Citi has finally announced their Q1 2018 bonus categories as gas and car rentals. It’s not showing with internet search, but you should see it in the login.
We’ve previously discussed Chase’s Q1 categories which include mobile payments, gas, and communications; Discover will have gas and wholesale clubs. Gas overlaps all three.
Citi Dividend works different than the others in that you can get up to $300 cash back per year on the card, you can even spend $6,000 in one day and one category and get a full 5% back ($300), just you won’t be able to earn anymore cash back on the card at all the rest of the year. This makes it pretty important to know the other quarterly categories of the year to decide which to do. Hopefully, Citi will come out with a full 2018 calendar soon. (Update: Now available.)
The Fine Print
- The total cash back you can earn with the card is $300 per calendar year.
- Within 2 business days of when you enroll in this offer, or January 1, 2018, whichever is later, you will earn an additional 4% cash back on eligible purchases at gas stations and car rental agencies between January 1, 2018, and March 31, 2018.
- Gas stations are classified as merchants that sell automobile gasoline. Gas purchases made at warehouse clubs, discount stores, department stores and convenience stores may not qualify.
- Car rental agencies are classified as merchants that provide the short-term or long-term rentals of cars, trucks, or vans. Car rentals made through travel agencies or travel aggregators may not qualify.
- We do not determine how merchants are classified, but they are generally classified based upon the merchant’s primary line of business. We reserve the right to determine which purchases qualify for this offer. Eligible purchases exclude balance transfers, cash advances, convenience checks, items returned for credit, fees and interest charges. In order to qualify for this offer, the account must be open and current at all times. If your account is closed for any reason, including if you convert to another product, you may no longer be eligible.
Hat tip to reader AKSF
I need help DoC – I just noticed that Citi has expired my dividend cashback dollarsbas there hasn’t been any transaction on the account for 12 months. Is there anything that can be done to get them back ? 😢
Full calendar –not so great
1st –Gas Stations; Car rentals
2nd–home furnishing stores
3rd–airlines, movies,
4th–Best buy, department store
No drug or grocery stores as yet, doesn’t look good.
No screenshot yet
It’s now official, no grocery stores or drugstores but at least BBY is still there for many of us.
Does anyone know if they will PC an AA biz card to Dividend?
Well, maybe they’ll do drugstores or grocery stores and folks will clean up then.
I’ve had this card for over 5 years and have no intention whatsoever of converting or cancelling. There is always one good bonus quarter per year, sometimes two. Obviously it won’t be Q1 2018 (5% gas widely available on other cards).
When I activated, it showed me all 4 quarterly categories:
Q1: Gas stations & car rentals
Q2: Home Depot & home furnishing stores
Q3: Airlines & movies
Q4: Best Buy & Department Stores
Same here. Thanks for the heads up.
Lame lame and more lame. Gas Stations is a weak category. At least discover put warehouse clubs with it… I don’t mind buying $1000 in Costco gift cards that I can use throughout the year unlike the rest of these shit categories.
Fortunately you have a yearly cap on the card so you can just .ax out in a quarter that does work for you.
That said I’ve always seen the Dividend’s 5% picks as the worst of all rotating cards.
I’ve missed the Q when drugstores were still having $4.95 fees so I’m maxing out this Q at BBY to earn more certificates. Even with higher fees of $5.95 per $200 load, I still earn some profit with 5% CB plus points earned with elite+.
I just read BBY FAQs on when the year ends and it says on their website, it’s the last day of Feb so I’ll start buying the GCs again in March using Freedoms for Chase Pay to qualify for elite+ in 2018.
Just PC’d to this card today. CSR told me it would take until Feb. I always thought their IT was awful but wow.
I’ve PC’d two cards to Dividends now. Yeah, they take about 10 weeks to convert. It’s pretty sad.
This was my experience as well when I PCd AAA plat to Dividend.
If let’s say one is changing a Dividend to a DoubleCB, while waiting for the DCB card, does that mean the Dividend card will still function as Dividend card and earn the 5% if you activate it for that Quarter’s category?
No. Once you call for the PC your card begins earning the new reward. Even before you receive the Double Cash card in the mail, your existing card will earn the new reward.
The PC is instant-you will receive the new Dividend in the mail in 7-10 days and you will begin earning the cash back right away; however, Citibank always allows 45 days for the consumer to change their mind. This way, if the consumer wants to go back to whatever card they PCed from along with that card’s APR and other rewards/terms within that 45 days, it can be done (account number changes cannot be undone). After the 45 days is up, the PC is complete and there is no way to revert back to the card and its terms that you had before. So that is what the February date is.
Post office stopped taking Vanilla, most of the Gas stations, if at all they offer VGC it is Vanilla. So how do go around this? WHere can you liquidate Vanillas?
Grocery stores which sell MO via debit, quarterly estimated tax payments, and I’m able to liquidate by making rent payments. All of these are very YMMV depending on your location and situation.
Actually you can still get cash back for the rest of the year, it’s just 1% instead of 5% for those selected categories.
As I recall that’s not the case – you won’t even get 1% on ordinary purchases after hitting $300 in overall cashback.
@Chuck. You may be correct. I got zero dividend rewards this month. I maxed out the $300.00 in the second calendar quarter with Drugstores / Vanilla GCs.
yes, the T&C’s state that maximum dividend dollars accumulation is $300 in total per calendar year.
You’re correct. I have the same situation as Jeff H. I got $300 from spending at pharmacies during this year. My last two statements have had a few small charges on this card, with no cashback at all.
That’s correct – $300 is the limit for each calendar year.
Occasionally though there may be targeted spend offers that are supposed to override that limit.
Chuck I stand corrected. This card seems less and less valuable as time passes… think it would be worth it to pc to the sears card?
I don’t believe you can PC to the Sears MC. Heck, they won’t even upgrade or convert long-time Sears store card customers.
The Sears MC is accessed via Citibank Retail Services (like Home Depot, Best Buy), not the regular Citicards.com site.
There’s a sign-up bonus for $150 on the Sears MC, plus enhanced earnings on 5 SYW on gas and 3 SYW on groceries for the first year or $10k, whichever comes first.
There are still a couple of other fuel options – 5% on the Sams MC only pays out annually, but makes these 5% offers less exciting.
Ah Geez. I already have the costco card, the aadvantage executive, the double cash, so not sure where else I can product change to!
gas, gas, gas…it’s almost like they’re taunting us after USPS axed all GC. at least around me the only thing gas stations have are vanillas
You have gas stations that accept credit cards for VGCs? Count yourself lucky.
I believe you can only product change to this card. Cit is not taking new applications.