Citi Dividend Card

Update July 21: My Citi Dividend card was set to expire this month and I just received a new Citi Dividend Card in the mail. That’s probably a good indication that this card won’t be canceled for existing cardmembers anytime soon.

The Citi Dividend Card is a no-annual-fee credit card that offers 5% cash back rewards on purchases in rotating categories. Unlike other rotating category cards, which typically cap rewards by quarter, the Citi Dividend has an annual rewards cap. The total rewards you can earn in a year is limited to $300. This makes it interesting because you can earn 5% rewards on up to $6,000 of category spending in a single quarterly category.

The Citi Dividend Card is not currently available to new cardmembers.

Citi Dividend at a glance

Here’s what you need to know about the Citi Dividend card.

Citi Dividend rewards

The Citi Dividend card offers 5% cash back rewards in rotating categories which change every three months. You must enroll in the bonus category offer prior to making purchases. Enrollment takes up to two business days to fully process, so don’t expect to enroll and immediately begin getting 5% rewards. Purchases made prior to when your enrollment is processed will only earn 1% rewards. The card earns 1% cash rewards on all other purchases.

The total rewards you can earn on the Citi Dividend are capped at $300 per year. This cap applies to all rewards, not just 5% category rewards. Once you’ve earned $300 in rewards during the year, none of your purchases will earn cash back.

An interesting quirk of the Citi Dividend card is that the card counts your rewards as “earned” when they are awarded on your statement closing date. If you purchase items in late December and you receive the rewards for those items on your January statement, those rewards will count toward the next year’s rewards cap.

Finally, you can redeem Citi Dividend rewards as either a direct deposit to one of your payment accounts or as a check by mail. In either case, the minimum redemption amount is $50 and you can redeem up to your entire rewards balance.

Because of the way Citi counts your rewards against the annual cap, you can double-dip on your 5% category rewards in the 4th quarter with the Citi Dividend card. Purchases made after your December statement closing date will appear on your January statement and count toward that year’s rewards cap.

How to apply:

The Citi Dividend Card is not available to new cardmembers.

Should you keep the Citi Dividend card?

If you are fortunate enough to have the Citi Dividend card, you should probably keep it. The card offers useful 5% rewards on rotating categories with no annual fee. Yes, the rewards are capped at $300 in rewards every year, but the rewards categories often complement other rotating category cards like the Chase Freedom Flex.

Periodically, Citi has sent out offers to cardmembers letting them know that their Citi Dividend card will be automatically converted to another card. These notices have required cardmembers to call in and opt out if they wanted to keep their Dividend cards. Don’t ignore these notices from Citi if you want to keep your Citi Dividend card.

Benefits of the Citi Dividend card

The Citi Dividend card offers no notable benefits.

Frequently asked question