Citi Dividend Q4 2024 categories: Restaurants and Citi Travel℠

September 13 2024: Citi has now published the fourth quarter bonus categories for the Citi Dividend card: Restaurants and Citi Travel℠.

Restaurants is probably a useful category for most, but Citi Travel℠ is largely useless. If you’re booking through Citi Travel, you probably have other Citi cards. The Citi Double Cash® and Citi Rewards+® Card also get 5x points at Citi Travel through the end of the year and the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card gets 10x in this category.

Overall, this quarter’s categories are disappointing and don’t provide any real opportunities to maximize year-end cash back on this card.

Here’s what you need to know about the 2024 Citi Dividend categories.

Q4 2024 categories: Restaurants and Citi Travel℠

The Citi Dividend categories in the fourth quarter of 2024 include restaurants and Citi Travel℠.

Restaurants includes the places you might expect, like sit-down restaurants and cafes. But it also includes places that other places exclude from restaurant rewards like fast-food restaurants, bars, and lounges.

Citi Travel℠ includes hotel, car rental, and attractions, but excludes air travel purchases.

Citi terms: What counts in each category

Unsure of if your purchase is going to count? Here’s what Citi has to say about the quarterly categories in its bonus terms.

Restaurants: Includes purchases at cafes, bars, lounges and fast-food restaurants. Excludes purchases at bakeries, caterers, restaurants located inside another business (such as hotels, stores, stadiums, grocery stores, or warehouse clubs) and third-party dining delivery services.

Citi Dividend 5% category terms

Citi Travel Purchases: Excludes air travel purchases. Eligible transactions include hotel, car rental, and attractions only and must be booked through the Citi Travel site at CitiTravel.com or by calling 1-833-737-1288 (TTY:711). Citi Travel is powered by Rocket Travel Inc., part of the Booking Holdings Inc. group of companies together with Booking.com.

Citi Dividend 5% category terms

Q3 2024 category: Gas stations

From July 1 through September 30, 2024, you can earn 5% cash back rewards at gas stations with your Citi Dividend card. You must enroll in your cash back categories to receive this bonus.

Gas stations include merchants that use the gas station Merchant Category Code and exclude gasoline purchases at warehouse clubs, discount stores, convenience stores, or other merchants that do not use the gas station MCC.

The 5% cash back bonus category makes the card one of the best cards to use at gas stations this quarter.

Remember, you must activate your Citi Dividend categories before making purchases in order to qualify for 5% cash back. According to Citi, you must activate at least two business days before you make purchases in order to qualify for bonus cash back.

Enrolling: You must activate your Dividend cash back categories

Enrollment in the Q4 2024 categories begins on September 15, 2024.

To earn 5% cash back on this quarter’s Citi Dividend categories, you must register for the quarterly category promotion. The easiest way to do that is to visit the Citi Dividend category landing page and click on “Sign up now.” You’ll be prompted to log into your Citi account.

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be dropped onto the Limited Time Offers page. Select your Dividend card and click on “Sign up now” under the quarterly category bonus promotion. You’l be required to accept the terms and conditions of the 5% category offer. Once you click “Accept” you will be signed up for the quarterly category offer.

When do I need to activate?

Citi generally announces the Citi Dividend categories around the 15th day of month before a quarter begins. You can typically enroll in your quarterly cash back offer within a day or two after the announcement, though sometimes Citi opens registration earlier.

You must activate your cash back bonus categories prior to making purchases. Purchases made prior to activation will not receive additional cash back rewards. Note that activation may take up to two business days. You will only receive 5% cash back on you bonus category purchases once your enrollment has fully processed.

The Citi Dividend card is no longer available to new cardmembers. If you’re looking for a 5% rotating category card from Citi, consider the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card, which offers 5% back on the first $500 of spending each statement cycle.

Maximizing rewards: Understanding Citi Dividend cash back limits

The Citi Dividend card limits the total amount of cash back you can earn during the calendar year to $300. This limit includes all cash back you earn during the year. This means that if you use your card only for 5% bonus categories, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $6,000 of category spending during the year. Many other rotating category cards cap the amount you can earn from bonus categories each quarter. The Citi Dividend caps the rewards you can earn from all spending.

Another quirk to consider is that Citi’s limit on the cash back you earn with your Citi Dividend Card is based on when your cash back is awarded, not when it is earned. This becomes most relevant at the end of the year. If you use your card in late December, but your statement closes in January, you’ll earn cash back based on Citi’s fourth-quarter bonus categories, but next year’s cash back limit will apply to the cash back you earn.

How to use the Dividend cash back limits to your advantage

If you have maximized your cash back for the current year, you can still earn 5% rewards on some of your purchases in the fourth-quarter bonus categories. Here’s how.

Citi applies its cash back limits based on statement closing date. Any rewards you earn on your Citi Dividend card after your December statement closes be awarded with your January statement. And those rewards will apply toward next year’s rewards cap.

For example, if your December statement closes on December 15th:

• Spending prior to December 15th will earn 5% rewards based on based on the fourth quarter bonuses in the current year and count toward the current year’s rewards cap.
• Spending after December 15th, but before January 1st will earn 5% rewards based on the fourth quarter bonuses in the current year and count toward next year’s rewards cap.

If you’ve already maximized your cash back rewards for the current year, but want to take advantage of this year’s fourth-quarter bonus categories, you can wait until after your December statement closes and the cash back you earn will apply toward next year’s cap.

If you don’t have the card: You can’t get the Dividend card anymore, but you can get these alternatives

The Citi Dividend Card is no longer available to new cardmembers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t earn 5% rewards in rotating categories. Several banks offer cards that earn 5% rewards. Here are some alternatives to the Citi Dividend.

The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card offers 5% cash back as ThankYou® Points on the first $500 you spend in your top eligible category each quarterly. Visit our review of the Custom Cash to see eligible categories and learn more about the card. It is also possible to get multiple Custom Cash cards. The Custom Cash is a great add to almost any wallet, depending on how you use the card, it could be one of the best cards to use in any of its eligible 5% categories.

The Chase Freedom Flex℠ offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined spending in categories that rotate quarterly. The card earns its rewards as Ultimate Rewards®, which become even more valuable if you hold a premium card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Read our review of the Chase Freedom Flex.

Discover It Cash Back is another 5% rotating category card offering 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in Discover’s quarterly rotating categories. If you get the card, you’ll get all of your cash back doubled at the end of your first cardmember year, making this effectively a 10% card in the first year!

The U.S Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card takes a slightly different approach to rotating categories. Instead of rotating categories, you get to select two 5% categories each quarter. The categories are admittedly not as attractive as the other 5% rewards cards, but there are a handful of useful category options like home utilities, electronics stores, and department stores.

2024 categories at a glance: Citi Dividend 2024 quarterly 5% category overview

Here are the currently announced bonus categories of the Citi Dividend card in 2024:

Past categories: Every category bonus since 2021

There is no guarantee that Citi will offer any particular bonus category until it is announced, but knowing what categories have historically been offered on the Citi Dividend Card can give you an idea of what might be coming in the future. The Citi Dividend cash back categories have been similar in recent years. Because the card is not actively marketed to new cardmembers, there is a good chance that the categories will remain the same year-over-year.

Here are the previous 5% categories of the Citi Dividend.

Citi Dividend categories for 2023

• January-March: Amazon.com and select streaming services
• April-June: Grocery stores and drugstores
• July-September: Gas stations and home improvement stores
• October-December: Grocery stores

Citi Dividend categories for 2022

• January-March: Amazon.com and select streaming services
• April-June: Grocery stores and drugstores
• July-September: Gas stations and home improvement stores
• October-December: Restaurants and select travel

Citi Dividend categories for 2021

• January-March: Amazon.com and select streaming services
• April-June: Grocery stores and drugstores
• July-September: Gas stations and home improvement stores
• October-December: Restaurants and Best Buy

Frequently asked questions