Citi Hilton HHonors Card

I'm a big fan of the Amex Hilton card as I outline here, but I also wanted to introduce the Citibank version of the Hilton HHonors card. As per this FT thread, you can find an application link for 50k HHonors points after spending just $1500 in 6 months but since that doesn't show the actual offer, you'll have to trust in the FT thread. You can probably also find the standard 40k offer here.

Hilton's HHonors program, IMHO, gives the best value for points than almost any other program as I explained here. Here's a sample of a Category 5 (moving up to 6 on April 30) Embassy Suites Montreal hotel. Without rehashing all the details I've already gone through with the Amex card, I'd like to highlight some differences between these two cards so that you can decide whether this makes sense for you or not.

This credit card offer comes with:

• 6 HHonor points per $1 spend at Hilton hotels
• 3 HHonor points per $1 spend (supermarkets/drugstores/gas stations categories)
• 2 HHonor points per $1 spend on everything else
• Free 50k points after $1500 spend in first 6 months
• Complimentary HHonors Silver status
• No annual fee!

While both the Citi and Amex versions of the HHonors card has no annual fee and offers complimentary HHonors Silver membership, the key difference is the earn rate. The Amex card offers 6 HH points per $1 spend on the supermarkets/drugstores/gas stations category and actually includes a few more categories than the Citi card. For all other spending, the Amex card offers 3 points per $1 versus the 2 points per $1 for the Citi card.

Clearly, it makes more sense to get the Amex version of the card unless your area generally only takes Visa cards or you would like the bonus 50k points to top up your accounts. Also, this might also be worth considering if you already have too many Amex cards and would like to diversify with a Citi offering, especially as there is no annual fee. It should be noted that Citi also offers an American Airlines Visa/Mastercard/Amex with a 50k miles bonus (which can be transferred at a 6k miles to 10k HH rate) thus giving more than this card.

Disclaimer: This card is only available to US residents. Also, I am not paid by Citi to endorse their products.