Citi Platinum Select Visa Review

Citibank has a few cards with the "Platinum Select" label on them. This card is one of them and it is the most basic of all in their credit card portfolio. What sets this card from other is that Citi is always consistently offering the best 0% deal, whether it be for purchases or balance transfers. Their introductory balance transfer period is usually the longest period in the market.

Feature Recap - Here is a quick recap of it's key features. Being a vanilla card, the main highlight for this card is their teaser introductory rate offer. At present, there is a zero percent deal for both balance transfers and purchases that is good for eighteen months*. And true to form, eighteen months is the longest introductory period today. It is only matched by Citi's other cards.

Standard Features - This one comes with the following features:

Discount from Hertz - Holders of this card can get savings when they book a car rental. Citi's website does not say how much the savings will be. But this would be a great perk for folks who rent their cars from Hertz.

Virtual Account numbers - All of their have this feature and this card is no exception. Basically, when you shop online, it will generate a "virtual" number (that is different from your account number). This provides extra security for your online web shopping activities.

Identity Theft Solution - This perk is also available in a number of their cards. If you happen to be a victim of identity theft, you will be given specialized assistance to help you in every step that you need to take. That means hand holding you through the process like reporting to police, freezing your credit report etc.

Travel and Emergency Assistance - This used to be a "premium" feature for Amex charge cards. For those of you who are familiar with the American Express Gold Card, you would know that they have this feature called Global Assist, where you can call Amex for any legal, travel or medical emergency assistance. Well, this card has similar features. I think this is great because features like these tend to only come with higher end cards (and I would never call this card a high end card).

Aside from these features, the card also comes with the usual auto rental insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty that are typical of most credit cards these days.

At first glance, this card appears ideally suited to those who want to transfer a balance or those who intend to put a large purchase on their credit card to take advantage of their generous 0% deal. But it also offers some great features like travel and emergency services, virtual account numbers for online shopping, discounts from Hertz (which is a result of this being a Visa card) that I'm tempted to say that it is actually a good card considering that it is really a plain vanilla card. You might also want to consider Citi's other cards like the Citi Simplicity® Card and the Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card as they have similar 0% deals. The Citi Simplicity® Card's main selling point is that there are no late fees (even if you pay late).

In conclusion, if you are looking for a low rate no frills credit card, you simply could not go wrong with this offering.