Earn Up to 9% Cash Back on Travel Using the Citi Custom Cash Earn Up to 9% Cash Back on Travel Using the Citi Custom Cash

Earn Up to 9% Cash Back on Travel Using the Citi Custom Cash

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If your wallet houses the nifty Citi Custom Cash® Card, you may want to use it to book some travel. Through June 30, 2025, cardholders can earn up to 9% cash back on hotels, rental cars, and attractions booked through the Citi Travel Portal.

Here are the details on Citi's newest promotion, unique to Citi Custom Cash cardholders.

Get 9% Cash Back on Travel With the Citi Custom Cash

The Citi Custom Cash is a unique credit card — and a rewarding one at that. Each billing cycle, cardholders earn 5% cash back (in the form of 5x ThankYou® Points) on up to $500 in purchases in the highest eligible spending category.

Citi Custom Cash® Card
Citi Custom Cash® Card
Annual Fee$0
Welcome Bonus Earn $200 in cash back after you spend $1500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou® points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
The Citi Custom Cash® Card offers a distinctive and flexible cash back program that adapts to your top spending category. Every billing cycle, it automatically grants 5% cash back on the first $500 in your highest spend category, which can range from restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores to select streaming services, travel, transit, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, live entertainment, and drugstores. Beyond this, all other purchases earn an unlimited 1% cash back. Notably, there's no annual fee, adding to its appeal. The cash back you earn is in the form of ThankYou Points, which can be redeemed for cash back, or combined with rewards​​​​​​​​​​​​ from other qualifying ThankYou Rewards cards and transferred to travel partners.
  • 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.
  • Special Travel Offer: Earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel portal through 6/30/2025.
  • 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.

And thanks to a new offer, there's an extra incentive to make travel your top spending category.

Through June 30, 2025, you'll earn a total of 9% cash back (9X points per dollar spent) on the first $500 spent in a billing cycle on eligible travel booked through Citi Travel. “Travel” includes hotels and rental car reservations but not flights or attractions. In order to get this 9% cash-back rate, travel needs to be your top eligible spending category.

Spending the full $500 on travel each billing cycle nets $45 cash back (4,500 Citi ThankYou Points). However, there's more to this bonus than meets the eye — especially if you've got another Citi card in your wallet, such as the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card or the Citi Prestige® Card.

Pairing the Citi Custom Cash with a premium Citi point-earning card means you'll have full access to all 21 of Citi's transfer partners.

On average, AwardWallet users redeem Citi ThankYou Points for 2.19¢ apiece. At this rate, the 4,500-point earnings are worth almost $100 towards award travel. Even better, you can take advantage of this offer each billing cycle until June 30, 2025. That leaves a lot of time to maximize it a few times over.

It's worth specifically pointing out that the “travel” category description for the Citi Custom Cash doesn't include attractions, and this current promotion doesn't include bonus earnings on airfare. Therefore, to get the 9X earning rate, you'll need to spend on hotels and rental cars in the travel portal with travel being your top spending category.

Earn bonus cash back even if travel isn't your top spending category

If travel isn't your top spending category in a billing cycle, rest assured that you'll still earn a bonus for booking travel through Citi's portal. You'll earn 4% cash back on top of the standard 1% earned on purchases that don't fall into the top category. This amounts to 5% cash back or 5x points per dollar spent on travel. That's still a fantastic return on your spending.

Keep in mind that you also can earn 5% cash back on travel using the Citi Double Cash® Card.

Final Thoughts

Through June 30, 2025, Citi is offering a bonus for Citi Custom Cash® Card cardholders. If you make travel your top spending category, you'll earn 9% cash back (or 9X ThankYou Points) on up to the first $500 spent each billing cycle.

For those who book hotels, rental cars, and attractions but don't make travel their top spending category, there's still a bonus. You'll bank 5% cash back (5X points) on Citi Travel portal purchases.

AwardWallet Tip of The Day
Did you know that we can analyze your everyday spending and make suggestions on how to increase your earnings with every transaction? Add an account with cards that earn Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards and we'll analyze what you earn with every swipe and identify how you can potentially earn more. To see this report, simply navigate to the CARD SPEND ANALYSIS tab in your account list
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