Update 4/14/23: Signup bonus has increased to 25,000
Update 7/7/22: Same 20,000 signup bonus, and they now added a new signup perk for a limited time to get 5 ThankYou points per $1 spent on restaurants, up to $6000, for the first 12 month. This replaces the 5x travel that was running for the past few months. (ht USCCG); Update 4/5/22: The signup bonus is now 20,000 points after spending $1,500 within 3 months, updated below (see other past offers here). They also added a new signup perk for a limited time to get 5 ThankYou points per $1 spent on air travel and hotel purchases up to $6000 for the first 12 month. (ht Lrdx)
Card Details
Today Citi launched a new credit card called the Citi Rewards+.
The most unique part of the card is the round up feature which rounds up the amount of points earned to the nearest 10. This means two things: (1) every transaction will earn at least 10Â points, even a $1 charge at the vending machine, and (2) all transactions are rounded up, so a $101 charge will earn 110 points.
Other key details:
- No annual fee
- Card earns ThankYou points
- Earn 2x points on grocery and gas, up to $6,000 per year, then 1x
- Earn 1x points on everything else
- 20,000 points signup bonus for spending $1,500 within 3 months
- Standard Citi credit card protections: Trip Cancellation/Interruption Protection, Car Rental Insurance, Travel Accident Insurance, Damage & Theft Protection, Extended Warranty, 90 Day Return Protection
- Bonus ThankYou Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Rewards+℠, Citi ThankYou®Preferred, Citi ThankYou® Premier/Citi Premier℠or Citi Prestige®, or if you have closed any of these cards, in the past 24 months.
- Low intro rate on purchases and balance transfers
- 3% foreign transaction fee
Points Redemption
Another significant benefit of the card is that cardholders receive a 10% rebate on all redeemed points each year, on up to the first 100,000 redeemed points. Maxed out this will amount to a rebate of 10,000 points per year. This puts a floor of 1.1 ThankYou points per dollar earned or 2.2 on gas and groceries.
Points can be redeemed for gift cards or through the Citi travel portal at 1 cent per point value. Importantly, the card is a ‘basic’ Citi card which does not support points transfers; the one exception to this is for JetBlue transfers. However, if you have a Citi card that does support airline transfers like Prestige or Premier, you’ll be able to move the points over and then you can transfer as usual.
If you combine your Rewards+ ThankYou account with another ThankYou account, you’ll get the 10% bonus while still having the ability to do full points transfers.
Our Verdict
The minimum 10 points per transaction is interesting. It’s similar to something Chase used to have with their Freedom card which was discontinued. There were said to be people who wrote scripts to charge themselves $.01 and made thousands on the Chase Freedom thing. I don’t recommend this, and – in today’s day and age – Citi will probably be on the lookout for this immediately.
Citi is obviously looking to come up with innovative ideas to stay relevant in the competitive credit card market. The only ThankYou card currently available for signup is the Premier, though the Prestige is slated to come back soon. This card is a no-fee card and seems to be instead of the Preferred card, so that one may not be coming back. This is supposed to be a more exciting version of the no-fee card, and I’ll grant them that – this does seem more interesting and exciting than the Preferred.
A lot of people don’t signup for cards with lower signup bonuses like this one, plus, many of us won’t be eligible for the bonus due to Citi’s 24-month family rule – the rule clearly bunches the Rewards+ along with Prestige and Premier cards.
It’s already possible to product change or downgrade to the Rewards+ card, and that’s probably the best use of this card given the fact that the signup bonus is much lower than what we’ve seen on Prestige and Premier.
Citi also launched a student version of the Rewards+ card as well.Â
Points have only 50% cash value for checking or savings account redemption and limited usage for statement credit,
The $250 new sign on bonus is also redeemable for that amount at Citi Thank you system ! A hassle filled card !!
WORTHLESS !!
Get the Double Cash card and combine the Thank You points accounts (name, address, phone numbers must be identical). You’ll be able to redeem the points for 100% cash. Plus, you’ll get the 10% point rebate for having the Rewards+.
Copy & Pasted from terms and conditions of this card on CITI Website!
Please read the last sentence below for your own clarification .
Just to be clear for other readers of my comments, this card is only worth it if someone buying thing less than $5 to earn 10 points which makes it more than 2% but for any purchase above $5 the Citi Double cash card is already there and any other 2% card is the one to use for example for a $7 item one still earns 10 points while the 2% cash back card or Citi double cash back would earn you 14 points !
So getting a card just for using it on purchases less than $5 to earn points in this day and age is really worthless as I said before !
” 10% Points Back from Redemptions
When you redeem your ThankYou Points, you’ll receive 10% points back for the first 100,000 ThankYou Points redeemed per calendar year. This means that if you redeem 10,000 ThankYou Points, you’ll receive 1,000 ThankYou Points from the 10% Points Back feature.
You will not receive 10% Points Back on points you redeem on Points Sharing transactions.”
It seems the restaurant perk might be gone? https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-rewards-plus-credit-card
So best card for $0.99 subscriptions to earn 11pts that is 1/9=11% cash back?
If I product convert to the Citi Rewards from the Premier in Jan, will I get the restaurants 5x offer on the card?
Hey I got Citi Custom Cash January or February of 2021. No other Citi card. Was denied Premier last month. I’m at 12/24 and I’ve been steadily applying for one card per month this year. What are my chances of approval with this one? About to make a $2k purchase and need a basic SUB.
This along with the US Bank Altitude Reserve are the best sock drawer cards out there. Face it we’re using this card for the SUB and the 10% redemption bonus.
Posted, thanks
Of course they can stop targeting you whenever they want, but Citi’s been moving their cards from my sock drawer to wallet with all these 5x offers. I’ve seen four 5x grocery/gas/transit/pharmacy, two 5x online, a 5x clothing/department stores, and a 3x electronics stores, plus two $20 off $120 on Amazon, all in the last nine months.
How quickly did you get the 5% on your statement?
Last fall they were pretty quick, but the ones in Jan-Mar took a month after statement close to appear.
What cards are you getting these at?
Prestige mainly, and one each on Premier, Rewards+, and AA Platinum.
Citi shut me down for 1 cent transactions.
what velocity were you making these at?
How many 0.01 or low dollar amount transactions?
How long did it take for the shutdown?
Do you have any other citi cards? Are they still open?
Appears that Citi is rotating the opening bonus categories on the card. Base msr bonus the same, 5pts/$ on restaurants, up to $6,000 spend in 12 mo.