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The Citi Custom Cash® Card is one of the highlights of Citi's rewards card collection, standing out from other cash-back cards thanks to a special earning structure that adapts to your spending habits.
Each billing cycle, cardholders can earn 5% cash back (5x ThankYou Rewards) on up to $500 in purchases in select categories. But this card isn't like its competitors that choose a category for you (or force you to pick your bonus category in advance). Instead, the Citi Custom Cash card automatically adjusts to give you this phenomenal earning rate on the eligible spending category where you spent the most each billing cycle.
Right now, new cardmembers can pick up an excellent $200 cash-back welcome bonus, a generous introductory 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers, and free access to your FICO® Score — all without paying an annual fee.
Here's our full Custom Cash card review.
- Sign-up bonus of $200 in cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening, issued as 20,000 ThankYou® Points
- 5% cash back in your top eligible spend category on up to $500 of purchses each billing cycle
- No rotating bonus categories to sign up for--the top earning category adjusts automatically each month to the eligible category in which you spend the most.
- Excellent intro APR offer on purchases and balance transfers
- No annual fee
- Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent
- 1% cash back thereafter, plus, you'll earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases
- No rotating bonus categories to sign up for – as your spending changes each billing cycle, your earn adjusts automatically when you spend in any of the eligible categories.
- Eligible spending categories are: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment.
Page Contents
- Citi Custom Cash Overview
- Custom Cash Card Pros and Cons
- Citi Custom Cash Welcome Offer
- Benefits & Perks
- Earn 5X ThankYou Points on Autopilot With the Citi Custom Cash
- Earn ThankYou Rewards You Can Transfer to Airline Partners
- Build a Winning Combo of ThankYou Points-Earning Cards
- How Does the Citi Custom Cash Card Compare to Other Cards?
- Who Should Get the Citi Custom Cash?
- How To Know if the Citi Custom Cash Is Right for You
- Our Take: Is It Worth It?
- Application Rules
- Final Thoughts
- FAQs
- Is it hard to get the Citi Custom Cash Card?
- What credit score is required for the Citi Custom Cash Card?
- What is the difference between Citi Double Cash and Citi Custom Cash Card?
- Should I switch to Citi Custom Cash?
- What is the highest credit limit with the Citi Custom Cash Card?
- What is the easiest Citi card to get?
- How many credit cards is too many?
- What FICO score does Citibank use?
- How do I get approved for a Citi Cash Card?
- Can I use my Citi Custom Cash Card immediately?
Citi Custom Cash Overview
The Custom Cash card, which made its debut in June of 2021, is part of the ThankYou Rewards family of credit cards issued by Citibank. Although you'll see plenty of references to “cash back” in Citi's marketing materials, the Custom Cash delivers rewards as ThankYou Points.
As a standalone card, the Custom Cash delivers a powerful 5x earning rate on your top eligible spend category each billing cycle and hassle-free redemptions at a fixed value of one cent per point.
But Citi's ThankYou Rewards — including those earned with the Custom Cash — can be worth far more than a penny each when you combine them with other cards in the ThankYou family. So let's take a closer look at how to maximize your value with this stellar, no-annual-fee card.
Custom Cash Card Pros and Cons
Key Reasons to add the Citi Custom Cash card to your wallet:
- No annual fee
- Automatically get the best 5x earning category
- No need to activate bonus categories
- Ability to combine points earned with a premium Citi ThankYou card to get more value for your points
Downsides to the Citi Custom Cash card:
- 3% Foreign Transaction Fee
- Without a companion card like Citi Prestige® Card or Citi Premier® Card, your points are worth only 1 cent each.
- Only one spend category each billing cycle earns 5x ThankYou Rewards; all other eligible purchases will earn 1x ThankYou Rewards.
Citi Custom Cash Welcome Offer
The Citi Custom Cash offers an excellent bonus of $200 cashback after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. The bonus is awarded as 20,000 ThankYou rewards, giving you the flexibility to redeem for cash back or get even more value by taking advantage of Citi ThankYou transfer partners. The minimum spend of $1,500 over six months is one of the most affordable minimum spending requirements of any rewards card we've featured.
The card also offers a 0% intro APR on purchases for 15 months and a 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months. After the introductory period, you’ll pay a Variable APR of 19.24% - 29.24%. Balance transfer fee applies with this offer: 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum.
Benefits & Perks
- Free FICO score access: The Citi Custom Cash card offers complimentary access to your FICO® score based on data from your Equifax credit report. This is a great way to stay on top of your credit health and learn about the factors that affect your score. The score provided by Citi is calculated using the FICO® Bankcard Score 8 model, which has a range between 250-900. This is slightly broader than the typical range of 300-850, but the underlying components that determine your score are similar.
- Citi Entertainment: Custom Cash cardholders get special access to purchase tickets for concerts, sporting events, and cultural experiences through Citi Entertainment. This includes presale tickets and exclusive experiences reserved just for you.
- Mastercard ID Theft Protection: Get extra protection from identity theft and hands-on assistance in the event of an incident. Enroll with MasterCard.
Citi also markets a few additional “perks”, but most of these are either mandated by law ($0 liability on unauthorized charges) or something we'd expect with any credit card (24/7 customer service or the ability to use your card with a digital wallet).
The Citi Custom Cash card is technically a World Elite Mastercard. However, it does not offer the full set of perks that are advertised on the Mastercard website. Custom Cash cardholders do not have access benefits like cell Phone Protection or Lyft, Doordash, and Fandango discounts.
Earn 5X ThankYou Points on Autopilot With the Citi Custom Cash
As noted previously, the Citi Custom Cash card earns up to 5x ThankYou Rewards for each dollar you spend. But unlike other cards that force you to choose a category—or cards that pick a category for you—the Citi Custom Cash makes it effortless by awarding 5x points on the category that will generate the most rewards for you. Here's how it works.
Every billing cycle, Citi automatically reviews your purchases in each of the ten eligible 5x-earning categories to determine which one had the most spending. Your “top spending category” is then assigned the 5x earning rate (on up to the first $500 spent) on those purchases for the billing cycle.
After the first $500 spent, you will earn 1x ThankYou points for each additional $1 spent in your top spending category. You'll also earn 1x ThankYou points on other purchases outside the 5x category.
Citi Custom Cash 5x eligible categories
- Restaurants: Includes purchases at cafes, bars, lounges, and fast-food restaurants. Excludes bakeries, caterers, third-party dining delivery services (like DoorDash), and restaurants located inside another business (like a restaurant inside a sports stadium)
- Gas Stations: Excludes gasoline purchases at warehouse clubs, discount stores, convenience stores, or other merchants that are not standalone gas stations.
- Grocery Stores: Includes purchases at supermarkets, meat/seafood stores, dairy stores, bakeries, and miscellaneous food/convenience stores. Excludes discount superstores and wholesale/warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam's Club.
- Select Travel: Includes airline, hotel, cruise line, and travel-agency purchases. Does not include timeshares, board leases and rentals, campgrounds and trailer parks, or real estate agencies.
- Select Transit: Includes car rentals, ferries, commuter railways, subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, bus lines, and motor home and recreational vehicle rentals. Excludes bike/scooter rentals, auto clubs and insurance companies
- Select Streaming Services: Includes the following cable, satellite, and streaming providers: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Paramount+, Disney+, DirectTV Stream, ESPN+, fuboTV, HBO Max, NBA League Pass, Netflix, Pandora, Showtime, Sling TV, Spotify, Starz, SiriusXM, Vudu, YouTube Red, YouTube TV, and Tidal.
- Drugstores: Includes purchases made at stand-alone pharmacies. Pharmacy locations inside grocery stores or warehouse clubs may qualify if those merchants use a drugstore and pharmacy merchant category code for purchases.
- Home Improvement Stores: Includes purchases at home supply warehouse stores; lumber and building materials stores; paint, varnish, wallpaper, and related supplies stores; hardware stores; and nurseries or lawn and garden supply stores.
- Fitness Clubs: Includes membership fee and other purchases at athletic, sports and recreation facilities requiring membership such as health, tennis, and swimming clubs. Excludes fees associated with virtual services for home exercise equipment, personal monitoring devices, or fitness streaming classes.
- Live Entertainment: Includes ticket purchases for live entertainment, including: concerts, live sporting events, live theatrical productions, amusement parks, and orchestras. Excludes: charitable organizations that provide live entertainment (benefits), sporting camps, sports complexes where you participate in the sport, public and private golf courses, country clubs (including membership fees), bowling alleys, movie theaters, tourist attractions, museums, and art galleries.
How to maximize your Citi Custom Cash earnings
Each billing cycle, you can earn up to 2,500 ThankYou points from the first $500 in purchases in your highest eligible spend category. Any spending beyond $500 in a billing cycle will earn just one ThankYou point per $1 spent. Here are a few tips to get the right top eligible spend category:
- Take advantage of the unique 5x options where possible. Drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment are less common bonus categories.
- Consider your other cards and their earning rates. Don't use your Citi Custom Cash for dining if you have a different card that earns 4x or 5x on dining.
- Pay attention to the earning cap. Once you've spent $500 in the top eligible spending category during a billing cycle, switch your spending to a different card that earns more than 1x if possible.
Earn ThankYou Rewards You Can Transfer to Airline Partners
The Citi Custom Cash is marketed as a cashback card, but rewards are delivered as ThankYou Points. ThankYou Rewards can be redeemed directly for travel with no blackout dates via ThankYou.com, or you can redeem them for cash back in the form of a statement credit or direct deposit at a rate of one cent per point.
Even better, if you have a Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card you can transfer them to 14 ThankYou Rewards airline partners and get far more than face value for your points.
Build a Winning Combo of ThankYou Points-Earning Cards
As a standalone card, Citi Custom Cash provides cardholders with an excellent return on spending, but where this card really shines is when it's incorporated into a portfolio of ThankYou Points earning cards that can help you extract the maximum return from your spending.
Citi offers some great cards, but we think building a Citi ThankYou Rewards combo with the Citi Custom Cash with the Citi® Double Cash Card and the Citi Premier is a great way to maximize rewards.
- Citi Double Cash: Earn 2% on every purchase with unlimited 1% cash back when you buy, plus an additional 1% as you pay for those purchases
- Citi Premier: Earn 3 Points per $1 spent at Restaurants and Supermarkets. Earn 3 Points per $1 spent at Gas Stations, Air Travel and Other Hotels. Earn 1 Point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Citi Custom Cash: Earn 5x points on one bonus category each billing cycle. That's extra points on categories like home improvement stores, select streaming services, and fitness clubs that earn just one point with most cards.
And of course, it doesn't hurt that you can earn a sizable Citi Premier sign up bonus.
How Does the Citi Custom Cash Card Compare to Other Cards?
There are several cards on the market that earn 5x on select categories, so let’s take a look at how the Citi Custom Cash card stacks up against the competition in terms of benefits, fees, and how you earn and redeem points.
- Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent
- 1% cash back thereafter, plus, you'll earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases
- No rotating bonus categories to sign up for – as your spending changes each billing cycle, your earn adjusts automatically when you spend in any of the eligible categories.
- Eligible spending categories are: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment.
- Earn 5% on up to $1,500 on combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate
- Earn 5% on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Earn 3% on dining at restaurants, including takeout and eligible delivery services
- Earn 3% on drugstore purchases
- Earn 1% on all other purchases
- 5% cash back on your first $2,000 in eligible net purchases each quarter on the two categories you choose
- 5% cash back on prepaid air, hotel and car reservations booked directly in the Rewards Travel Center
- 2% cash back on one everyday category (like gas or groceries)
- 1% cash back on all other eligible net purchases
Choosing and activating your bonus categories
The Citi Custom Cash card makes your life easy by automatically choosing the eligible spend category where you've spent the most in each billing cycle. You don't have to make a decision or remember to activate. This is a key difference when compared with Chase Freedom Flex℠ and U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card — both of which require action from you to earn your bonus points.
With the Freedom Flex, Chase picks the rotating bonus categories that will be eligible for 5x earnings each quarter, but you need to remember to activate it. Typically there are 2 or 3 eligible categories. Here is the history of Chase Freedom rotating categories from 2014 to the present. Fortunately, Chase gives you until the 14th of the third month of the quarter to register to earn 5x on the Freedom Flex. As long as you meet that deadline, you'll get retroactive credit for all your purchases during the quarter.
The U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa is a bit more restrictive. You need to choose and activate your eligible spend categories before you can start earning your bonus cashback. US Bank says that you will start earning the enhanced 2% and 5% cashback in your selected categories three business days after you activate them. You can activate categories between 45 days prior to the start of the quarter and five days before the end of the quarter. It's also important to note that the deadline to change your categories is five days before the quarter starts.
5x category spending cap
The Citi Custom Cash earns 5% cash back on your highest eligible spending category each billing cycle — on up to $500 spent (1% cash back thereafter). That matches the Freedom Flex card's quarterly cap of $1,500 on its 5x rotating bonus categories.
The U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa has a slightly higher cap of $2,000 in quarterly spending that earns 5% cash back. It also offers the ability to choose a category to earn 2% cash back with no spending cap on one everyday category like gas stations and EV charging, grocery stores, or restaurants.
Uncapped 5x bonus categories
Both the Freedom Flex and U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa have a permanent 5% category — that isn't restricted by a spending cap — for travel booked through their respective travel portals.
- Freedom Flex earns 5% on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards
- U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa earns 5% on prepaid air, hotel, and car reservations booked through the US. Bank Rewards Travel Center
The Citi Custom Cash doesn’t come with a comparable bonus category for purchases through the ThankYour Rewards portal, but there are a few reasons not to assign too much value to these travel-portal bonus categories. Hotels won’t give you elite credit or honor elite perks when booked through an online travel agency. The situation is better with airlines, but it can be more difficult to deal with a third-party agency if something goes wrong.
Redeeming rewards
As standalone cards, all three of these products offer the option to redeem your rewards for cash back as a statement credit or via direct deposit, typically at a rate of one cent per point. However, the Freedom Flex and Citi Custom Cash have the significant advantage of being tied to the valuable Ultimate Reward and ThankYou Rewards ecosystems. In each case, you can pair these no-annual fee cards with a premium card to enable transfers to partners.
The U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa offers simple cash back rewards. If you maximize the $2,000 quarterly cap, you'll earn $100 in value. There's no way to boost this value.
Who Should Get the Citi Custom Cash?
This card offers a great way to maximize your spending in a category that isn’t covered by your other cards. Maybe you already have a card that earns extra points at restaurants and on travel, but you don’t have a card with a great earning rate on groceries. With the Citi Custom Cash, you can pick up 5x ThankYou points on groceries without having to pay an annual fee.
While we're big fans of the Freedom Flex card, the rotating bonus categories do have some drawbacks. Since Chase picks the categories each quarter, the Freedom Flex isn’t always going to fit in perfectly with your spending habits.
The Citi Custom Cash card's automatically adjusting 5x earning is a big win for folks who don’t want to spend energy keeping track of rotating categories.
How To Know if the Citi Custom Cash Is Right for You
The Custom Cash card‘s flagship feature is its 5x earning rate on your top eligible spending category. As such, the main consideration for most applicants is how well the available spending categories match your spending habits — and whether you have other cards that offer a comparable earning rate.
If you expect to consistently spend at least $500 per month in at least one of the categories, this card is likely to provide significant value.
Our Take: Is It Worth It?
The Citi Custom Cash is not a great value as a standalone card. It earns only 1x ThankYou points or 1% cash back outside of the 5x eligible spend categories, and you can only redeem your rewards for one cent per ThankYou point. That caps the bonus value at $75 per quarter or $300 per year. This is still nice for a no-annual-fee card, but not that special.
However, Custom Cash is a powerful addition to your wallet when you hold other ThankYou Rewards cards. We recommend the Citi Double Cash and Citi Premier to round out your Citi ThankYou earning strategy.
Application Rules
The application rules for the Citi Custom Cash differ from other ThankYou Rewards cards we've covered in the past.
Citi will only issue one Citi Custom Cash® Card account per person. You will qualify for the bonus offer only if you have not received a bonus offer for opening a new Citi Custom Cash® Card in the past 48 months.
There are no restrictions on holding another ThankYou Rewards earning card. Instead, it focuses solely on a 48-month period between applications for the same card. Keep in mind that Citi also enforces an unofficial waiting period of 8 days between applications, with a maximum of two cards per 65-day period.
If you aren't eligible to apply for this card directly, it might still be possible to request a Citi product conversion by calling the number on the back of one of your other Citi consumer credit cards. Here are the Citi credit card product change rules. Just be aware that you won't earn a welcome bonus when you request a product change instead of applying for a new card.
- Sign-up bonus of $200 in cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening, issued as 20,000 ThankYou® Points
- 5% cash back in your top eligible spend category on up to $500 of purchses each billing cycle
- No rotating bonus categories to sign up for--the top earning category adjusts automatically each month to the eligible category in which you spend the most.
- Excellent intro APR offer on purchases and balance transfers
- No annual fee
- Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent
- 1% cash back thereafter, plus, you'll earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases
- No rotating bonus categories to sign up for – as your spending changes each billing cycle, your earn adjusts automatically when you spend in any of the eligible categories.
- Eligible spending categories are: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment.
Final Thoughts
The Citi Custom Cash is an excellent cash back rewards card, giving cardholders a unique and adaptable way of earning 5x points back on bonus categories where you spend the most money. This card has big earning potential and no annual fee. For folks who don’t mind keeping track of a rotating spending category, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ is still a great value. But if you like the idea of a card that automatically gives you a big bonus category exactly where you need it, the Citi Custom Cash is a great pick.
FAQs
Is it hard to get the Citi Custom Cash Card?
Compared with other rewards cards, the Citi Custom Cash isn't especially hard to get. Many of the most popular rewards card products are limited to those with "excellent" credit. Citi invites applicants with Fair, Good, or Excellent credit to apply for the Custom Cash card. Learn more in our posts about credit card application strategy and how to build healthy credit.
What credit score is required for the Citi Custom Cash Card?
The Citi Custom Cash is marketed to applicants with Fair, Good, or Excellent credit. Credit card issuers like Citi generally don't publish the exact criteria used to evaluate applications and the credit score required may vary over time with general market conditions and other factors. Although it may be possible to get approved with a lower score, AwardWallet recommends a FICO credit score of at least 670 to give yourself the best chance of getting approved for this card.
What is the difference between Citi Double Cash and Citi Custom Cash Card?
The Citi Custom Cash and the Citi Double Cash are both no-annual-fee, cashback cards that earn rewards in the form of ThankYou points. Both products are consumer (rather than small-business) credit cards issued by Citibank. The most important difference between the two cards is how you earn rewards:
With the Citi Double Cash card, you'll earn 2x ThankYou points (equivalent to 2% cash back) on all eligible purchases with no special bonus categories or caps on the number of points you can earn. The Citi Custom Cash card earns 5x ThankYou points (equivalent to 5% cash back) in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, (1x ThankYou points thereafter). You'll also earn unlimited 1x ThankYou points on all other eligible purchases.
The two dramatically different earning frameworks make these cards a great combo. If you hold both cards, you can take advantage of the Citi Custom Cash card's 5x category and use your Citi Double Cash card to earn 2x on your other purchases.
Should I switch to Citi Custom Cash?
The Citi Custom Cash card is an ideal choice for anyone who consistently spends at least $500 per month in one of the ten categories that are eligible to earn 5x points per dollar spent. However, since the 5x earning is limited to just $500 spent in a single category each billing cycle, the Custom Cash card is best when combined with a card that will be more rewarding for your other purchases.
What is the highest credit limit with the Citi Custom Cash Card?
Citibank does not publish a maximum credit limit for the Custom Cash Card. Credit card issuers use a variety of factors to determine your limit. Many of the same elements that influence your credit score—like payment history, debts to Citi and other creditors, and the length of your credit history—are considered. Other factors may include your income, rent or mortgage payments, and employment status. The Citi Custom Cash card is marketed to consumers with Fair, Good, or Excellent credit and those with the best overall credit can generally expect a higher limit.
What is the easiest Citi card to get?
The Citi® Secured Mastercard® is designed specifically for people who are new to credit or want to build their credit. Unlike most Citi-issued cards, this product is available to applicants with a limited credit history. However, this card requires a security deposit of at least $200.
How many credit cards is too many?
You won’t find a general rule about how many credit cards you can hold. Each person’s credit history is different, and lenders use a variety of credit scoring models to manage their risk.
Some banks limit the number of cards or the total credit they will extend to an individual. They may also have rules about how often you can apply for a new card. If you are considering applying for a new credit card with a specific issuer, check out our guide to known credit card application restrictions.
It’s also important to note that most widely used models for credit scores penalize consumers for opening too many cards in a short period of time or using a high percentage of their available credit. If you want to take advantage of the perks offered by many credit cards, it’s best to take a slow and steady approach. Here’s our guide to building a sustainable relationship with the banks that issue the best rewards cards.
What FICO score does Citibank use?
Citibank does not consistently use a single FICO scoring model or credit reporting agency to make credit decisions. Depending on your state of residence and the credit card you want to open, Citi may request your information from one or more of the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Our guide to building healthy credit includes information about the three credit bureaus, explains what factors affect your credit score, and discusses the differences between scoring models like FICO and VantageScore.
How do I get approved for a Citi Cash Card?
The Citi Custom Cash card is marketed to consumers with Fair, Good, or Excellent credit. To improve your chances of approval, review the most important elements of your credit score like on-time payments and credit utilization.
If your application isn't approved immediately, you may be able to get a faster decision by calling Citi's reconsideration department at 800-695-5171. Here's our guide to credit card reconsideration calls.
Can I use my Citi Custom Cash Card immediately?
Online reports suggest that Citibank allows some applicants to access a virtual account number immediately after being approved for the Citi Custom Cash card. Unfortunately, this feature is not guaranteed, so you won't know if you're eligible until after your application has been approved.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I seriously doubt that Citi will change you from being able to get the bonus as cash. All of the Citi Cash CCs are marketed strictly as being cash-back CCs. If Citi did what you think, then Citi would have a marketing fraud case on its hands. The ability to use TYP as a currency was offered as a benefit to premium cardholders, who hold the Citi Premier or Citi Prestige CCs. If you don’t hold a premium card then you can’t make use of TYPs as transferable currency.
One can product change another Citi card into Citi Custom Cash CC. I convert a Rewards+ CC today to a Custom Cash card, even though I already have have Citi Custom Cash CC. My plan is to put certain expenses each month on each card.
I applied for Citi Custom Cash, last year, when it was introduced. My original philosophy was using this for the live entertainment bonus as no other card has this bonus at the moment, except Cap1 Savor. The Citi Premier had bonused entertainment, but that changed last summer. Tickets are expensive, sporting events, Broadway, Las Vegas shows, etc. Getting 2.5K TYP for one purchase is excellent.
For the Citi Double Cash Rewards card I never converted over to thank you points. (It started as a cash back card counted in dollars and then at some point they offered the option to convert to points. Can still get cash back but technically it’s points-converted-into-cash vs. straight cash). I never opted in because I just want the straight cash back without the funny business of, for instance, 20K points equaling $200 as technically they can always devalue points in future. Perhaps my worries are unfounded as I suppose they could kill the cash program at any time too, but – bottom line – I wonder if I get this card if it will result in me having to opt in on points for both the card I have (double cash) and this one too. Especially since this one is points only…. And both cards would be managed through one online portal.
Is this card better than double cash one which I have used for years.
I love the Double Cash. It’s hard to beat 2% cashback on all purchases. That said, you can get the Citi Custom Cash as well and just use it for the category where you want to earn 5% cashback.
While I know Citi does not count Walmart as a grocery store, what about Walmart Grocery, the pick up service? Will that count as 5%? I don’t have any Citi cards, so honest question.
I currently have Citi Prestige & Premier cards. Can I receive sign-up bonus of this card even if I got sign-up bonus from Prestige card last year?
Yes! Thankfully the bonus restrictions are only: “You will qualify for the bonus offer only if you have not received a bonus offer for opening a new Citi Custom Cash℠ Card in the past 48 months.”
When I first heard about this new card I was excited. Then I read that it’s kinda like the Chase card I have and Citi just doesn’t have the best partners for me. For those who like Citi it’s a good card. I think I’ll stay with Chase.
Citi seems to be a little behind their competition in product offerings and rewards.
It’s a shame they charge you around 3% outside the US.
Seems good, just a shame that Cit has a 3% foreign transaction fee, so it’s useless for travelers.
It’s certainly not ideal, but since the bonus category rotates you should still be able to take advantage unless you’re on an extremely long international trip.
I was initially very interested in this card until I realized that it was topped out at 500 per month for the 5% category. I see how it is a direct competitor for the Freedom cards but I don’t think this is generous enough for me to dilute my spending from the Chase UR environment.
This card looks fantastic. I am hoping that it will be possible to convert from other cards to have more than 1 as was the case with Chase Freedom.
Critical omission — what do they charge on transactions outside the US?
Would this be eligible for a product transfer?
Good question! I haven’t seen any data points, but I have a few old Citi accounts that I’m considering product changing to this card.
Oh, this looks interesting! I have 2 citi cards already and like the TY points – this would make a great trifecta for me!
You don’t say what you earn each month on everything outside of the single highest category for the month. You should analyze and comment on this.
You don’t say I’d there is a foreign transaction fee.
Wonder if you can combine points from the Citi Sears card to this one…
I’ve had Citi cards that offer much better bonuses than $200, this is a bit disappointing to me personally
I can only hope that Chase and Discover are paying attention. Adding the automatic categorization feature to the Freedom/Freedom Flex/Discover it® cards would dramatically improve their value. I don’t care for the $500 cap, but perhaps Citi’s competitors will take notice. This is a potential must-have card for people running a ThankYou setup.
I think people are still sleeping on Citi points, there’s a lot of decent uses and earning potential IMO
Interesting…trying to get my SO into the points and miles game. Do you think this would be a good card to start with for someone that only has average credit at the moment?