What happens to Citi ThankYou points when the owner dies
Citibank has a formal process for transferring points after an account holder dies
Citi ThankYou Service Center
Citi Estate Servicing Center (deposit and credit card accounts)
The hard deadline is set by the agreement: the executor's written request, with evidence of the death and of the appointment, must reach Citi within one (1) year of the date of death. This is the most clearly defined estate deadline among the major credit card points programs. Citi publishes no timeline for how quickly it reviews or processes the Cash Rewards redemption once the request is in, and no service standard for the Estate Servicing Center. Because the same agreement forfeits points immediately when Citi closes the account for any reason other than inactivity, the practical timeline is shorter than a year: the request belongs with the death notification, not after it.
The Citi ThankYou Rewards Terms and Conditions provide, under the heading "Loss upon death": "You will lose Your Points upon Your death, and Your estate, successors and assigns have no property rights or other legal interests in such Points, except under this circumstance:" followed by the "Cash Rewards option": "If we receive a written request within one (1) year of Your death from the executor or administrator of Your estate, along with evidence satisfactory to us of Your death and the identity and appointment of the executor or administrator, we can allow Points remaining in Your ThankYou Account to be redeemed for Cash Rewards. Contact the ThankYou Service Center at 1-800-THANKYOU (1-800-842-6596) (TTY: Use 711 or other Relay Service) for more information." Four limits follow from the text itself. (1) The default is loss, and the points are never property of the estate. (2) The exception is discretionary: Citi "can allow" the redemption; the agreement does not say it will. (3) The request must be WRITTEN, must come from the executor or administrator, and must reach Citi within one (1) year of the death, with evidence satisfactory to Citi of both the death and the appointment. (4) The redemption is limited to Cash Rewards — the executor does not get the partner transfers, travel bookings, or other redemption routes a living cardholder has. The agreement fixes no rate for that redemption: "Cash Rewards" is not defined anywhere else in it, and the agreement states that "the value of a Point may vary depending on the Reward for which it's being redeemed" and that Citi has "the right to change the 'Points to dollar conversion rate' for Rewards at any time." Timing also matters because the same agreement forfeits points on account closure: if Citi closes the Citi Account "for any reason other than inactivity," the cardholder loses the points immediately, and "if You have Points, and Your ThankYou Account is closed for any reason, You will lose them immediately" — while a voluntary close or an inactivity close leaves sixty (60) days to use them. The card account is closed on death notification, so the executor's written request should accompany the notification of the death rather than follow the closure of the account.
How to request a transfer
Follow these steps to initiate a transfer of Citi ThankYou points after the account holder's death:
- •Have the decedent's full legal name, date of death, and card or account number.
- •Have a certified copy of the death certificate.
- •Have your Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, which is what the ThankYou clause requires as evidence of appointment.
- •A written request from the executor or administrator of the estate (not from a relative acting informally).
- •A certified copy of the death certificate.
- •Evidence of the identity and appointment of the executor or administrator — Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
- •Anything further Citi asks for; the clause conditions the redemption on evidence "satisfactory to us."
Required Documents
- Certified copy of the death certificate
- A written request from the executor or administrator of the estate, sent within one (1) year of the date of death
- Evidence of the identity and appointment of the executor or administrator — Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration
- The decedent's full legal name, date of death, and Citi card or account number
- Any further evidence Citi asks for: the clause conditions the redemption on evidence "satisfactory to us"
Timeline
The hard deadline is set by the agreement: the executor's written request, with evidence of the death and of the appointment, must reach Citi within one (1) year of the date of death. This is the most clearly defined estate deadline among the major credit card points programs. Citi publishes no timeline for how quickly it reviews or processes the Cash Rewards redemption once the request is in, and no service standard for the Estate Servicing Center. Because the same agreement forfeits points immediately when Citi closes the account for any reason other than inactivity, the practical timeline is shorter than a year: the request belongs with the death notification, not after it.
Frequently asked questions
They are lost by default, with one published exception. The Terms state: "You will lose Your Points upon Your death, and Your estate, successors and assigns have no property rights or other legal interests in such Points, except under this circumstance." The exception is the Cash Rewards option: if the executor or administrator sends a written request within one (1) year of the death, with evidence satisfactory to Citi of the death and of their appointment, Citi "can allow" the remaining points to be redeemed for Cash Rewards. The redemption is discretionary, cash-only, and time-limited — partner transfers, travel bookings, and the other redemption routes a living cardholder has are not offered to the executor.
No. The Terms are explicit that "Your estate, successors and assigns have no property rights or other legal interests in such Points." The one-year Cash Rewards request is not a right to the points; it is a request the executor makes, which Citi "can allow." What can reach the estate is the cash value of a redemption Citi agrees to make, not the points themselves.
Citi does not say. "Cash Rewards" is not defined anywhere in the ThankYou agreement except in the death clause itself, and the agreement states that "the value of a Point may vary depending on the Reward for which it's being redeemed" and that Citi has "the right to change the 'Points to dollar conversion rate' for Rewards at any time." So there is no published estate rate. An executor should ask Citi to state the point balance as of the date of death and the dollar amount of the redemption before it is processed.
No — the request belongs with the death notification. The same agreement that carries the one-year Cash Rewards exception also provides that if Citi closes the Citi Account "for any reason other than inactivity, You will lose Your Points immediately," and that "if You have Points, and Your ThankYou Account is closed for any reason, You will lose them immediately." Notifying Citi of the death is what closes the card. Raising the written points request together with the notification is what puts it in front of Citi before the closure is processed.
Two lines matter. Citi's Estate Servicing Center handles deposit and credit card accounts at 833-956-0413, Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM ET; Citi also publishes an online estate questionnaire at online.citi.com/US/ag/estatequestionnaire and takes notification at a branch. The ThankYou death clause itself names the ThankYou Service Center at 1-800-THANKYOU (1-800-842-6596) as the contact "for more information" about the Cash Rewards request. Citi publishes no mailing address for the estate's written request, so confirm with one of those lines where to send it, and send the death certificate and Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration with it.
The agreement provides no other route. The Cash Rewards exception applies only where Citi receives the executor's written request "within one (1) year of Your death," and the default rule outside the exception is that the points are lost at death and the estate has no interest in them. An executor who learns of a large ThankYou balance late can still write and ask, but the clause the request rests on is spent.
The recipient can use transferred points under the program's normal terms. Keeping the deceased account holder's account number and contact details on file simplifies this process for the executor or surviving family.
Sources
Data sourced from Citibank primary sources (7 pages reviewed). How we research.
Citi ThankYou Service Center
Citi Estate Servicing Center (deposit and credit card accounts)
The hard deadline is set by the agreement: the executor's written request, with evidence of the death and of the appointment, must reach Citi within one (1) year of the date of death. This is the most clearly defined estate deadline among the major credit card points programs. Citi publishes no timeline for how quickly it reviews or processes the Cash Rewards redemption once the request is in, and no service standard for the Estate Servicing Center. Because the same agreement forfeits points immediately when Citi closes the account for any reason other than inactivity, the practical timeline is shorter than a year: the request belongs with the death notification, not after it.
