$555 off your next smartphone with the Citi AT&T Access More Card

Since switching a lot of our spending to cash back credit cards, an interesting new promotion has come up for a way to earn an almost free no-contract smartphone from AT&T.  With the Citibank AT&T Access More Card, you can earn a $650 statement credit towards purchase of a new unlocked phone from AT&T Wireless.  This card does have a $95 annual fee not waived the first year, so your net discount is $555 ($650 - $95).  For AT&T Wireless customers, this is a great deal for those interested in getting $555 off a no-contract smart phone from AT&T.  If you’re not with AT&T, you can still take advantage of the deal in other ways: see this flyertalk thread for deal discussion.   

While my wife and I have very simple (frugal) desires and wants, one thing we don’t mind splurging on is having nice smartphones.  Our cell phones provide us with productivity and entertainment.  I am grateful that my company pays for our cell phone bill.  We are with AT&T because it provides excellent coverage in our area – and I need to be on-call regularly.  If my company did not pay for our cell phone bill, we would go with much cheaper telephone service options like T-mobile and Republic Wireless. 

Once you are approved for the AT&T Access More Card, a special purchase link will be emailed to you.  From this link, you can purchase any new smartphone at full price with no annual contract.  After spending $2,000 on purchases made with your AT&T Access More Card within the first 3 months of account opening, Citibank will credit your account up to $650 for the cost of the new phone (exclusive of taxes, shipping, fees & wireless service).  The purchase of a new phone will count towards the $2,000 spending requirement!

Aside from the initial sign up bonus, the AT&T Access More Card earns 3x ThankYou Points on purchases made online at retail and travel websites and 3x ThankYou points on products and services purchased from AT&T.  All other purchases earn 1 ThankYou point per $1 spent.  If you spend $10,000 in a cardmembership year, you will earn 10,000 bonus anniversary points.  You can think of it like a card earning 2x ThankYou points on all purchases up to $10,000.  These ThankYou points can be combined with ThankYou points earned from other Citibank credit cards.

What’s not to love about this card?  Well first of all, don’t forget that this card has an annual fee of $95.  While many premium credit cards also have annual fees, most of the time the fees are waived the first year, giving you a chance to earn the sign up bonus and test the card out for a whole year.  When the annual fee does finally post, you can then decide whether to keep the card (and pay the annual fee), downgrade the card to one without an annual fee, or cancel the card (and get a fee refund). 

At the end of the day, the Citibank AT&T Access More credit card is still an easy way to get a $555 off the price of a brand new and unlocked smartphone from AT&T.  You can apply for the card here. 

Before applying for any credit card, make sure you check your credit score to make sure you have a good chance of getting approved (ideally any score over 720).  I like using Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, and Quizzle to regularly monitor my simulated credit score for free.

My wife just applied for this card and she was instantly approved! 

Note: I have no affiliations with Citibank and do not get any commission from them.