Citizens Launches a New Suite of Credit Cards

Citizens Bank, the 20th largest US Bank by assets (per FFEIC, as of 12/31/2024), but the 28th largest credit card issuer by purchase volume (per Nilson, issue 1280, February 2025), announced a full new suite of Mastercard credit cards.

Four cards, one strategy: gradients.

The four cards are:

1. Citizens Amp Mastercard (no annual fee, no rewards)
2. Citizens Spring World Mastercard (low interest rates and balance transfers)
3. Citizens Summit World Mastercard (no fee rewards card with 3% on food, 1.5% elsewhere)
4. Citizens Summit Reserve World Elite Mastercard (annual fee, expanded rewards and benefits)

This total revamp of the card product lineup puts Citizens on a solid competitive footing with the rest of the market and major card issuers, with credit-building, credit-seeking, and rewards options. While you can get a card with a three-word name for $0 in annual fee, that top-tier card is $295 or $49.33 per word. Citizens Quest checking customers pay $95 for the Summit Reserve, and Private Client customers pay $0. While some other banks, like Bank of America, boost rewards for cross-product membership, I don’t see a lot of fee waivers. I like this approach.

All cards sport the Mastercard notch for visually impaired users (love this), and the Citizens Summit Reserve is a black metal card, because, of course it is.

Other than the fee waiver and the visual notch, none of the card benefits are particularly unique. The Summit Reserve leverages Mastercard’s platform for benefits like Peacock and Instacart discounts, plus travel rewards, etc. I don’t recall seeing a Soho house benefit before, but OK, I guess that’s useful.

There doesn't seem to be any public sign-up bonuses, leading me to assume these are focused on existing customers.

I do want to shout out Citizens for the name on the card. That B. Varone is Barbara Varone, the bank’s longest-serving employee with 54 years! Read all about it in The Newport Buzz!

Chase Updates

Chase is the nation’s largest credit card issuer, and it does feel like we have to write updates aboutthem each week. Well, for this week, two quick ones:

First, Chase announced a substantial update to its flagship Sapphire Reserve card and the introduction of a Sapphire Reserve for Business card. I write this newsletter on Mondays and this news came out on Tuesday, which isn't enough time for a deep dive. More to come in next week's edition.

Do I want an alligator skin credit card? I'm not so sure.

Second, Chase now allows users to rebalance their credit limits online. Most (if not all) other issuers require you to call in if, for example, you want to change to having two cards with $20,000 limits instead of one with $10,000 and one with $30,000. This is very smart, and I hope others copy it.

Six Questions to Answer Before You Launch a Credit Card Program

While my team at Totavi does more than consumer credit cards (call us about all your embedded finance needs!), we do spend a lot of time on consumer card launches. We clearly love cards (cards for the win!), but they are complex products that are hard to launch and even harder to scale. Launching a credit card can unlock powerful levers: loyalty, engagement, and incremental revenue, but it’s not a decision to take lightly. Too many brands get enamored with the idea of having their logo on a shiny card without fully understanding the tradeoffs under the hood. Before you start fielding vendor RFPs or drafting a rewards table, you need to answer six fundamental questions. They’ll frame your strategy, shape your economics, and prevent you from building something you regret.

1. Why are you doing this?

This isn’t just existential. Every credit card program needs a crisp articulation of its primary strategic goal. Are you:

• Chasing net new revenue via interchange, interest, orannual fees?
• Driving customer retention and lifetime value through rewards and engagement?
• Looking to reduce CAC via embedded issuance and spend incentives?
• Playing catch-up because your competitors already have a card?

Being honest about your goals—and the tradeoffs between them—is the first checkpoint. You can’t optimize for everything at once.

Then ask: Who is your target customer? A thin-file consumer on a builder card requires a completely different product design, economic model, and compliance framework than a high-spend commercial user. Know for whom you are building.

Take time to zoom out: How does the card tie into your broader product or ecosystem strategy? Is it an add-on or the core monetization mechanism? That clarity will guide how deeply you integrate it into your experience and how much you’re willing to invest.

2. What’s your economic model?

Launching a card is not a one-time project. It’s a living financial organism with upfront investment, ongoing burn, and risk-based volatility.

Start by scoping your budget across three dimensions:

• Implementation: program setup, integrations, licensing, legal
• Ongoing ops: customer support, dispute management, compliance monitoring
• Risk reserves: even with a partner handling credit risk, you’ll face economic exposure on incentives or first-loss positions (most fintech programs handle all risk).