Citibank Launches New “Double Cash” MasterCard That Earns 2% Cash Back, NO AF

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It looks like Citibank is getting serious about offering competitive credit cards again with the release of their new card called “Double Cash” it’s effectively a 2% cash back card with no annual fee. There is no sign up bonus currently available for this card.

Note: It also looks like Citibank has removed their Citibank Dividend card from the website and replaced it with this. The Citi Dividend page is now also redirecting to this page which indicates that consumers might have a forced product change done.

Product Change

At the moment it’s not possible to do a product change to this card, but Citibank is hoping to offer product changes starting September 7th, 2014. I can see this becoming a popular option for people who sign up for Citibank credit cards with high sign up bonuses and want to downgrade to a no annual fee card with a good earning rate on non category bonus spend.

Generally card issuers do not allow you to do a product change from a co-branded credit card to bank loyalty card (e.g you probably won’t be able to convert an American Airlines card to this Double Cash card). Update: Rapid Travel Chai says that they were able to do a product change to a Citi Dividend from a Citi AA card, this means you’ll most likely be able to do a product change to the double cash card from any existing Citi product.

Update 2: Several Citi reps have stated that a product change will only be possible once a card has been opened for a full year or more. This means that it would not be possible to sign up for a card with a high sign up bonus and no annual fee for the first year and then get it converted to this new double cash card. Other readers have confirmed that in the past Citi has enforced this one year rule.

citibank doublecash

The 2% cash back is earned in the following way:

  • 1% cash back when you make your purchase
  • 1% cash back when you pay for those purchases

I was hoping that Citibank was trying to teach it’s customers to be responsible with credit and pay their cards in full every month but unfortunately the second 1% is earned whether you pay in full or pay over time as long as you make your minimum payment.

You should always always always be paying your credit card in full to avoid any high interest charges. If there is one thing I hate seeing, it’s people paying money to these massive corporate behemoths because they didn’t pay their card in full.

Card Pros:

  • 2% cash back
  • Mastercard (Fidelity offers a 2% cash back card but this is an American Express card which has lower acceptance)
  • No annual fee
  • 0% introductory APR for the first 15 billing cycles
  • Rewards can be redeemed in increments of $25

Card Cons:

  • 3% foreign transaction fee
  • Not currently able to do a product change from an existing Citibank product
  • Cashback expires after one year if no charges are placed on the card

Our Verdict

Because of the fact that no sign up bonus is currently being offered, I don’t think this card is worth applying for directly. Here’s why: instead of signing up for this card you could instead sign up for a card that has a high cash sign up bonus the current highest is the Wells Fargo Propel card which is $400 + $100 travel reimbursement. Removing the travel reimbursement completely you’d need to spend $20,000 on this new Citibank product to match that bonus. Most people aren’t spending nearly that much on non bonus category spend.

A lot of people, myself included also already have the Fidelity American Express card which earns 2% cash back on all purchases and as such we’d need to be putting through $20k worth of spend that couldn’t be put on that American Express card. I personally don’t really have too many troubles with AmEx acceptance.

There are also other options, e.g the Barclays Arrival which comes with 40,000 points after $3,000 in spend which are worth $440 when redeeming against travel expenses and also earns at a rate of 2.22%. Let’s also not forget the JCB Marukai card which earns 3% cash back, but has an extremely weird earning and redemption model.

We’ve put together this list of cards which offer a high cash back rate on all purchases which might be useful for those considering signing up for this Citibank offer.

All of that being said, I can see why some people would be incredibly interested in this offer. Anybody with a Citibank card that is currently sitting idle would be silly not to consider doing a product change to this card, we’ll see how easy that process is in early September and if all cards can be downgraded or not.

Those who have already signed up for the higher cash credit card bonuses might also find this new card alluring, especially if they don’t have the Fidelity card or have a lot of credit card spend which cannot be done on an American Express.

I’ll personally be sitting this offer out, come September I’ll downgrade one of my Citibank cards to this and use it when I can’t use my American Express (or gift cards which I’ve earned more than 2% on). The Fidelity AmEx card will still be my main one though as the points are more flexible and can be more valuable when redeeming for travel.

It’s also worth waiting to see if Citi decides to offer a sign up bonus for this card and see if any new information is released before signing up. This card should also now show up when using Citi’s pre-qualified card tool.

Thanks to the following forums for providing some of the information found in this post:

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23 Comments
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boomX
boomX (@guest_1203937)
June 10, 2021 10:34

 William Charles  Chuck New Citi Card (Custom Cash) – One 5% bonus category adjusts automatically each month upto $500

https://citicards.citi.com/usc/LPACA/Citi/Cards/CustomCash/ATL/index.html?BT_TX=1&ProspectID=F79C8291355B4E72AB5D7C93A1446AEC

Chuck
Editor
Chuck(@chucksithe)
June 10, 2021 10:43

I’ll post soon, thanks

never mind
never mind (@guest_1165160)
March 23, 2021 11:19

Does CITI or paypal or anyone ever offer any kind of bonus offer for a 2% cashback card?

I already have a fidelity but using it for regular spending hurts me every year when they offer a bonus deal around x-mas based on spending over your average

Michael
Michael (@guest_1143836)
February 12, 2021 11:31

I applied for the Citi Double Cash Card and the application was declined because: too many inquiries within 5 days. I only had 1 inquiry from the same day from BofA. They said it’s a policy from them to deny cards if they see any other inquiry from the last 5 days. They suggested me to resubmit the application after 5 days of no inquiries.

Jeremy
Jeremy (@guest_1040390)
August 21, 2020 07:33

 William Charles I think this page could use a refresh given the ability to transfer cash back to Thank You points now. This card is now able to extract more than 2% value with that. It can also be combined with a Rewards+ card for 2.2% worth of Thank You points (Up to 100k/yr).

Michael H
Michael H (@guest_553978)
January 24, 2018 18:48

I had this card for a year and a half. I just called to cancel and was offered to convert it to a Prestige. Prior, I had been declined on a Prestige app and they wouldn’t convert my existing Premier to one.

Of course, I said yes and now I have both. I’ll just close the premier after Y1 ends.

I never even knew DoubleCash to Prestige was an option. Go figure.

DD
DD (@guest_489500)
October 7, 2017 11:46

I just now received an offer in the mail for Citi Double Cash. They’d have to be kidding with 22.99% interest rate, variable, after a year. Not good. But OK for balance transfers I suppose.

DD
DD (@guest_489503)
October 7, 2017 11:51
  DD

22% interest rate.
. . and even if you never normally leave a balance due, there’s always the chance that a furniture store, or even a car dealership, could go out of business, and you’d want to have a balance due. It’s the principle.

Information Booth
Information Booth (@guest_456778)
August 10, 2017 19:53

Yo DOC, I’m at it again:-)! I got an offer from Citibank to lower my APR from 23.99% to 5.99% from 8/03/17-03/01/18 on my Double Cash MC. The offer was targeted, so people may want to check their online account. If somebody has a high balance, this may help them pay down their card. Love in Christ.

Bob E
Bob E (@guest_246885)
April 17, 2016 02:13

One thing I didn’t see mentioned in the article or any comments thus far is the 2% vs. 1.99% cash back consideration. If you choose to receive the cash back as a statement credit, which is the most convenient for many people, that credit is not considered a payment by you and thus reduces the cash back received on payments. This effectively works out to 1.99% instead of 2%. In order to get the full 2% you may opt to receive the cashback via direct deposit or check, but the former is only an option if the bank account has already been used to pay the card bill at least twice via Citi and the later takes 2-3 weeks to arrive. Since I pay may Citi bill via my bank’s bill payer and they remit to Citi electronically the Citi direct deposit option is not available to me. My only choice is to receive a cash back check if I want the full 2%.

Emla
Emla (@guest_159970)
August 15, 2015 00:03

oog?

Quincy
Quincy (@guest_84862)
March 5, 2015 14:39

Thanks for the article, Will. I just did a product change today and it was seamless. Went from Citi Dividend to Double Cash. I had $28.66 in dividend cash and I asked if it would transfer over, and the rep assured me it would. Really glad it did because Dividend minimum cash back redemption is $50 and while double cash is only $25.