Citi Custom Cash® Card review

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• Welcome Bonus
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• Annual Fee
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Earning 5% cash back where you spend the most almost sounds too good to be true, but that’s exactly what the CardName offers. That said, like with any credit card, there are some restrictions to consider. Read on to learn more about the card_name. Citi is a CardRatings advertiser

Citi Custom Cash^® benefits

There’s a lot to like about the CardName. For starters:

It has a solid welcome bonus. If you spend signup_bonus_spend_amount on purchases within the first six months, you’ll receive signup_reward.

It has an excellent cash-back system. You’ll earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent and 1% cash back thereafter. On everything else you purchase, you’ll get 1% cash back. As a special travel offer, earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026. We cover in further detail below why this is such a great system.

There is no annual fee. That means this credit card doesn’t come with as many perks as some of the cards that do have annual fees, but when you can find a generous cash-back card that has no annual fee, it’s worth your attention and consideration.

There is some breathing room when it comes to paying your balances. You’ll get a 0% intro APR for intro_apr_duration and balance_transfer_duration_months. After that, the variable APR will be RegAPR, based on your creditworthiness.

Citi Custom Cash^® rewards

As noted, the CardName has a generous welcome bonus. Sure, one could take issue with that. The welcome bonus is signup_reward, and you can find plenty of credit cards that will give you a bigger bonus, but at least you can get that signup_reward pretty easily. You just need to spend signup_bonus_spend_amount within the first six months.

There’s also a valuable cash-back system in place. You’ll earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1% cash back thereafter.

So, you’re always earning at least 1% with this credit card, but on certain items, 5%.

And as a special travel offer, earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠  portal through 6/30/2026.

Citi Custom Cash^® categories

Typically, with many rotating cash back categories that come with credit cards, you have to remember to enroll in the category that you want to get a reward from. If you forget, you’re out of luck until the next enrollment period.

With this credit card, however, you have 10 categories of spending (see below), and whatever month you happen to spend the most in, that’s where you receive your 5% cash back. If you’re somebody who has trouble remembering what the latest deal is in a cash-back bonus category, this could be the card for you. You’ll just earn money in whatever category you spend the most money in, automatically.

Even better, the bonus categories are pretty broad too, so unless you pretty much purchase nothing, most people should have more than enough here to be able to maximize the rewards if they are regularly using the card. 

Here are the categories of spending the CardName offers bonus rewards:

• Restaurants
• Grocery stores
• Gas stations
• Select travel
• Select transit
• Select streaming services
• Fitness clubs
• Live entertainment
• Drugstores
• Home improvement stores

Citi Custom Cash^® welcome bonus

As noted above, the CardName has a welcome bonus. It’s signup_reward. Sure, it’d be nice to get more, but that often entails spending more. All you need to do is spend signup_bonus_spend_amount on items you need to buy, regardless, within the first six months of opening your credit card account, and you’re suddenly signup_reward richer.

You’ll receive the bonus in the form of Citi ThankYou® Points. ThankYou® Points are worth a penny per point, and while that might not sound like much, they add up quickly when you get a load of them. What’s really nice, too, is that if you have another Citi credit card that earns ThankYou® Points, you can pool your rewards into one account.

It’s also worth noting that while it may not be an official welcome offer, you do get that 0% intro APR offer. (After that, the variable APR will be RegAPR, based on your creditworthiness.)

 ➤  FREE TOOL:Balance transfer calculator

Potential downsides of the card_name

There aren’t a lot of downsides, but you know how it is – we all look at things differently. Here’s what you may or may not feel is problematic.

That APR. Once the introductory offer is over, you might recoil at the APR, which is RegAPR, based on your creditworthiness. But while the upper end of that range would be a high APR, obviously, the hope is, you’ll never pay it, because you’ll pay everything in full every month. 

Maybe you can do better with a different cash back card? Some people may feel that you get more cash back with some other cards that do have rotating categories, or where one category is getting 5% cash back, and another is giving 3% and another is 2% and so on.

 ➤  SEE MORE:Best cash back credit cards

There’s a foreign transaction fee. There’s a foreign_fee foreign transaction fee charged on all international purchases. If you don’t travel internationally much or have other credit cards that don’t have a foreign transaction fee, this may not bother you in the least, but it’s worth noting.

How do cardholders rate the card_name?

CardRatings commissioned Slice MR in November 2024 to survey 1,666 cardholders nationwide. Responses were given on a scale of 1-10 and respondents’ ratings were then averaged under broad topics. Here are the results for the card_name:

How does the card_name compare to other cards?

Who should apply for the CardName?

Anybody can apply and feel pretty good about getting the CardName, but it’s really meant for somebody who wants cash back without having to do much thinking about how to earn it.

And if you think about it, the way the categories are set up, it’s a pretty nice deal. If one month you just go crazy and are eating at restaurants for almost every meal, and your spending outpaces everything else, you’ll get 5% back. If another month, your entire family has head colds, and you’re constantly going to the drugstore, and that’s where you’ve become a big spender, maybe you’ll get 5% on all of that cold medicine. It’s a simple way to earn rewards.