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Citi Rewards+® Card welcome bonus: 20,000 bonus points with no annual fee

The Citi Rewards+® Card currently offers new cardmembers 20,000 bonus points after spending $1,500 within the first 3 months. This is the standard welcome offer on this card.

Alone, this card is relatively unexciting. Sure, it has the best extended warranty benefit of any credit card. But its rewards are lackluster and in most cases bested by a 2% cash back card.

Where the Rewards+ card gets really interesting is when it is part of a Citi ThankYou Points wallet containing other ThankYou Points-earning cards. The Rewards+ card offers a 10% Points Back rebate on the first 100,000 ThankYou points you redeem each year. When you hold multiple ThankYou Points cards and combine your ThankYou Points accounts, you can get rebate when you redeem the points you earned on any ThankYou Points card.

Citi Rewards+® Card welcome bonus:

bonus_miles_full

All information about the Citi Rewards+® Card has been collected independently by cardsandpoints.com.

Click here to learn more and apply.

Our take on the welcome bonus: Last year, Citi offered a slightly higher bonus on this card, but that doesn’t happen often. It’s probably not worth waiting for a larger bonus that is likely to amount to just 5,000 additional points.

The link above is a link directly to the bank’s website. We don’t make money when you use the above link, but we always show you the best offer.

Citi Rewards+® Card card art

Citi Rewards+® Card at a glance:
Annual fee: $0
Rewards: 5x on hotels and car rentals booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024. 2x at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 per year, then 1x. 1x on other purchases.

My take on this welcome bonus

Last year, we saw an increased offer on the Citi Rewards+® Card, but Citi doesn’t frequently increase the welcome offer on this card. The required $1,500 spending within three months is a little steep for a bonus of this size, but this isn’t a card that you get for the welcome bonus.

If you are invested in the Citi ThankYou® Points ecosystem, there’s probably not a reason to wait on this card. The points you will earn from the 10% point rebate by having this card in a combined ThankYou Points account will likely be more valuable than any marginal additional welcome bonus points.

Citi ThankYou Points card synergies

When you hold multiple Citi cards that earn ThankYou Points, you can choose to combine your ThankYou Rewards accounts and earn a single pool of points. This feature of the ThankYou Rewards program means that holding multiple Citi ThankYou Points cards will enable you to both earn more points on your purchases and give you more options when you redeem your points.

Here’s a quick overview of how these ThankYou Points synergies work.

Earning ThankYou Points across cards

Citi offers four cards that earn ThankYou Points to new cardmembers. You’ll earn the most points from your spending by using the card that earns the most points for your purchase. For example, at grocery stores, you might choose to use the Citi Premier® Card over the Citi Double Cash because you’ll earn 3 points per dollar rather than 2.

Here’s an overview of how many points the four ThankYou Points cards earn in their respective bonus categories.

Citi® Double Cash CardCiti Custom Cash℠ CardCiti Rewards+® CardCiti Premier® Card
Citi Double Cash® Card card artCiti Custom Cash℠ Card card artCiti Rewards+® Card card artCiti Premier® Card card art
RestaurantsUp to 5x3x
DrugstoresUp to 5x
Gas stationsUp to 5x2x
(on the first $6,000 spent across bonus categories)
3x
SupermarketsUp to 5x2x
(on the first $6,000 spent across bonus categories)
3x
Streaming (Select providers)Up to 5x
Travel – Citi Travel Portal5x

Hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024.
5x

Hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024.
10x

Hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024.
Travel – Air TravelUp to 5x3x
Travel – HotelsUp to 5x3x
Travel – Cruise line and travel agencyUp to 5x
Select transitUp to 5x
Home improvement storesUp to 5x
Fitness clubsUp to 5x
Live entertainmentUp to 5x
Everywhere else2x

(1% as you buy, plus 1% as you pay.)
1x1x1x
Reward earnings on ThankYou Points credit cards

All of the cards in the table above earn ThankYou® Points, even though some are marketed as cash back cards.

The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card earns 5% cash back in the one eligible category where you spend the most each statement cycle, on up to $500 of spending. Other purchases earn 1%.

Redeeming Citi ThankYou Points with multiple cards

The key to maximizing the value of your ThankYou Point redemptions is holding multiple ThankYou Points cards and earning your ThankYou points in a combined ThankYou Points account. When you combine your ThankYou Points accounts, you get access to the best redemption options available from each of your cards. Here are the ThankYou Points redemption options that vary between cards.

Citi® Double Cash CardCiti Custom Cash℠ CardCiti Rewards+® CardCiti Premier® Card
Citi Double Cash® Card card artCiti Custom Cash℠ Card card artCiti Rewards+® Card card artCiti Premier® Card card art
Cash back rewards
(Including statement credits, direct deposit, and check by mail)
1 cent/point1 cent/point0.5 cents/point1 cent/point
Point transfers to airlines and hotelsSelect partners only
Lower transfer ratios
Select partners only
Lower transfer ratios
All transfer partners
Best transfer ratios
Redemption bonus10% bonus on up to 100,000 points redeemed per year
Redemption options available on ThankYou Points cards

The table above doesn’t include some redemption options, like gift cards and pay with points. This is because the redemption options either do not vary across cards (gift cards) or because the value of the redemption is less than the cash back redemption value.

Citi Rewards+® Card welcome bonus:

bonus_miles_full

All information about the Citi Rewards+® Card has been collected independently by cardsandpoints.com.

Click here to learn more and apply.

Our take on the welcome bonus: Last year, Citi offered a slightly higher bonus on this card, but that doesn’t happen often. It’s probably not worth waiting for a larger bonus that is likely to amount to just 5,000 additional points.

The link above is a link directly to the bank’s website. We don’t make money when you use the above link, but we always show you the best offer.

Citi Rewards+® Card card art

Citi Rewards+® Card at a glance:
Annual fee: $0
Rewards: 5x on hotels and car rentals booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024. 2x at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 per year, then 1x. 1x on other purchases.

A few notes on applying for Citi credit cards

  • Citi has limits on the number of applications you can submit. You can only apply for one personal card every eight days and no more than two cards every rolling 65 days. Business cards are subject to the same eight-day limitation, but you can apply for no more than one business card every 95 days.
  • You can get a new customer welcome bonus on Citi cards multiple times, but Citi has rules on how often you can earn a welcome bonus.
    • ThankYou Point welcome offers are typically not available if you’ve received a new account bonus on the same card in the past 48 months.
    • Welcome bonuses on AAdvantage cards are only available if you have not received a welcome bonus for the same card within the past 48 months.
  • There is no limit to the number of Citi cards you can hold.
  • You can check your application status on the Citi website or by calling 1-866-606-2787.
Citi Rewards+® Card welcome bonus:

bonus_miles_full

All information about the Citi Rewards+® Card has been collected independently by cardsandpoints.com.

Click here to learn more and apply.

Our take on the welcome bonus: Last year, Citi offered a slightly higher bonus on this card, but that doesn’t happen often. It’s probably not worth waiting for a larger bonus that is likely to amount to just 5,000 additional points.

The link above is a link directly to the bank’s website. We don’t make money when you use the above link, but we always show you the best offer.

Citi Rewards+® Card card art

Citi Rewards+® Card at a glance:
Annual fee: $0
Rewards: 5x on hotels and car rentals booked through Citi Travel through June 30, 2024. 2x at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 per year, then 1x. 1x on other purchases.

About the author

  • Aaron Hurd

    Aaron Hurd is a credit card, travel rewards, and loyalty program expert. Over the past 15 years, he has authored over a thousand expert contributions published by leading outlets including WSJ, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, NerdWallet, The Points Guy, Bankrate, CNET, and many others. He has also served in consulting roles for many of these same outlets, designing content strategy, hiring teams of teams of editors and contributors, developing thought-leadership pieces, and ghost-editing for senior editors. Aaron is well-known in the miles and points community and regularly presents about travel rewards at conferences like the Chicago Seminars and Minnebar. Aaron has enjoyed the game of optimizing credit card rewards since getting his first credit card shortly after he turned 18. He started learning about credit cards and travel rewards from the (now defunct) FatWallet Finance forums and FlyerTalk. He holds more than 40 open credit cards and has first-hand experience with almost every major credit card product.