| Card Details and Application Link |
|---|
Citi Double Cash Card None This card does not currently feature an introductory bonus.No Annual Fee Click here to learn how to apply This is an affiliate link. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer FM Mini Review: 2X rewards for all spend with no annual fee makes this card a winner. Earn 2X everywhere and redeem for the equivalent of 2% cash back or 2X ThankYou points. Pair with the Premier or Prestige card to make points transferrable to airlines. Earning rate: 2% cash back everywhere (1% cash back for each purchase + 1% when paying your credit card bill for that purchase) Base: 2X (2.9%) Card Type: Mastercard World Elite Noteworthy perks: 1X when you make a purchase + 1X when you pay for those purchases See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
Overview
The Citi Double Cash card is a no-annual-fee powerhouse that offers two points per dollar for all purchases. Points can be simply cashed out so as to make this card a 2% cash back card. Alternatively, if you have a Citi Premier or Prestige card, you can transfer your points to airline and hotel programs for sometimes significantly greater value.
Citi Double Cash Disadvantages
The Citi Double Cash card isn’t perfect. Here are the key things I don’t like about the card:
Foreign Transaction Fees
Don’t use the card outside of the United States.
No Purchase Protections
This card used to have very strong purchase protections such as Extended Warranty, Price Rewind, and more. Sadly, Citi removed all of these benefits in September.
Perkless
This card doesn’t have any perks worth mentioning.
Rewards
Signup Bonus
This card doesn’t usually have a signup bonus, but if one is available it will appear here:
| Card Offer |
|---|
None This card does not currently feature an introductory bonus.No Annual Fee |
Spend
The best way to earn Citi Double Cash rewards is through credit card spend. Technically, this card earns 1 point per dollar (1%) when you make a purchase and 1 points per dollar (1%) when you pay your credit card bill. I find it simpler to say that this card earns 2X everywhere, or 2% cash back.
The Citi Double Cash card is particularly good for “non bonus” spend. For example, some cards earn bonuses at restaurants, some at grocery stores, some at gas stations, etc. The Double Cash is one of the most rewarding cards for all other (not bonused) spend.
Citi Double Cash Redeem Rewards
Cash Back
Double Cash cardholders can redeem their ThankYou points for cash back at a rate of 1 cent for each point.
Transfer Points to Airline Miles
The best use of ThankYou points, in my opinion, is to transfer points to airline partners in order to book high value awards. One example is the ability to book United flights to Hawaii for only 7,500 points each. Please check out our post which covers the best awards that can be booked with Citi ThankYou points:
>>>>> Citi ThankYou points sweet spots <<<<<
It is usually best to wait until you find a great flight award before transferring points. One exception: Citi often offers 25% or 30% transfer bonuses to certain programs (Air France Flying Blue and Avianca LifeMiles are two recent examples). If you’re confident that you’ll use the points for good value, it may make sense to transfer points when those bonuses are in effect.
The Double Cash card can directly transfer to a few airlines and hotel programs, but at poor transfer rates. A much better option is to combine your Double Cash ThankYou account with a Citi Premier account (or Citi Prestige if you got that card while it was still available). That way, you can get the full transfer power of Citi points to airline and hotel programs. See: Citi Transfer Partners.
Current Transfer Bonuses
Transfer bonuses come and go over time. When transfer bonuses are in effect, details will automatically appear here (when viewed online):
| Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|
| 30% transfer bonus from Citi to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 2023/10/14 |
Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Best Uses |
|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless | Use to pay hotel bill with value of 2 Euro cents per point. In some cases (such as hotel to airline transfer bonuses) it may make sense to convert Accor points to the following airline miles at a 1 to 1 ratio: Finnair, Iberia, Qantas, or Virgin Australia |
| Aer Lingus Avios | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus (Avios.com) rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | AeroMexico is a SkyTeam partner. Club Premier points can be used to book flights on AeroMexico, SkyTeam alliance members (such as Delta or Korean Air), or on select partner airlines. Unfortunately many have reported that awards are extremely difficult to book through AeroMexico so we do not recommend transferring points to this program. If you want to fly AeroMexico, look to transfer points to another SkyTeam partner (such as Air France) and then book AeroMexico with that program. |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Avianca LifeMiles can be great for Star Alliance awards. They offer reasonable award prices and no fuel surcharges on awards. They also offer shorthaul awards within the US (for flying United, for example) for as few as 7,500 miles one-way. Best of all, their mixed-cabin pricing can lead to fantastic first-class award prices. See this post for details. |
| British Airways Avios | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Cathay Pacific has a decent distance based award chart, but they no longer allow stopovers longer than 24 hours. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can be a good option for booking American Airlines flights with a distance based award chart, especially if other OneWorld Alliance miles aren't available. For long distance flights, it is possible to reduce the cost of a premium cabin award by adding on a lower cabin segment. See this post for details. |
| Choice | Choice Privileges points seem to be randomly valuable within the US, but dependably valuable internationally in expensive locations such as Scandinavia and Japan. Points can sometimes offer great value when used towards participating Preferred Hotels of the World. |
| Emirates Skywards | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip. |
| Etihad Guest | Etihad offers a distance based award chart for flying Etihad and another for its partners. Points may offer good value for expensive but short-distance flights. |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | If you want to fly one of the best business class products in the sky, the best way to snag EVA flights is with their own miles since they release more award space to their own members. One-way business class flights from the US to Taipei cost 75K to 80K miles. Fuel surcharges are very low on these routes. |
| Iberia Avios | Iberia offers very low award prices on their own flights and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Jet Airways Inter Miles | JetAirways JetPrivilege miles are useful only for a few very specific cases such as certain flights to Hawaii for as low as 15K (30K business) one-way, or to the Caribbean or Central America for as low as 10K (20K business) one-way. Details can be found here. |
| JetBlue | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. |
| Malaysia Enrich | Given Malaysia's award chart devaluation in June 2017, I'm not aware of any good uses for these miles. |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | Best use is probably for flights on El Al with no fuel surcharges. Also useful for short AA flights. Qantas offers distance based award charts similar to Cathay Pacific. Both are OneWorld Alliance members. I recommend comparing award prices across both programs before transferring to either. Qantas offers round the world business class awards for only 280,000 points (but with many restrictions) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia) |
| Shop Your Way Rewards | Don't do it. Shop Your Way points can be redeemed for a variety of gift cards. That said, unless Shop Your Way starts offering discounted gift cards, there's no point in converting transferrable points to Shop Your Way. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). |
| Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus | I'm not aware of any good uses for these miles |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | Miles & Smiles offers a number of awesome sweet-spot awards including 7.5K one-way anywhere within the US, even to Hawaii. Many awards cannot be booked online but can be booked via phone or email. See: Turkish Miles & Smiles Complete Guide and Turkish business class sweet spots from the US. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic offers a few great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
| Wyndham | Wyndham often allows booking multi-room suites for the same price as a standard room. It's sometimes possible to get great value from points in that way. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. Additionally, you can book Vacasa vacation rentals for only 15K points per room per night. Wyndham Earner cards offer automatic 10% discount on award stays. |
The Rewards+ Rebate
One way to make your rewards go farther is to get a Rewards+ card and combine it with your other accounts. The Rewards+ card offers a 10% rebate on redeemed points, up to 10,000 points rebated per year. By combining the Rewards+ ThankYou account with your Premier or Prestige ThankYou account, for example, you’ll get that rebate when you convert points to airline miles or when you book travel. See this post for more: Citi Rewards+ is a great companion to Premier or Prestige.
This is also a great option to combine with the Double Cash card for cash back. By picking up a Rewards+ card and combining ThankYou accounts between the two cards, you can take advantage of the Rewards+ card’s 10% points rebate each year (on up to 100,000 redeemed points). Let’s say you spend $25,000 on the Double Cash card and therefore earn 50,000 points. You can then redeem those 50,000 points for $500 back. You’ll then get 5000 ThankYou points back (thanks to the Rewards+ card) which you can then redeem for $50. You’ll then get $5 in ThankYou points back. In total, your $25,000 spend results in $555 back. That’s a return of 2.22% on your spend!
Manage Rewards
Combine Rewards Across Cards
If you are the primary account holder with multiple credit cards that earn ThankYou Rewards, you can combine ThankYou Rewards accounts. When your points are combined, they can then automatically be redeemed at the same value as your best card. For example, if one of your cards is the Premier card, and you have combined ThankYou accounts, then you’ll be able to transfer points to airline and hotel programs at the best rates even if the points were earned on your Double Cash card.
There are disadvantages to combining points:
- You lose the ability to pick and choose which points are used when you redeem awards.
- You lose visibility into how many points remain with each card.
Overall, I think that these disadvantages are minor. The advantages of combining your Double Cash ThankYou account with your Premier or Prestige ThankYou account greatly outweigh to disadvantages.
Share Rewards Across Cardholders
If you don’t have a premium ThankYou card or you don’t want to combine it with your Double Cash ThankYou account, then you can opt to “share points” instead.
Citi allows people to transfer ThankYou points to anyone else, for free. The “anyone else” includes yourself if your accounts aren’t combined. There are two catches to this:
- Shared points expire after 90 days. Make sure you have a specific near-term use in mind before transferring points.
- 100K limit: Each member may share up to 100,000 points per calendar year. Each member may receive up to 100,000 points per calendar year.
Why this is valuable:
- A friend or family member with a Premier card can transfer points to airline or hotel programs with the best transfer rates.
- If a friend has airline elite status with one of Citi’s transfer partners with which you want to book an award, you may be better off transferring points to your friend who can then transfer the points to the airline partner and book the award for you (to get free award changes, for example).
- If you haven’t combined accounts, you can still use points from your Double Cash card effectively by sharing them with your Premier or Prestige account before redeeming the points.
Related Cards
Here are all of the Citi cards that earn ThankYou points:
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
60K Points + 10X Select Travel 60K points after $4K spend in the first 3 months. Plus, earn 10x on hotel, car rentals, and attractions (excluding air travel) booked on the Citi Travel℠ portal through June 30, 2024.$95 Annual Fee FM Mini Review: Very strong earnings for spend. Excellent bonus categories. Points transferable to select airlines. Recommend pairing this card with Citi Double Cash and Citi Rewards+. Sadly, this travel card doesn't provide any travel protections. Earning rate: 3X grocery ⚬ 3X dining ⚬ 3X gas stations ⚬ 3X flights, hotels, travel agencies Card Type: Mastercard World Elite Noteworthy perks: Transfer points to airline partners ⚬ $100 Annual Hotel Savings Benefit See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
25K points 25K points after $1.5K spend in 3 months No Annual Fee FM Mini Review: 10% points rebate (up to 10K rebate per year) make this a great choice to pool with ThankYou Premier, Prestige, and/or Double Cash Earning rate: 5x on travel booked through Citi Travel Portal through June 30 2024 (excludes air travel) ⚬ 2X at supermarkets and gas stations on up to $6,000 per year ⚬ Round up to nearest 10 TY points on all purchases Card Type: Mastercard World Noteworthy perks: Round up to the nearest 10 points on all purchases with no cap. ⚬ get 10% of your points back on the first 100K redeemed each year See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
20K Points 20K points after $1500 spend in the first 6 monthsNo Annual Fee Recent better offer: Expired 9/13/22 - 20,000 points after $750 spend in first 3 months FM Mini Review: This is a great card to have and hold for a single category where you spend no more than $500 per month as it represents an excellent return without rotating categories to track. Earning rate: 5x on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1x thereafter. Eligible categories: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transit, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Fitness Clubs and Live Entertainment. ⚬ 1x on all other purchases Base: 1X (1.45%) Travel: 5X (7.25%) Dine: 5X (7.25%) Gas: 5X (7.25%) Grocery: 5X (7.25%) Other: 5X (7.25%) Card Type: Mastercard See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
$100 statement credit $100 statement credit after $1K Spend in 3 MonthsNo Annual Fee FM Mini Review: This has a good gas station bonus for a no annual fee card, but there's not much else to make it a compelling card Earning rate: ⚬ 3 points per $1 at gas stations ⚬ 2 points per $1 oat grocery stores ⚬ 1 point per $1 on all other purchases Card Type: Mastercard Noteworthy perks: $20 statement credit every billing cycle you spend $1,000+ (for AT&T Wireless customers omly) See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card does not currently feature an introductory bonus.No Annual Fee FM Mini Review: 2X rewards for all spend with no annual fee makes this card a winner. Earn 2X everywhere and redeem for the equivalent of 2% cash back or 2X ThankYou points. Pair with the Premier or Prestige card to make points transferrable to airlines. Earning rate: 2% cash back everywhere (1% cash back for each purchase + 1% when paying your credit card bill for that purchase) Base: 2X (2.9%) Card Type: Mastercard World Elite Noteworthy perks: 1X when you make a purchase + 1X when you pay for those purchases See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card is no longer availableNo Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: 10% points rebate (up to 10K rebate per year) make this a great choice to pool with ThankYou Premier, Prestige, and/or Double Cash Earning rate: 2X at supermarkets and gas stations on up to $6,000 per year ⚬ Round up to nearest 10 TY points on all purchases Card Type: Mastercard World Noteworthy perks: Round up to the nearest 10 points on all purchases with no cap. ⚬ get 10% of your points back on the first 100K redeemed each year See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card is no longer availableNo Annual Fee FM Mini Review: Downgrade from Prestige or Premier to this card in order to keep points alive Earning rate: 2X dining and entertainment Card Type: Mastercard World See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card is no longer availableNo Annual Fee This card is available in-branch only and is not available online. The bonus may vary by region and can be as high as 40K. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Earning rate: 3x travel ⚬ office supply ⚬ professional services Card Type: Mastercard World Noteworthy perks: Anniversary bonus on base earnings each membership year. (1% in year 1, 2% in year 2 and 3% in year 3 and beyond.) See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card is no longer availableNo Annual Fee FM Mini Review: This card may be worth it for a welcome bonus, but it would be worth considering a product change to the Double Cash down the road..Unforunately, it seems it is no longer possible to product change to the AT&T Access More card. Earning rate: ⚬ 2 points per $1 on products and services that are purchased directly from AT&T ⚬ 2 points per $1 on all purchases at online retail and travel sites ⚬ 1 point per $1 on all other purchases Card Type: Mastercard World See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card is no longer available$95 Annual Fee This card is no longer available to new applicants. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Excellent choice for those who shop often online (thanks to 3X earnings) Earning rate: ⚬ 3 points per $1 on products and services that are purchased directly from AT&T ⚬ 3 points per $1 on all purchases at online retail and travel sites ⚬ 1 point per $1 on all other purchases Card Type: Mastercard World Elite Big spend bonus: 10,000 anniversary bonus points after $10,000 in annual spending See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
None This card is no longer available$495 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: The Prestige card's best in class 5X rewards for dining, airfare, and travel agencies is hard to beat. Sadly, this travel card doesn't provide any travel protections. Earning rate: 5X airfare, dining, and travel agencies ⚬ 3X hotels and cruise line ⚬ 1X everywhere else Card Type: Mastercard World Elite Noteworthy perks: $250 travel rebate per calendar year ⚬ Free lounge access: Citi Properietary Lounges; and Priority Pass Select with free guests ⚬ $100 Global Entry application fee credit ⚬ 4th night free hotel benefit See also: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide |
Link does not go to a $200 bonus offer, I believe this is expired
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Ok, so this isn’t a spectacular card and doesn’t have a sign-up bonus, but something must be wrong with the algorithm for 1st year estimate, right? How can it be negative if there is no fee or spend requirement?
Thanks for catching that! Fixed.
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