If you didn't already know, UnionBank has acquired Citibank Philippines' consumer banking business for ₱72B and is expected to drop the Citi brand by early 2024. With the acquisition of Citi, UnionBank also absorbed their credit cards and in fact, made some of them better even as UnionBank made them their own.
We'll run through each card quickly and make a separate article for their travel credit cards but here is the full list of Citi credit cards that were absorbed and rebranded as UnionBank credit cards:
UnionBank Rewards Visa Platinum (Citi Rewards)
UnionBank Rewards Platinum Mastercard (Citi Rewards)
UnionBank Cash Back Visa Platinum (Citi Cashback)
UnionBank Cash Back Titanium Mastercard (Citi Cashback)
UnionBank Miles+ Visa Signature (Citi PremierMiles)
Unionbank Miles+ World Mastercard (Citi PremierMiles)
UnionBank Reserve Visa Infinite (Citi Prestige)
UnionBank Reserve World Elite Mastercard (Citi Prestige)
UnionBank S&R Visa Platinum (Not yet available)
Some co-branded credit cards did get discontinued such as the Shell and Mercury Drug credit cards. The S&R co-branded card is a new addition but seems like it's not yet available on the website.
UnionBank Rewards (Citi Rewards)
Spend to Point Ratio: ₱30 spend for 1 point
Features: 3x points in shopping and dining in local and abroad
Annual Fee: ₱2,500
Basic rewards credit card with a pretty decent rewards program compared to other banks. The 3x points multiplier is quite lucrative if you shop a lot and eat out a lot.
UnionBank Cash Back (Citi Cashback)
Cashback: 6% groceries, 2% Meralco, 0.2% everything else
Features: Never expiring cashback
Annual Fee: ₱4,500
Cashback has a ₱1,250 cap on every statement cycle. Max you can save is ₱15,000 a year. I would not recommend it at all, especially with that high annual fee.
UnionBank Miles+ Signature/World (Citi PremierMiles)
Spend to Mile Ratio: ₱30 spend for 1 mile
Features: 2 airport lounge access per year, travel insurance, and purchase protection
Annual Fee: ₱5,000
Not to be confused with the Platinum version of the card. The Signature and World variants are great travel credit cards with a great spend-to-mile ratio and lounge access. Premium card annual fee of ₱5,000 though so I would suggest only get this card if you can really rack up the miles from spending. The 2 airport lounge access does get you some of that annual fee back or even more depending on the lounge.
₱30 spend for 1 mile is also an improvement from when Citi devalued the cards which were ₱50 spend per mile.
UnionBank Reserve Visa Infinite (Citi Prestige)
Spend to Mile Ratio: ₱30 spend for for 1 mile
Features: 5x points on dining, online shopping, and foreign currency spend, 4th night free at any hotel, 2 complimentary airport transfers, 2 complimentary airport meet & assist services, 4 complimentary lounge access, travel insurance, and purchase protection
Annual Fee: ₱12,000*
*cannot be waived
Yup, that ₱12,000 annual fee is not a typo. A credit card with this many perks and rewards would definitely come with a heavy annual fee. If you can maximize the perks the expensive annual fee can be negated easily.
For example, using the 4th-night free benefit, you can book a hotel at ₱12,000 a night and instantly get your annual fee back since there is no limit to how expensive the hotel you book.
One key difference from when it was with Citi is the fact that you can no longer apply for these cards and it is now FOR INVITATION ONLY.
UnionBank S&R Visa Platinum
The last card has no information anywhere yet and is currently not being offered but it does come out in the credit card table of fees page of UnionBank so I guess we have to wait for this to get finalized. It does say that there is no annual fee.
Bottomline
Some of these cards are worth checking out especially since I do find UnionBank's mile redemption rates to be quite good, unlike BPI. Read about how BPI's best credit card devalued its miles redemption here.
Personally, the Citi Prestige was one of my future goals, but until I'm 100% sure I could maximize it I would hold off on it. Now that it is with UnionBank and has become an invitation-only card it's going to get a lot harder to get. It'll require a special request and most probably a hold amount if they do approve it.
For now, I'm looking at getting the Miles+ Signature or World card as I used to have the Citi PremierMiles before they got devalued.
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