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Update 3/28: The changes to the Double Cash card are now live. There is no longer a $25 minimum to redeem rewards and the card now earns Thank You Points (but points are still reedemable as cashback as well). We’ve been excited to see these changes take affect, it’s a definite positive step to the Citi universe.
Citi has announced today that there’ll be a change coming on the Double Cash card towards the end of March. Rather than earning cashback which can be converted to ThankYou points, the Double Cash card itself will earn ThankYou points which can still be redeemed as cashback if desired.
You can find Citi’s announcement about the changes here. These changes will come into effect from March 28, 2022.
For many Double Cash cardholders, the changes won’t make much of a difference. If you have a Citi Premier or Prestige card, you already have the ability to convert cashback earned on the Double Cash card to ThankYou points that can then be transferred to travel partners.
If you don’t have one of those cards, the increased redemption options from earning ThankYou points rather than cashback won’t be too useful. ThankYou points will maintain the same 1cpp value when redeemed as a statement credit, check or direct deposit. There will be additional redemption options like the ability to transfer points to Shop Your Way, redeem for gift cards, etc., but all of those redemptions are pretty much capped at 1cpp of value anyway. Citi occasionally offers a discount when redeeming points for select gift card brands, but it’s often possible to buy those brands at a similar discount from elsewhere, so that ability isn’t too compelling.
There are a couple of positive developments with this change though. First, there’ll no longer be a minimum redemption requirement of $25 when redeeming your cashback (soon to be points) as a statement credit or direct deposit.
Second, this makes the Double Cash card an even better downgrade option from Citi Premier and Prestige cards because it means you’ll be keeping your ThankYou points alive if one of those premium cards was your only ThankYou points-earning card. When downgrading my Citi Premier card last year, I converted it to a Custom Cash card precisely because I wanted to maintain my existing ThankYou points balance. Having the ability to convert to a Double Cash card from March 28, 2022 to achieve the same goal is a nice development.
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So with these changes, is the Double Cash now in the Thank You card family, so that another Thank You card can be product changed to a Double Cash without triggering 90 day point expiration?
Yep. When you call to product change, just ask first if the change will result in a new card number. If not, you should be safe.
Could Citi MAKE TY points any more confusing? I’m a long-time points/miles player and even I keep getting confused about “types” of TY points. They really need to differentiate these more clearly. There are bound to be some angry people that will get this card thinking they can transfer to the travel partners. I personally find Citi the most user unfriendly bank with which I deal and I am trying to use up my TY points so I can drop my Premier card and be done with Citi until they come up with something I can’t resist. Not holding my breath.
To be fair Chase has some similar issues with UR. You have transferrable UR; non-transferrable, but combinable (Freedoms); and non-combinable, non-transferrable (Chase Ink Premier)
Will we now be able to convert the double cash to the custom cash?
FWIW, the Double-Cash-only-TYP (i.e. without Premier or Prestige) transfer rates for 4 programs are unchanged, not that I expected them to change.
Maybe we will see a post from Nick about how he used his old DC cashback converted to limited-use DC-TYP to transfer to JetBlue to transfer to Amtrak for a trip to NYC. Not a terrible redemption for a fee-free card if you can get close to 2.9 cents per Amtrak point, that would be 1.16 cents per DC-TYP.
Do you still need a fee card like Premier or prestige to transfer points to airlines?
Yes.
“ThankYou points will maintain the same 1cpp value when redeemed as a statement credit, check or direct deposit.”
They will? Maybe things changed, but whenever I looked at redeeming for check, statement credit or direct deposit, points were only worth 1/2 a cent…
Double Cash eventually earning 1% is an absolute best way for Citi to shoot themselves in the foot, North Korean style with an AA gun.
I don’t think they are that idiots.
I’m sorry, I was confused. I was looking at ThankYou points that were earned with a Sears Mastercard: Regular earned points expire, bonus points don’t. When redeeming for statement credit or check, only worth 1/2 a cent.
DoubleCash ThankYou points: Never expire. Redeemable for direct deposit, statement credit or check at 1 cent/point.
Note to self:
NOT ALL THANKYOU POINTS ARE CREATED EQUAL.
Will downgrading to the custom cash card not keep TY points? My premier is up for renewal in March, already have a double cash
Downgrading to the Custom Cash card does keep ThankYou points, you just lose the ability to transfer to travel partners.
Regarding redeeming TYP without having a Premier or Prestige (fourth paragraph)–if you also had a no AF Rewards+ card, I think the TYP route would be better than cashback. Like if you pooled the Double Cash and Rewards+ TYP, I think you would get 10% back on the redemptions (and 10% back when redeeming those points too, etc). So essentially by adding this other no AF card, you would effectively be getting 2.22% back with the Double Cash. It is not much changed with todays announcement, but I think there are benefits to redeeming Double Cash earnings as TYP, even without a Premier/Prestige.
Think this means they won’t be bringing back the AAdvantage miles transfer ability?
I don’t think this’ll have any impact because nothing has changed as to whether or not you’d be able to take advantage of that transfer ability if it was reintroduced.
is there an introduction of airline points transfer partners for this card?
Unless they’re planning on announcing that separately in the future, sadly not – not unless you have a Premier or Prestige card that allows you to do that.
Stephen, Are you able to transfer these points to airlines instead of cash with only the double cash card? Are these TYP real or a lite version?
Thanks for all you do!
You can’t transfer these to travel partners unless you have a Premier or Prestige card.
… with a few exceptions (at a worse rate than for the cards with an AF, I believe): Choice 1000:1500, JetBlue 1000:800, and Wyndham 1000:800. I can also already do 1:10 SYW points.