I used to really like the Chase AARP card, it offered 5% cash back on all spending for the first six months, it was great to get if you were about to do a major home improvement project or pay a huge tax bill.

Sadly the 5% cash back isn’t offered on that anymore, but a reader passes along that Citi has a no annual fee Thank You Preferred Card offer of 5 Thank You Points per dollar spent on all purchases for the first six months.

Given the expectation that Citi Thank You Points will become transferable to airline miles (eg Singapore Airlines, British Airways, possibly even American) in the coming weeks or months, this could be even more valuable. It’s possible the transfer option will be limited to cardholders with specific flavors of cards, though it should be possible to use points earned on one type of card provided you get the required card to be eligible for transfers later on and have it open at the time of transfer.

Not a card for ongoing use, but a targeted one for times when you have especially large charges in an upcoming six months. As I say, at 5 points per dollar it would even be worth absorbing the required fees for tax payments.

(And for those interested in such things, just like the Virgin American Express I posted about this morning, this card does not offer me any sort of referral bonus or credit of any kind, just seemed especially useful in the right targeted circumstances.)