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Compare the Features and Benefits of Chase Freedom Unlimited® and
Citi® Double Cash Card

Detailed Comparison Overview

Key Facts
Annual Fee
Avg. Min. Credit Score
APR on purchases
APR on balance transfers
Ongoing APR
Balance transfers fees
Best Multiplier
Avg. Point Value
(Learn More)
Bonus Offer
Rating
Review
Key features
Unique Card Benefits
0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers
Extended Warranty
Free Access to Credit Score
0% Intro APR on Purchases
Secondary Car Rental CDW Waiver
Purchase Protection
Trip Protections
Concierge Services
No Fees for Authorized Users
Annual Fee
$0
Avg. Min. Credit Score
670-850
APR on purchases
0% Intro APR (on purchases for 15 months, 19.74%-28.49% thereafter)
APR on balance transfers
0% Intro APR (on balance transfers for 15 months, 19.74%-28.49% thereafter)
Ongoing APR
19.74%-28.49% (Variable)
Balance transfers fees
Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
Best Multiplier
5x Airfare

Earn this multiplier when you purchase via Chase Travel℠. If you purchase any other way, you will earn 1.5X points.

5x Car Rentals

Earn this multiplier when you purchase via Chase Travel℠. If you purchase any other way, you will earn 1.5X points.

5x Hotels

Earn this multiplier when you purchase via Chase Travel℠. If you purchase any other way, you will earn 1.5X points.

5x Lyft
3x Dining Out / Food Delivery
3x Drugstores
1.5x Everything Else
Avg. Point Value
(Learn More)
$0.01 - $0.0175
Bonus Offer
Earn an extra 1.5% on everything you buy (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year) — worth up to $300 cash back. That's 6.5% on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 4.5% on dining and drugstores, and 3% on all other purchases.
Rating
YBCC Card Rate Stars Filled
YBCC Card Rate Stars Empty
(4.25) Our Review

Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.

Review

This is a staple card in the Chase Trifecta, which includes a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, a Chase Freedom Flex, and this card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

The primary benefit of this card, from a bonus category perspective, is the ability to earn 1.5% on all purchases that don’t have a bonus category. So while you earn 3% on dining and drugstore purchases with the Freedom Unlimited, you’ll earn 1.5% cash back on anything else, like insurance or utilities.

drugstores-chase-freedom-unlimited

But since the Chase Freedom Unlimited is a pure cash back credit card unless you also have a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® with which to combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s ideally used as a combo.

When you hold one of these premium Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards, you can transfer points earned on the Freedom Unlimited to the premium card. Once you’ve moved the Ultimate Rewards over to the premium credit card, you can take advantage of points transfers to 12 Chase airline and hotel partners or book travel through the travel portal.

If you book through Chase Travel℠ and have a Sapphire Reserve, your points redeem for 1.5 cents each, meaning that you earn 1.5X points or cash back per dollar and redeem them for 1.5X, giving you an effective 2.25% return on your spend.

If you book through Chase Travel℠ and have a Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred, your points redeem for 1.25 cents each, meaning that you earn 1.5X per dollar and redeem for 1.5X, giving you an effective 1.875% return on your spend.

But our absolute favorite way to redeem is always via airline and hotel transfer partners. The easiest high-value redemption is usually Hyatt. We often get better than 2 cents per World of Hyatt point. Keep in mind that Hyatt doesn’t charge any resort fees when you stay on a free night award. So let’s say you are looking at a hotel with a cash price of $259 and a $25 a night resort fee and 8% tax. That would come to $307 a night. But if that same room costs 8,000 or 12,000 Hyatt points, you could be using your points (which transfer at an even 1:1 ratio to all airline and hotel partners) with a rate of return of 3 – 4 cents.

That said, even without a card combo, it’s still a solid card to earn 1.5% cash back (plus 3% on dining, including takeout and eligible delivery services, and drugstores) since it has no annual fee. Best of all, you can accrue cash back on this card and decide to add a Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® later on – if you suddenly decide that you’d like to delve into the world of credit card rewards that transfer to frequent flyer and hotel programs to book free award flights and hotel nights.

It comes with a solid range of benefits for a card with no annual fee, too. You’ll get Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty on the shopping side and you’ll be taken care of on canceled or shortened pre-paid trips if a covered reason arises. with the included Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance.

Read more
Unique Card Benefits
yes
0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers
yes
Extended Warranty
yes
Free Access to Credit Score
yes
0% Intro APR on Purchases
yes
Secondary Car Rental CDW Waiver
yes
Purchase Protection
yes
Trip Protections
yes
Concierge Services
no
No Fees for Authorized Users
no
Annual Fee
$0
Avg. Min. Credit Score
580-850
APR on purchases
-
APR on balance transfers
0% Intro APR (on balance transfers for 18 months, 18.49%-28.49% thereafter)
Ongoing APR
18.49%-28.49% (Variable)
Balance transfers fees
There is an intro balance transfer fee of 3% of each transfer (minimum $5) completed within the first 4 months of account opening. After that, your fee will be 5% of each transfer (minimum $5)
Best Multiplier
2x Everything Else
Avg. Point Value
(Learn More)
$0.01 - $0.016
Bonus Offer

Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 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.

Rating
YBCC Card Rate Stars Filled
YBCC Card Rate Stars Empty
(3.83) Our Review

Our ratings are determined by the authors and editors on our team. Each individual card feature is compared against all other cards we offer and the total score is an average of those 4 ratings.

Review

The Citi Double Cash® Card isn’t a card loaded with features and benefits.

But it has one killer feature that makes the card a must-have for nearly everyone and that’s the simple fact that it earns 2% cash back on all of your everyday purchases. Technically, you earn 1% when you spend and 1% when you pay, but semantics aside, you’re earning 2% cash back on absolutely all eligible purchases.

everyday-purchases-citi-double-cash

And before we forget, it also comes with a pretty amazing intro offer for balance transfers, as outlined in the Key Facts at the top of the page.

You don’t have to think about bonus categories with this credit card. The answer to “what will I earn here” is always 2%.

Just one caveat: the Double Cash does not come with many expected benefits, like extended warranty or purchase protection. For those reasons, you may want to use another card for high value merchandise purchases.

That said, why is it a must have credit card for nearly everyone? Three reasons:

1) There is no consumer credit card issued by a major bank that earns a higher % of cash back with no annual fee. None.

2) You can use this as your one credit card if you are completely averse to using multiple credit cards (although you’ll need to be aware of the foreign transaction fees charged if you travel internationally). But even better is to use this as your “default” card. What I mean by that is you may have a card that earns 4X on dining and groceries and another that earns 3% on drugstores, but that’s it. What about an insurance payment? What about daycare?

On most other credit cards, if you aren’t spending in a bonus category, you only earn 1X or 1% back. For example, the Citi Premier Card pays 3X in certain categories (Air/Hotel, Gas, Restaurants and Supermarkets) and 1X in everything else. So you can “Double Up” by having both cards.

The Citi Double Cash card earns 2X Thank You® points on everything. If your purchase is in a Citi Premier card bonus category, go ahead and make the purchase with your Citi Premier card. If it’s in any other category, make the purchase with your Double Cash card. That way, you’ll get one percent when you make the purchase and another percent when you pay it. With a Double Cash card in your pocket, you can always take it out when you have no bonus category available, ensuring that you never, ever earn less than 2% back on any purchases.

3) While you’ll earn cash back rewards with this card, it earns it as ThankYou® points. If you only have the Double Cash alone, that keeps things simple. It’s cash! You can cash out as a statement credit, via direct deposit to your bank account, or by check.

Pair with a Citi Premier® card – a great credit card strategy

In that case, once again, you simply pair this card with a Citi Premier credit card. That would allow you to pool all of your ThankYou® points together and, because of the Premier, you’ll unlock access to all of the transfer options listed below, the best kind of credit card rewards:

Citi ThankYou Transfer PartnersTransfer RatioApproximate Transfer Time *
AeroMexico1:1Generally instant
Air France Flying Blue1:1Instant
Avianca LifeMiles1:1Instant.
Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles1:1Instant
Etihad Guest1:1Instant
Emirates1:!Instant
Eva Air1:1~1-3 days
Jet Airways InterMiles1:1Instant
JetBlue TrueBlue1:1Instant
Malaysia Airlines Enrich1:1~1-7 days
Qantas1:1Instant to 1 day
Qatar Privilege Club1:1~2 days
Singapore Airlines1:1~1-2 days
Thai Orchid Plus1:1~3-7 days
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles1:11-2 days
Virgin Atlantic1:1Instant to 2 days
Hotels
Choice Hotels1:2 (Citi Prestige / Premier / Chairman cards)

1:1.5 (No fee Citi ThankYou cards)
Instant
Wyndham Rewards1:1 (Citi Prestige / Premier / Chairman cards)

1:0.8 (No fee Citi ThankYou cards)
TBD
Leaders Club5:1TBD
Preferred Hotels and Resorts "I Prefer"1:4TBD
Accor Live Limitless1:0.5TBD

What are some of the ways you can use Citi ThankYou® points for outsized value with a Citi Premier?

We outline all of that on the Citi Premier card page, since that is the card that unlocks these features. Please take a look at the Citi Premier review for everything you need to know about using Citi ThankYou® points.

The Citi Trifecta: Add the Citi Premier and then a Citi Rewards+ Card for a 10% Points Rebate

You can make your Citi Premier and Citi Double Cash rewards combo even more rewarding if you add in a no-annual fee Citi Rewards+ card.

Each calendar year, Citi will rebate back 10% of the first 100,000 ThankYou® Points that you spend, so you can get back up to 10,000 points per year Best of all, it isn’t tied in any way to your spending on the card. Just having it in your profile and linked to the same ThankYou account will ensure that you get the rebate.

Citi Application Rules

Citi won’t approve more than 2 cards in a 60-day period, although we recommend 65 days, just to be safe. This means that if you decide to apply for the Double Cash and combo with a Citi Premier and Citi Rewards+ card, you’ll have to pick one to wait and apply for on Day 66. We’d recommend getting the Rewards+ last, since the benefits are when you redeem.

Bottom Line

The Citi Double Cash is quite simply a card that should be in 99% of wallets. The 2% cash back on everything (1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bill), with no annual fee, is too good to pass up, even if you are using it in conjunction with other credit cards to maximize your bonus categories – as you should be!

Read more
Unique Card Benefits
yes
0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers
yes
Extended Warranty
yes
Free Access to Credit Score
yes
0% Intro APR on Purchases
no
Secondary Car Rental CDW Waiver
no
Purchase Protection
no
Trip Protections
no
Concierge Services
yes
No Fees for Authorized Users
yes

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