Compare the Features and Benefits of Citi Custom Cash℠ Card and
Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card

You will earn 5% cash back (as ThankYou® Points) on eligible purchases in your top spending category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, with 1% cash back thereafter on all of your other eligible purchases made with your Citi Custom Cash card. You do not have to select anything at any time. It’s automatic. And these are not rotating bonus categories – it’s the same choice each month.
The eligible bonus spend categories are:

• Restaurants
• Gas Stations
• Grocery Stores
• Select Travel
• Select Transit
• Select Streaming Services
• Drugstores
• Home Improvement Stores
• Fitness Clubs
• Live Entertainment

You’ll earn an unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.

The 5X applies to your top category each month. So it’s kind of like a rotating bonus category except you choose – and you don’t even have to technically choose or register, the 5% is automatically applied to your highest spend category each billing cycle.

As a comparison, the Chase Freedom Flex offers a 5X rotating quarterly bonus category, but with a limit of $1,500 per quarter and on whatever categories they choose. This works out to the same $1,500 per quarter, but divided evenly each month such that you can utilize different categories each month.

This is the first and only card that I can think of that offers 5% at home improvement stores and at drugstores.

While a heavy spender may not be super impressed with the $500 a month cap, I think many spenders would be very happy to earn 5% on restaurants, grocery stores, gas, etc. on a card with no annual fee.

And heck, you could buy $500 worth of show or concert tickets one month and get 5% on that!

The Citi Custom Cash card is a perfect companion card to a Citi Strata℠ Premier and a Citi® Double Cash card, creating a Citi Trifecta. If you have all three cards, you would use the Citi Strata℠ Premier for 3X Citi ThankYou points® on air travel & hotels, gas stations, restaurants and supermarkets, the Citi® Double Cash for everything else at 2X, except for one category out of the Custom Cash’s options for 5X up to $500 a month.

Personally, I think that most people would want to make this their go-to card for gas stations, as that is an easy one to spend roughly $500 a month on. But, of course, what category you pick will depend on your own spending patterns.

You might be thinking about getting multiple Citi Custom Cash cards – a Custom Cash card for each category, but you cannot. Acknowledging that someone might want to hold many of these to get everything at 5X, they have capped this card at one per person.

Bonus Eligibility Rules for the Citi Custom Cash card

The bonus offer is not available if you received one for opening a new Citi Custom Cash℠ Card account in the past 48 months.

Bonus Category Definitions

It’s important to know what counts and what doesn’t, especially for bonus categories that start with the word “Select.”

The following definitions apply to the Citi Custom Cash card categories:

Restaurants

Includes purchases at cafes, bars, lounges and fast food restaurants. Excludes purchases at bakeries, caterers, restaurants located inside another business (such as hotels, stores, stadiums, grocery stores, or warehouse clubs) and third party dining delivery services.

Gas Stations

Excludes gasoline purchases at warehouse clubs, discount stores, convenience stores or other merchants that do not use the gas station merchant category code.

Grocery Stores

Includes purchases at supermarkets, meat/seafood stores, dairy stores, bakeries, and miscellaneous food/convenience stores. Excludes purchases at general merchandise/discount superstores; wholesale/warehouse clubs; candy, nut and confectionery stores. Purchases made at online supermarkets or with grocery delivery services also do not qualify if the merchant does not classify itself as a supermarket by using the supermarket merchant category code.

Select Travel

Includes airline, hotel, cruise line and travel agency purchases. Excludes timeshares, boat leases and rentals, campgrounds and trailer parks, and real estate agencies.

Select Transit

Includes car rentals, ferries, commuter railways, subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, bus lines, and motor home and recreational vehicle rentals. Excludes bike/scooter rentals, auto clubs and insurance companies.

Select Streaming Services

Includes the following cable, satellite, and streaming providers: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Apple Music, CBS All Access, Disney+, AT&T TV NOW, ESPN+, fuboTV, HBO Max, NBA League Pass, Netflix, Pandora, Showtime, Sling TV, Spotify, Starz, SiriusXM, Vudu, YouTube Red, YouTube TV, and Tidal.

Drugstores

Includes purchases made at pharmacies in grocery stores, general merchandise/discount superstores, and wholesale/warehouse clubs if those merchants submit purchases made in their pharmacy with the drug store and pharmacy merchant category code.

Home Improvement Stores

Includes purchases at home supply warehouse stores, lumber and building materials stores, paint and wallpaper stores, hardware stores, nurseries – lawn and garden supply stores and paints, varnishes and supplies stores. Excludes florists and florists’ supply stores; nursery stock; wholesale construction stores; and glass stores.

Fitness Clubs

Includes membership fee and other purchases at athletic, sports and recreation facilities requiring membership such as health, tennis, and swimming clubs. Excludes fees associated with virtual services for home exercise equipment, personal monitoring devices, or fitness streaming classes.

Live Entertainment

Includes ticket purchases for live entertainment, including: concerts, live sporting events, live theatrical productions, amusement parks, and orchestras. Excludes: charitable organizations that provide live entertainment (benefits), sporting camps, sports complexes where you participate in the sport, public and private golf courses, country clubs (including membership fees), bowling alleys, movie theaters, tourist attractions, museums and art galleries.

With an affordable $95 annual fee and a great introductory bonus to boot, there are many ways to justify keeping the Alaska Airlines card in your wallet. In fact, there are two types of travelers who would benefit from this airline credit card: one who’s loyal to the West Coast-based carrier and wants extra perks when flying, and the other who wants an easier way to earn Alaska Airlines miles for bucket-list, premium cabin redemptions.

Let’s talk about the first type of traveler: Alaska Airlines frequent flyers. To start, you get a free checked bag on every Alaska flight and get to board the plane soon after elite status holders. While potentially less utilized, the 20% discount for onboard purchases and a $100 statement credit toward a Lounge+ membership can still prove to be beneficial if you frequently fly on Alaska Airlines network.

Now, let’s discuss the second traveler: the travel optimizer. That’s because Alaska’s Mileage Plan loyalty program allow you to redeem miles at a reasonable rate for a broad range of global airline partners beyond just Alaska. From Oneworld alliance partners to highly-rated carriers like Singapore Airlines and Starlux, Alaska miles are easily some of the most valuable airline miles out there.

As well, Alaska miles can be quite difficult to earn compared to other airline miles — unless you open the Alaska Visa to earn both the bonus offer and miles on eligible card purchases. Fortunately, the Alaska Airlines Visa Credit Card comes with a solid earning rate on Alaska flights and purchases (3x miles); everyday purchases including eligible gas, EV charging, cable, streaming services, and local transit (2x miles); and a standard 1x miles pr dollar spent on all other purchases.

No matter what your travel goals are with this credit card, the final component to discuss is Alaska’s famous companion fare, which you’ll earn as part of the welcome bonus — assuming you meet minimum spend from account opening. Essentially, you’re able to score a round-trip companion ticket from $99 (plus taxes and fees starting at $23), which can provide excellent value to many destinations. Best of all, cardholders get the opportunity to earn another companion ticket every single year by spending at least $6,000 on card purchases in the prior anniversary year.

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