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If you are comfortable carrying more than one credit card and want to build out a wallet that can earn generous rewards, you might consider building the Ultimate Citi ThankYou Points Wallet. This combination of four cards can get you a lot, including:
- A baseline 2% rewards on all of your spending.
- At least 3 points per dollar on air travel, hotel, restaurant, gas station, and supermarket purchases.
- 5% back in $500 of spending each month in one or more of the following categories: restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, or live entertainment.
- A 10% rebate when you redeem the first 100,000 points each year.
- 2 additional years of warranty protection on most things you buy.
Here’s what you need to know about the Ultimate Citi ThankYou Points Wallet and how to build it for yourself.
What cards are in the Citi ThankYou Points ecosystem?
Citi offers four cards that earn ThankYou points to new cardmembers. Here’s an overview of these four cards.
| Card | Description |
|---|---|
 Citi® Double Cash Card Annual fee: $0 | The Citi® Double Cash Card earns 2% cash back on all purchases, 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay. Although the Double Cash is marketed as a cash back credit card, it earns ThankYou Points behind the scenes and allows you to redeem your points for non-cash redemptions like gift cards. |
 Citi Custom Cash℠ Card Annual fee: $0 | The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card earns 5% cash back in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle on the first $500 spent, then 1% cash back. The Custom Cash earns 1% cash back on all other purchases. Eligible categories include restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment. The Custom Cash earns ThankYou Points behind the scenes, even though it is marketed as a cash back credit card. |
 Citi Rewards+® Card Annual fee: $0 | The Citi Rewards+® Card gives you a 10% points rebate on the point your redeem, on up to 100,000 points each year. The card also earns 2x points at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 spent per year, then 1 point per dollar. The 10% points rebate on the Rewards+ card applies to all ThankYou Points redemptions if it is part of a combined ThankYou Points account with other cards. |
 Citi Premier® Card Annual fee: $95 | The Citi Premier® Card earns 3x ThankYou Points on restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, air travel and hotels, and 1x points on all other purchases. The card also comes with a $100 annual hotel savings benefit. When you hold the Premier card, you can transfer your ThankYou Points to all of Citi’s airline and hotel transfer partners. |
Just from a casual glance at the table above, you can see how the four ThankYou Points cards complement each other. If you hold a Citi Custom Cash℠ Card, you’ll earn 5% in your largest eligible spending category, but 1% on your other purchases. But if you add a Citi® Double Cash Card to your wallet, you can earn 2% on all of your other purchases, doubling the rewards you earn everywhere else.
But complimentary point earning is only half of the story. You’ll notice that the Citi Premier® Card lets you transfer points to airline partners and that the Citi Rewards+® Card gives you a 10% bonus on point redemptions. Holding those cards can make the points you earn from your other cards more valuable.
Let’s dig into how exactly this works….
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 Card | Citi Custom Cash℠ Card | Citi Rewards+® Card | Citi Premier® Card | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  | |
| Restaurants | – | Up to 5x | – | 3x |
| Drugstores | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Gas stations | – | Up to 5x | 2x (on the first $6,000 spent across bonus categories) | 3x |
| Supermarkets | – | Up to 5x | 2x (on the first $6,000 spent across bonus categories) | 3x |
| Streaming (Select providers) | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Travel – Citi Travel Portal | 5x 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 Travel | – | Up to 5x | – | 3x |
| Travel – Hotels | – | Up to 5x | – | 3x |
| Travel – Cruise line and travel agency | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Select transit | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Home improvement stores | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Fitness clubs | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Live entertainment | – | Up to 5x | – | – |
| Everywhere else | 2x (1% as you buy, plus 1% as you pay.) | 1x | 1x | 1x |
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 Card | Citi Custom Cash℠ Card | Citi Rewards+® Card | Citi Premier® Card | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | |
| Cash back rewards (Including statement credits, direct deposit, and check by mail) | 1 cent/point | 1 cent/point | 0.5 cents/point | 1 cent/point |
| Point transfers to airlines and hotels | Select partners only Lower transfer ratios | Select partners only Lower transfer ratios | All transfer partners Best transfer ratios | |
| Redemption bonus | – | – | 10% bonus on up to 100,000 points redeemed per year | – |
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.
How to build the ultimate Citi ThankYou Points wallet
Citi’s application limits prevent you from simply applying for all of the cards in the Ultimate Citi ThankYou Points wallet. If you want to get all four cards, you’ll have to progressively build your Citi ThankYou Points wallet over time. And if you already hold some cards, you’ll probably acquire cards in a different order. Here’s how I would build the Ultimate Citi Wallet from scratch.
Step 1: Apply for the Citi Rewards+® Card (Day 1)
The Citi Rewards+® Card would be my first application because the card currently offers a limited-time welcome bonus to new cardmembers. Card issuers change their welcome bonus offerings periodically, and sometimes they drop them altogether. On a card with no annual fee, the current welcome bonus on the Rewards+ card is hard to beat.
Now, the rewards you’ll earn on spending with the Citi Rewards+® Card are pretty lackluster, but if you’re planning on building the Ultimate Citi ThankYou Points wallet, you’ll soon be picking up other cards that offer more rewards. And the Rewards+ card will get you set up to earn points when you redeem your rewards with a 10% Points Back rebate on up to the first 100,000 ThankYou Points you redeem each year.
Finally, the card offers the best credit card extended warranty benefit out there. When you purchase an eligible item on your Rewards+ card, you get extended warranty protection equivalent to an extra two years of your manufacturer’s warranty in most cases.
Step 2: Apply for a Citi Custom Cash℠ Card (Day 9)
Before applying for your second card, you’ll want to be aware of Citi’s application rules. Citi limits the number of applications you can submit and personal applications are limited to one every 8 days, and two application every rolling 65 days. Citi will let you apply for a second personal card once every eight days. So, you’ll have to wait about a week before applying for your second card.
The second card I’d pick up is the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card. The Custom Cash offers 5% back on your top eligible spending category each month on up to $500 of spending. Eligible categories include restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment. Even if you have another card that earns elevated rewards on gas or groceries, you probably don’t have a credit card that earns 5% or more on each of these categories. Regardless of what other card you have in your wallet, you’ll find some utility in the Citi Custom Cash card.
Alternatively, you could apply for the Citi® Double Cash Card card if you don’t have another card that earns 2% cash back on all purchases.
Step 3: Apply for a Citi Premier® Card (Day 66)
The Citi Premier® Card carries a $95 annual fee, but it offers increased rewards across a bunch of categories. Air travel, hotel, restaurant, gas station, and supermarket purchases all earn 3x points with the Premier card, so you can start to earn a lot more rewards than you could with single category available on the Custom Cash card.
See the section below on optimizing your spending to learn how to start optimizing your spending once you get the Citi Premier card in your wallet.
In addition, holding the Citi Premier card opens up the option to transfer your points to airline and hotel transfer partners. Transfers to airline and hotel partners can be a way to increase the value of your ThankYou Points, but they do require learning transfer programs and redeeming points selectively. For more on using ThankYou Points, see our Guide to ThankYou Points.
Step 4: Apply for a Citi® Double Cash Card (Day 74)
For most people, the Citi® Double Cash Card will complete your wallet. The Double Cash earns 1% cash back when you make purchases and 1% cash back when you pay, making it effectively a 2% card that you can use for everything else.
Step 5+: Get more Citi Custom Cash℠ Cards
The most lucrative card in the Citi ThankYou Points wallet is undoubtedly the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card. You might be wondering why you wouldn’t just pick up multiple Custom Cash cards. After all, getting 5% on $500 of spending is great, but getting 5% on $1,000 of spending would be better. Unfortunately, Citi will only approve you for one Citi Custom Cash℠ Card directly. But there is a way to pick up more Custom Cash cards.
Citi will allow you to request a product-change from most of its cards, including co-branded cards. In many cases, this means you can pick up a Citi American Airlines credit card and, after a year, change it into a Citi Custom Cash℠ Card, even if you already hold a Custom Cash. This can be both a way to pick up additional Custom Cash cards and earn a few welcome bonuses along the way. Read more about getting multiple Citi Custom Cash℠ Card cards.
How to optimize your spending
Assuming you’ve built out the full Citi Ultimate ThankYou Points wallet, earning the most rewards means optimizing your spending across your Citi credit cards. Since there are only four cards in your wallet, this is relatively easy to do. Here’s how you do it.
- Any purchases with a warranty go on your Citi Rewards+® Card. The benefit you are likely to get from getting the best credit card extended warranty benefit outweigh any marginal cash back.
- Select your Citi Custom Cash℠ Card category. Use your Custom Cash card only for spending in this category.
- Generally, if you have heavy spending in select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, or live entertainment, this is going to be your best choice because these categories do not overlap with your Citi Premier® Card.
- Otherwise, choose restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, or select travel.
- Use your Citi Premier® Card for all air travel, hotel, restaurant, gas station, and supermarket spending that does not go on a Citi Custom Cash℠ Card.
- Use your Citi® Double Cash Card for all other purchases.
Of course, this hierarchy of spending applies if you hold only these four Citi cards. If you have other cards in your wallet like 5% rotating category cards or other rewards cards from Chase, Amex, or other issuers, you’ll work these cards into your spending rules.
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.
Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.
