Compare the Features and Benefits of JP Morgan Reserve Card and
Citi Custom Cash℠ Card

If you are looking for a review of the JP Morgan Reserve card, you’re in the right spot.

However, it may be more elusive than you think….

What is the JP Morgan Reserve card?

Formerly known as the JP Morgan Palladium card, this unbelievably heavy metal credit card is now known as the JP Morgan Reserve card.

In the travel rewards credit card space, this is the equivalent of the famous American Express Black (Centurion) Card.

In nearly every way but the design and rarity, this card is the same as the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

One big difference?

The JP Morgan Reserve card includes an annual United Club membership.  

So in some ways, the JP Morgan Reserve card combined the best features of the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the United Club Infinite Card.

The annual fee is the same as the Sapphire Reserve as well.

How Do You Get a JP Morgan Reserve Card?

This card is available to Chase Private Bank clients, only. That means you will need over 10 Million dollars in assets with Chase.

Now, you may know someone with one of these cards that doesn’t have $10 million with Chase. That would be because when it was the Palladium card, mere Chase Private Client customers could apply. But no longer…

JP Morgan Reserve Benefits:

• United Club annual membership
• Primary car rental CDW coverage for rental cars.
• Priority Pass Select airport lounge access is included for the cardholder and up to two guests. This means that every time you visit a Priority Pass airport lounge, the cost of entry is included.  More info on Priority Pass.
• $100 credit for enrollment in Global Entry or PreCheck once every 5 years.
• $300 travel credit each year, credited automatically, as you spend on any travel.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• Pay Yourself Back (when available; categories subject to change)

JP Morgan Reserve  / Lyft Benefits

• Earn 10X Ultimate Rewards points on Lyft rides through March 2025
• Get a one-time complimentary Lyft Pink subscription (15% Lyft discounts, free bike/scooter rentals each month, and better cancellation rules) for 2 years if you activate by Dec 2024.

DoorDash Benefits

• Complimentary DashPass from DoorDash: You and your authorized user(s) will receive at least 12 months of complimentary DashPass for use on both the DoorDash and Caviar applications during the same membership period based on the first activation date, when the membership is activated with a J.P. Morgan Reserve card by 12/31/2024.
• Earn $5 monthly DoorDash Credits through 12/31/2024

Can you Product Change from a Chase Sapphire Reserve to a J.P. Morgan Reserve?

No. sorry.

The Bottom Line on the JP Morgan Reserve

If you are reading this, the odds are that you can’t get a JP Morgan Reserve card. If you do have the $10 million in assets with Chase, just give your Private Banker a call!

Otherwise, you may need to look at applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve instead…   for now.

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 Premier® and a Citi® Double Cash card, creating a Citi Trifecta. If you have all three cards, you would use the Citi Premier for 3X Citi ThankYou points® on air travel & hotels, gas stations, restaurants and supermarkets, the Double Cash card 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.

However, this is GOOD news! You see, with all of the other Citi credit cards that earn ThankYou points you can only get one bonus, in total, every 24 months. Meaning that getting a Citi Premier precludes you from, for example, a Citi Rewards+.

But the Custom Cash card is not subject to that rule. So, you can get another Citi ThankYou® card bonus and a Custom Cash card bonus within the same 24 month period.

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.