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* Suggested credit score ranges are supplied by QuinStreet, not from the issuers, and are guidelines, not a guarantee of approval.

Citi Custom Cash℠ Card

The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card has the most diverse selection of 5X bonus categories of any credit card.

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(3.9) Our Review
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Your Best Credit Cards has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Your Best Credit Cards and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on Your Best Credit Cards are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. Your Best Credit Cards does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Commissions do not affect or prioritize placement within our Card Explorer results and not all cards displayed earn us a commission. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone.

* Suggested credit score ranges are supplied by QuinStreet, not from the issuers, and are guidelines, not a guarantee of approval.

Citi Custom Cash℠ Card

The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card has the most diverse selection of 5X bonus categories of any credit card.

Not Currently Available at Your Best Credit Cards

This card is not currently available on Your Best Credit Cards. Please use our Card Explorer to find similar cards.

All information about Citi Custom Cash℠ Card has been collected independently by Your Best Credit Cards. Citi Custom Cash℠ Card is no longer available through Your Best Credit Cards.

Key facts

Annual Fee:

$0

AVG Point Value:

$0.01 (Learn More)

Min. Credit Score for Approval:

580-669 * Fair

APR on Purchases:

0 % Intro APR on purchases for 15 months, 19.24%-29.24% thereafter

APR on Balance Transfers:

0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months, 19.24%-29.24% thereafter

Balance transfer fees

Balance transfer fee applies with this offer 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum.

Foreign Transaction Fee:

3%

The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card is a credit card that earns Citi ThankYou® points redeemable as cash.

As a 5X card, you are earning 5% back on the category in which you spend the most each billing cycle from a selection of specific categories, up to $500 in spend. Notably, if you also have a Citi Premier card, these ThankYou® points from the Citi Custom Cash become fully transferable to airline and hotel partners if you choose.

Reward multipliers

You will earn 5% cash back (as ThankYou Points) on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle on the Citi Custom Cash card, 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 made with your Citi Custom Cash card.

Earns bonus points for spend in the following bonus categories:

5x
Airfare

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Transit

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Car Rentals

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Gas Stations

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Dining Out / Food Delivery

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Hotels

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Gym Memberships

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Streaming Services

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Drugstores

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Entertainment (Concerts / Shows / Movies)

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

5x
Groceries

Estimated Rewards Value: 5%

1x
Everything Else

Estimated Rewards Value: 1%

ALREADY HAVE THIS CARD?

Pair another card and boost your rewards

In some cases, adding cards from the same points system will increase your rewards by unlocking a higher point value based on the ability to transfer points to air or hotel partners. In other cases, the cards simply work together to earn more points with one bank or diversify your bonus category rewards across banks.

Key features

1

Unique Card Benefits

Foreign Transaction Fees

The Citi Custom Cash card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee.

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.

Contactless Chip-Enabled Card

Tap and go!

2

0% Intro APR on Purchases

0 % Intro APR on purchases for 15 months, 19.24%-29.24% thereafter

3

0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers

0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 15 months, 19.24%-29.24% thereafter

Balance Transfer Fees: Balance transfer fee applies with this offer 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum.

4

No Fees for Authorized Users

Additional Citi Custom Cash cards are free for anyone you choose.

Earn more rewards by combining credit cards

Citi Custom Cash℠ Card
? Best Combo
See how much more you'll earn in rewards when you combine these two cards.
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Pros & cons

  • 5% is the highest possible reward for many of the Custom Cash Card's bonus categories
  • No annual fee
  • Includes very rare bonus categories, like home improvement stores
  • With the Citi Custom Cash, your 5X earnings are capped at $500 per statement cycle on your top spend category each billing period
  • Has a fairly low bonus offer, although not too bad for a no-annual fee credit card
  • Charges a foreign transaction fee

Our review

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

restaurants-citi-custom-cash

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.

concerts-citi-custom-cash-credit-card

Frequently asked questions

1

Does The Citi Custom Cash have an annual fee?

No, the Citi Custom Cash has no annual fee.

2

Does The Citi Custom Cash get you into airport lounges?

No, it does not.

3

Is it hard to get the The Citi Custom Cash Card?

You’ll need at least a “Good” credit score, meaning a 670+ FICO® score.

4

Is it worth getting The Citi Custom Cash?

If you spend $500 or more on one of the eligible categories most months, then absolutely! 5X is hard to beat!

5

How do I get 5X points with the Citi Custom Cash?

You earn 5X on one of the following spend categories each month, whichever you spent the most on in that statement cycle:

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

6

Is there a better credit card than the Citi Custom Cash?

While the Citi Custom Cash is a good card, we tend to recommend cards that give you transferable bank points, where you can transfer into airline or hotel programs later at your discretion. Those cards will, however, generally have a small annual fee. With the Custom Cash, you should consider “pairing” it with a Citi Premier in which case the points earned on the Custom Cash card become fully transferable ThankYou® Points.

7

Does the Citi Custom Cash charge foreign transaction fees?

Yes, you will pay a 3% fee on the Custom Cash for transactions made in other countries. You should always make sure you carry at least one credit card with no foreign transaction fees.

8

Does the Citi Custom Cash have car rental coverage?

It does not. Not even secondary coverage.

9

Does the the Citi Custom Cash come with any Elite Status?

It does not. But you can filter in our Card Explorer for cards that do!

10

Does the Citi Custom Cash offer extended warranty?

No, it does not.

11

What credit score do I need to get a Citi Custom Cash?

You’ll need at least a “Good” credit score, meaning a 670+ FICO® score

12

What can I do with the points earned for spending on the Citi Custom Cash card?

That depends. If you do not have a Citi Prestige or Citi Premier credit card, each point earned is worth exactly 1 cent. If you do have a Citi Prestige or Citi Premier card, then your points are fully transferrable Citi ThankYou® points (see our guide to Citi Thank You® Points).

13

Does the Citi Custom Cash have Cell Phone Protection?

No, Citi Custom Cash credit card does not offer any cell phone protection benefits.

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