Card Features and Benefits:

This card is no longer available at Your Best Credit Cards.

We suggest the Chase Freedom Unlimited® instead.

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The Citi Custom Cash® Card earns ThankYou points which are worth a penny per point (1% cash back) unless you also have a Citi Premier® card or Prestige in your Citi portfolio.

Assuming you do, then these will combine to your overall ThankYou pool once linked.

Citi Custom Cash Signup Bonus

The signup bonus is like cash, but it can be worth more if you have a Citi Premier or Prestige to link it to and use the points to transfer to airline partner frequent flyer programs.

How It Earns

You will earn 5% cash back (as ThankYou Points) on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, with 1% cash back thereafter. You do not have to select anything at any time. It's automatic.

The eligible 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! So, in context, I think this card becomes a very compelling addition to the Citi Trifecta / Quadfecta.



O% Intro APR Offer - New Purchases and Balance Transfers

0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months.

After that, the variable APR will be 19.24% - 29.24%, based on your creditworthiness.

Annual Fee

There's no annual fee.

Card Limit

Some people have multiples of the same Citi credit card. Acknowledging that someone might want to hold many of these to get everything at 5X, they are capping this card at one per person.

Citi Custom Cash Bonus Eligibility

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

Review Summary

The Custom Cash card should make for an easy extra 30,000 ThankYou points per year if you already collect them, or an extra $300 cash back if cash is your preference.

30,000 points are enough for a round trip in business class anywhere in North America (based on United having saver availability to book via Turkish Miles&Smiles) - as long as you also have a Premier or Prestige card.

The Citi Custom Cash card would combine nicely with a Citi Premier credit card (3X on most travel, dining, groceries, and gas plus it unlocks the ability to transfer all ThankYou points to airlines), a Citi Double Cash (2% cash back on everything with the ability to convert to ThankYou points 1:1), and a Rewards+ card (10% annual rebate on redemptions).

Bonus Category Definitions

t'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 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.

More Reading at MilesTalk

• The Citi Trifecta / Quadfecta and Best Uses of Citi ThankYou Points
• Business Class for 15,000 miles or less

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• The Best Travel Credit Cards
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