”
Darn. I should start paying my bills on-time. But seriously, while I don’t recall being late on any Citi payments, perhaps I just barely missed and called to get them to remove late/interest charges. Looks like you probably found the explanation. Thanks.
Boy howdy! That not only didn’t work, but I followed your steps and when I tried to do step two, the second time to click on the words Point Summary, all went weird. First it was we cannot process your request, then when I tried to get back to the main credit card screen, it was impossible to find. In fact, I could only ever get back to one specific card. It was all Very weird and maybe weather related or too many people trying this or who knows, but it was very strange.
I’ll try again later from a different computer or something.
That’s considered an above average interaction with Citi’s IT