Update 8/29/22: DEAD There is a link with $750 in spend (although there is one mention of $1,500 in the fine print there, I can confirm it’s actually processing with the $750 spend requirement) DEAD
(Update 8/28/22: Spend requirement has increased from $750 to $1,500. Same $200/20,000 bonus. hat tip JigglyJello1)
Citi launches today the Citi Custom Cash card which earns 5x cashback/Thankyou points per $1 spent on up to $500 in spend per month in your top spend category and has no annual fee. Card has $200/20,000 points signup bonus.
Citi Custom Cash signup link | Another Link | Press Release
Signup Bonus
- Signup bonus of $200 after you spend $750 within the first 3 months.
Bonus is not available if you received one for opening a new Citi Custom Cash Card account in the past 48 months.
Card Details
- No annual fee
- Card earns 5% cash back/points on your top spend category of the month, up to $500 in spend ($25 cashback) per month. Categories include things like Grocery, Dining, or Travel and more. Category adjust automatically to your top category each month – no need to enroll or to select your top category. You’ll be able to see your top category in the Citibank mobile app.
- The top eligible spend categories of the Custom Cash Card are: restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select streaming services, select travel, select transit, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, live entertainment and drugstores.
- Card earns 1% cash back on all other purchases.
- Cash back is earned in the form of ThankYou Points, which can be redeemed for cash back as a direct deposit, check or statement credit. Or cardmembers can choose other ways to redeem points, including redeeming for gift cards, charitable donations, travel, Shop with Points at Amazon.com, and more.
- If you have a Citi Premier or Prestige card you’ll be able to pool the points and then redeem them to transfer partners.
- Low introductory rate on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months.
- Foreign transaction fee is 3% of the U.S. dollar amount of each purchase.
- Only one Citi Custom Cash Card account per customer.
- The Custom Cash Card comes with an instant card number upon approval, no need to wait for the card to come in the mail. (Instant credit limit is 10% of your credit limit, subject to a minimum of $500 and a maximum of $1,000. Instant credit limit is usable for 10 days.)
Our Verdict
This sounds like an upgraded version of the old Citi Dividend card. Similar total cashback amount of $500 per month versus the Dividend’s $6,000 per year, but the Custom Cash is much better since it allows you to customize the categories for popular places like groceries or drugstores. Another major advantage is the fact that it earns ThankYou points and gives the option of either cashing out your points or using them toward travel, similar to the DoubleCash card which offers both options.
Could be a useful card to apply for and max out the monthly category. Also interesting as a product change option when getting rid of a card – it’s possible to product change most Citi cards into a Custom Cash and even get multiples that way.
Noticed on my P2’s statement that we got 5% cashback for a grocery purchase but when we returned an item and got a refund, it only deducted points at 1%. Seems like there could be a loophole where one could buy things in their top category and then return them and net 4% as profit. Not sure if this has been discovered/known before.
I wouldn’t recommend exploiting that loophole if you care about your relationship with Citi.
In retrospect, not real happy with having had two of these custom cash cards. (for 2 yrs, incl. 1 off switch from double cash) Have earned well over 100k via grocery spend– and that’s been nice…. until trying to use them! Unlike double cash, this “custom cash” has NO transfer options to any travel programs… (irritating!) Not impressed that I can get 1cpp via the other miserly options.
Unless you’re willing to “pair it” with a premium card (and pay the annual fee — and for what — little more value than simply to use the custom cash card typs) disappointing.
I recently made a purchase at a local Ace Hardware and another at Pro Hardware on the Citi Custom Cash Rewards card. Neither one returned 5x points. Hardware stores are listed under the Home Improvement category. I talked with a CSR who told me that those two places code their stores as construction supplies, not hardware. I was able to get a “one time courtesy credit” of points through a manager. Beware before making any big purchases at those chains. Strangely, Family Home and Farm store does give 5x.
Does grocery spending show up as the “Merchandise” category? That is what I am seeing for a newly converted card that I plan to use for supermarkets since I maxed out my BCP for the year. Seens odd since I know it codes as supermarkets elsewhere
Background: After converting my Premier card that had been on an introductory one-year no annual fee upgrade deal to the CC card last year, I just did the same for P2’s card which they had alerted me was going to be charged an AF soon. So now I have three Citi Custom Cash cards. I typically use one for restaurants and sometimes the other for travel, but it was a big month for restaurant spending (restaurant week) so I went over the $500 and had to switch to the other card. So, the third card is useful.
Update – oddly, the purchase made the day after I did the conversion showed up as Merchandise and does not seem to have counted as a 5% category. But purchases from the same supermarket location on the same card on subsequent days are coding properly. Seems like it might take a couple of days for them to start doing things properly when you covert to CC.
Does anyone know if there’s still a $300 SUB for opening in branch?
My custom cash card was compromised today despite only using it with android pay and instacart. I saw a few charges from “Amazon MX Mexico City”.
Pretty easy approval odds for me, P1 P2 P3 P4 as early as 12/2021 til the most recent one on 05/2023. Some with existing Citi checking, credit card, or none at all. FICO all around 700. At most 4/24
So is the reward $200 dollars bonus still available for spending $750 or $1500? Can anyone confirm?
1500
According to Citi’s website, $1500 spent in the first 6 months for $200 bonus.
Regarding instant card number, it seems that it’s no longer an option. I just applied but didn’t get it…
8/29 link returns a 404 error