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Eligibility is limited for the Amex Offers discussed in this post. Enrollment is required in the Amex Offers section of your account before redeeming.
Most of the major U.S. banks have their own cash back incentive program. These allow cardholders to enroll their credit card in an offer for a specific merchant and then receive a rebate in the form of cash or points when using the card for eligible purchases. Citi was the last bank standing without one of these programs, so it seemed only a matter of time before it finally hopped on the bandwagon. Finally, in 2020, Citi launched Citi Merchant Offers.
Citi's program is similar to Amex Offers. Not all cards are available to receive the offers, but, if you have been targeted, it could be worth your while to take a look at what is available to you.
Key Points
- Targeted members can enroll in Citi Merchant Offers.
- Offers must be activated before using.
- You must use the linked Citi card as payment to receive the offer.
- Offers include both in-store and online deals, so make sure to double check.
- Double dip your Citi Merchant Offers with shopping portals.
Eligibility for Citi Merchant Offers
Not all cardmembers are eligible for the Citi Merchant Offers. Additionally, if a user is eligible, offers may not be available on all of the individual's cards. For example, of my four Citi cards, I had two that showed offers were available.
Even worse, only one card — my Citi Premier® Card — actually had any offers showing. My Citi® Double Cash Card was listed but didn't actually have any offers available. The other two cards, my Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi and second Citi Double Cash, were not listed as an option at all.
You can see above that there are no offers available for my Citi Double Cash card, despite it showing up on the Merchant Offers page.
To check whether you are eligible and which card(s) can be enrolled, you can go directly to the offers page by clicking here and logging into your Citi account.
Types of Offers in Citi Merchant Offers
Offers can vary from user to user and even from card to card. You'll need to compare offers by switching cards and seeing what is available.
The offers themselves are easy to navigate and divided into five categories: Travel, Dining and Entertainment, Shopping, Health and Wellness, and Other. You can filter to search for offers by a specific category.
Once you find an offer you are interested in, first hit the “see details” option. You'll be redirected to a new page where you can select the “add offer” button.
To add this Exxon Mobil promo, just hit the “Add Offer” tab. Make sure to note the expiration date and whether the promotion is valid in store, online, or both.
Stackability
Citi Merchant Offers should be stackable with the various shopping portals available. Since you add the offer to the card and are only required to use the card — not follow a specific link like some Amex offers — you should be able to double-dip offers.
To double-dip, head to cashbackmonitor.com and type in the store you want to purchase from. You can compare shopping portals there to see which is offering the best rate.
Not sure what shopping portals are? Read more about what they are and how to maximize them here.
Final Thoughts
Although it's always great to see banks offering more incentives to save money, these Citi Merchant Offers are a little lackluster. Most of the offers are at unpopular stores and don't make sense for a lot of people. The other problem is the lower rates of cash back.
For example, we saw a 4% cashback incentive at Levi's when using Citi's Merchant Offer. At the same time, we saw an Amex Offer for $30 off a purchase of $150 or more (maximum value of 20% off).
However, it's still worth it to take a peek and see what's available to you. You never know if there will be something you can use to save a few bucks and sweeten the deal.
Have you checked to see if you are eligible for Citi Merchant Offers? What did you think?
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 used the Blue Apron offer in March and the Uber Eats offer in April, and neither have posted. I called Citi and a couple reps knew nothing about the Merchant Offers program. That was on a weekend, so I called back on a weekday and got a rep who also didn’t know about the program, but found someone who did. They opened an investigation and I’m supposed to hear something in 2 weeks. As I told them, having the credits not post incentivizes me not to use Citi cards.
Ugh! That’s really frustrating for something that should just happen automatically when the charge hits your account.
Great article, thanks. Somehow there is no mention of this when you log into the regular Citi website to check your accounts. Neither there any way to add these from the mobile app. I only found it via the link in this article.
I have 4 cards with Citi – two grandfathered (Citi Dividend and Citi ThankYou) and also the Citi Double Cash and Custom Cash. The first three all show me merchant offers, and they are quite mixed in value. What I observe is that the % cashback ones are very lackluster, but there are a few very generous ones – 4x times getting $10 off on Uber and 3x times getting $10 off on $25 spend on Uber Eats. That’s a $70 potential benefit just for a single card, and $210 from all three of the cards where Uber shows up.
(Though the offers all expire in April so I certainly won’t manage to maximize it)
Just goes to show the value of keeping multiple zero annual fee cards at major banks (looks like Amex, BofA, Chase, Citi and US Bank all have merchant offers now).
Glad we were able to help! And great point that this is another reason to keep those old zero-annual-fee cards!
I don’t have it. I got the custom cash in February. Is this still a thing?
It is! But not all cards are targeted for offers. Are you showing 0 available offers here? https://online.citi.com/US/ag/merchantoffers
Thanks for the info. I enrolled for the Citi Merchant Offers at two merchants. I used the card Double Cash card at those vendors.
Got no statement credit after two billing cycles. Called Citi.
The patient support folks were unaware of the offers and could not see them! Sigh! They escalated.
I just got a letter from Citi (after 4 weeks!) as a result of the support escalation: “Our records do not indicate you were solicited for the offer you mentioned. Please send a copy of the front and back of the offer you received”. Really?!!? It is a Citi offer.
The letter does not include any USPS address, contact org, etc. that should be used to send the required info.
Since it is 2022, I would assume that email would be sufficient.
I have used similar offers at AMEX, BofA and Chase and got the credits with no problem.
Bottom line: I am not impressed with this offer from Citi.
Oh boy. That’s absurd! I haven’t had issues with my Citi Merchant Offers posting. But this seems about right for Citi: when things go bad, they go really bad.
When have yours posted? Mine definitely didn’t post on the first statement.
Interesting! Mine have been posting within about a week of the transaction.