Discussion of the discontinued Sears MasterCard which earns ThankYou Points has been moved to a separate thread, HERE

Application link for the Shop Your Way (SYW) MasterCard is HERE.

To read previous discussion click HERE

Accumulating points, expiration, and redemptions:
You can accumulate SYW points in some of the following ways:

• Bonus offers sent to your email (sender is [email protected]) and/or by USPS (eg: Spend $750 on Online purchases and get 200,000 SYW Bonus points)
• Regular spend - categories: 5% in gas, 3% in grocery/restaurants, 2% in SYW Merchants, 1% everywhere else
• "Missions" in the SYW App (iPhone/Android)
• The 5% and 3% rates apply to your first $10,000 of combined gas, grocery, and restaurant purchases per calendar year. Then it becomes 1%.

Posting of points:
Points will normally show up in your shopyourway.com account within about 5 days after purchase, or after the final purchase where a threshold spend is required. Promos which are straight cashback also take about 5 days to credit to your Citi account - note that these are backdated to the beginning of your statement period, so you must scroll to the bottom of the page on your transaction history to not miss them.

Exception: the full-year GGR promo (requiring threshold spend between the 1st and 31st of each month) has been crediting differently. During the month, even if you hit the threshold quite early, nothing shows up until the next month, usually between the 16th-18th. The credit will lower your statement balance due when your next statement closes - meaning there could be a long delay if your statement had closed just before. Eg. you hit the $1000 threshold on Jan 2nd; your statement closes Jan 15th with no credit; your next statement closes Feb 15th with no credit; the $100 credit appears in your online account on Feb 16th; your Mar 15th statement closes which finally has taken the credit off your statement balance.

Expiration of points:
Not all points have the same expiration timeframe. Some bonus/incentive points expire in 30 days or less. Most are 1 year. You can check in the SYW app, or the shopyourway.com website. Make sure to redeem the points before they expire!

Redemptions:
You can only redeem up to $200 worth per day. So if you redeem for a $200 GC, you have to wait until the next day to make another redemption of any amount.

What counted as online purchase with Sears card (alphabetical order)

• Note: If you have another Citi card, you can make a test purchase with that card and review the transaction details in the Citi app. If it indicates, "Purchase method: Online," then that same purchase should also count as online for the SYW card.
• Amazon purchase or re-load
• Carters.com (Merchandise-CHILDRENS / INFANTS WEAR STORE)
• Costco.com
• Ebay seller fees (direct entry) (MCC: N/A)
• Fluz (MCC varies, YMMV)
• Gift Card Mall
• Homedepot.com (Merchandise-HOME SUPPLY WAREHOUSE STORES)
• Iherb.com (Merchandise-MISC FOOD STORE,SPECIALTY,CONVENIENCE)
• Kygunco.com (Merchandise-DURABLE GOODS, NOT ELSEWHERE CLASSIFIED)
• Lockedloaded.com (Merchandise-SPORTING GOODS STORES)
• MileagePlusX (MCC varies)
• Pirateship.com (Services-COURIER SERVICE, FREIGHT FORWARDERS)
• Plastiq (Restaurants-UTILITIES-ELECTRIC,GAS,SANITARY,WATER)
• Scholastic.com (Organizations-MISC SCHOOLS / EDUCATIONAL SERVICES)
• Usmint.gov (Services-MISC GOVERNMENT SERVICES)
• united.com (Air Travel-UNITED AIRLINES)
• Texas de Brazil (.com site for GC, VIP cards) - Merchandise - NOVELTY/SOUVENIR SHOPS

What didn't count as online purchase (alphabetical order):

• Fluz (MCC varies, YMMV)
• Geico.com (Services-INSURANCE-SALES / UNDERWRITING)
• Paypal (MCC varies)

What counted as utilities purchase with Sears card (alphabetical order)

• Cable, Satellite, TV (Restaurants-CABLE,SATELLITE,PAY TV/RADIO SERVICES)
• Telecom (Restaurants-TELEPHONE SERVICE)
• Telecom (Services-TELEPHONE SERVICE/EQUIPMENT)
• Utilities (Restaurants-UTILITIES-ELECTRIC,GAS,SANITARY,WATER)

What didn't count as Travel purchase (alphabetical order):

• VRBO

What didn't count as Restaurant purchase (alphabetical order):

• Texas de Brazil.com (GC,VIP cards, etc.) - Merchandise - NOVELTY/SOUVENIR SHOPS
• Merchant Category - Restaurants - CATERER

What counted as home improvement purchase with (alphabetical order)

• BestBuy.com (Merchandise-ELECTRONIC STORES)
• Homedepot.com (Merchandise-HOME SUPPLY WAREHOUSE STORES)
• Samsung.com ()

Missions
Are online-only except for the grocery missions.
According to SYW, you must click-through from the app or the website. This works similar to shopping portals such as TopCashback, Swagbucks, etc.


Credit Line Increases
This is very odd, but according to the Chatbot on the website:
Q. When requesting a credit limit increase, is the credit inquiry a hard or soft credit inquiry?
A. Unfortunately, until we process the request, there isn't a way for us to know if a credit line increase request will be a soft or hard hit on your credit report. For this reason, we have to receive your permission to pull a copy of your credit report before we process the increase request. If you process the request online, you will see a message stating "By submitting this form, you authorize Citibank, N.A. to obtain your credit report."

To request an increase online:
In order to request an increase, you will need to go to your “Credit Home” page, and find “Available Credit” at the top of the page. Then, click on the link that says “Request Increase” to begin the process.

Guide to Benefits:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36458813-post520.html