Finder experts pick Citi Rewards+℠ Card as a 2020 best product for credit cards.
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Citi Rewards+℠ Card review
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This rewards card lets you round up your points.
- You want an everyday rewards card with no annual fee.
- Pick something else if you want a card with bigger rewards on larger spending.
- Apply with a good to excellent credit score of 670 or higher.
15,000
Points as welcome offer
Up to 2x
Points
$0
Annual fee
0%
Intro purchase APR
for the first 15 months (then 13.49% to 23.49% variable)
Details
| Product Name | Citi Rewards+℠ Card |
|---|---|
| Card type | Mastercard |
| Annual fee | $0 |
| Purchase APR | 0% intro for the first 15 months (then 13.49% to 23.49% variable) |
| Balance transfer APR | 0% intro for the first 15 months (then 13.49% to 23.49% variable) |
| Balance transfer fee | $5 or 3% of the transaction, whichever is greater |
| Cash advance rate | 25.24% variable |
| Cash advance fee | $10 or 5% of the cash advance amount, whichever is greater |
| Penalty APR | Up to 29.99% variable |
| Foreign transaction fee | 3% of the transaction value |
| Interest free period | Up to 23 days |
| Late payment fee | Up to $40 |
| Returned payment fee | Up to $40 |
Expert review
Review by
Steven Dashiell
steven.dashiell@finder.comSteven Dashiell is a credit cards staff writer at finder.com. He's worked on over 150 Finder articles to help readers embrace and maximize credit cards. Steven has nearly a decade of research and reporting experience, and has also been a reporter and editor for several healthcare newsletters.
Expert review
Need a quick look? Here are the pros and cons
Pros
- Signup bonus. Spend $1,000 on purchases within 3 months of account opening to earn 15,000 ThankYou points. That’s worth up to $150 when redeemed for gift cards on the Citi ThankYou rewards site.
- Earn ThankYou Reward points. Earn 2x points at supermarkets and gas stations for the first $6,000 in combined purchases annually. After that, and on all other purchases, earn 1x points.
- Round up your points. Get your points rounded up to the nearest 10. This feature is ideal if you often make smaller purchases.
- Earn points back upon redemption. Get 10% back on the points you redeem for the first 100,000 points annually. This means redeeming 20,000 points nets you 2,000 points back.
- No annual fee. You won’t pay an annual fee to own this card.
- Intro APR period. Get a 0% intro APR on balance transfers during your first 15 months of card membership. After that, your rate reverts to a variable 13.49% to 23.49%.
Cons
- Foreign transaction fees. You’ll pay a fee equal to 3% of the transaction every time you swipe abroad.
- Penalty APR. If you make a late or returned payment, you may incur a penalty APR of up to 29.99% variable. Once applied, it may last indefinitely.
- Balance transfer limitations. Complete your balance transfers within four months of account opening to use the intro APR period. Otherwise, the standard variable APR of 13.49% to 23.49% will apply.
How do I redeem Citi ThankYou points?
Any points you earn with the Citi Rewards+℠ Card are posted automatically to your Citi account. You can access your trove of points by logging into your account online or through your Citi mobile app.
How much are Citi ThankYou points worth?
Citi ThankYou points are worth about 1 cent each on average, though, like most kinds of credit card reward programs, this value can fluctuate depending on how you redeem them. The real key to getting the most out of your points is to transfer them over to one of Citi’s higher-tier reward cards.
How do I apply for the Citi Rewards+℠ Card?
You can easily apply for the Citi Rewards+℠ Card through the Citi site:
- Click here to visit Citi's application page.
- Fill out your personal information and click Agree & submit.
Who can qualify for this card?
Since this is an upper-mid level rewards card, you’ll need a good credit score of 670 or better to qualify.
Deeper dive: Citi Rewards+℠ Card major benefits
Points get rounded up
As of this writing, the Citi Rewards+℠ Card is the only credit card that will actually round up your points earned. This means your points on any purchase will get rounded up to the nearest 10. So if you make a $21 grocery store purchase — which is in the 2x grocery category — you’ll earn 42 points. Rounded up, however, you’ll end up with 50 points. Make a $1 non-category purchase? You’ll earn a full 10 points.
Because you can get a lot of value out of this feature if you make many small purchases, the card is good for “day-to-day” default spending. Need a Red Bull? Earn 10 points. Grabbing lunch? Earn 20 points. Late night coffee? Earn 10 points.
One thing to keep in mind here is the rounding bonus is less valuable as you spend more money on single purchases. Spending $300 on a new video game console will still only round you up by 10 points to a total of 310.
ThankYou for transferring your points
While making small, daily purchases with the card is a great way to earn points, you can earn even more if you transfer these points to one of Citi’s premium rewards cards. By moving points to a Citi Premier℠ Card or Citi Prestige® Credit Card, you can transfer your points to travel partners, typically at a 1:1 value. If a single point at an eligible airline is worth 2 or 3 cents a piece instead of 1 cent, congrats: you just multiplied your point value!
Who is this card good for?
The Citi Rewards+℠ Card’s rounding feature makes it an especially good choice for anyone who makes a lot of small purchases in their day-to-day life. College students or city-dwellers are good examples — I certainly remember making upwards of 7 purchases a day on junk food in my college days.
The caveat? You’ll need to have a good credit score to qualify for this card, so start building that credit early.
Here’s what to watch out for
Foreign transaction fees.
If you use the Citi Rewards+℠ Card abroad, you’ll pay a foreign transaction fee: 3% of any purchase made. Given that the Citi Rewards+℠ Card isn’t a travel card, this isn’t that surprising. Still, it’s something to note as it could wipe out any points you might gain from the round-up feature.
Penalty APR.
Miss a payment and Citi might punish you with a penalty APR of up to 29.99% variable. These penalty APRs can stick around indefinitely, so make sure to keep up on your payments.
Balance transfer limitations.
You’ll need to make sure to make your balance transfers within four months of account opening. This is one more month than the average time limit, but nonetheless, you won’t want to dawdle once you get your card.
Signup bonus limitations.
You can only qualify for the signup bonus if you haven’t earned a Citi signup bonus or closed a Citi credit card within the last 24 months. That means if you’re eyeing multiple Citi cards, you’ll want to carefully consider which signup bonus is most valuable to you.
What are my preapproval odds?
Citi has a prequalification page on their site that can help you determine if you’ll be preapproved for a credit card. While you can’t target the exact card you want, you can fill out your personal information and the type of card features most important to you. Citi will then take that information and show you a list of cards you’d be preapproved for.
While preapproval doesn’t guarantee approval, social media users, including Reddit, peg your approval odds after prequalification at around 90%.
Be wary of applying for the card if you aren’t preapproved, however, as you’ll get a hard credit pull that can affect your overall score. While you still could be approved at the end of that process, applying without preapproval can be a bit of a dice roll.
What’s the buzz around this card?
Praise
Users on social media, such as Reddit, were surprised at just how quickly the card could amass points with small purchases. One user even mentioned they had never been so enthused to buy a single banana. Yes, a lot of college students love this card.
Complaints
A few users mentioned dissatisfaction with Citi’s app, as well as their customer service. Another user made the very good point that earning the signup bonus (or closing a Citi card) prevents you from earning another Citi signup bonus for the next 24 months. If a signup bonus is a big part of your overall card strategy, the Citi Rewards+℠ Card might appear as a somewhat weak choice.
Can I add my spouse to my account?
Citi allows you to add an authorized user to your card account at no listed cost, which is great if your loved one is into making the same small day-to-day purchases as you.
Authorized users can use the card in pretty much the same exact way as the primary cardholder and still earn points. However, those points (and of course, the credit line itself) is shared between both users.
How does the Citi Rewards+ compare to similar cards?
The Citi Rewards+℠ Card is best measured up against other mid-level, no-annual-fee rewards cards in larger ecosystems. In terms of rewards earning, here’s a look at how the card stacks up against the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card and the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, assuming $600 in spending on each card’s highest earning category.
Comparison assuming $600 spent on highest category
| Credit card | Highest earning category | Points earned |
|---|---|---|
| Citi Rewards+℠ Card | 2x points at US supermarkets and gas stations | 1200 |
| Amex EveryDay® Credit Card | 2x at US supermarkets | 1200 |
| Chase Freedom Unlimited® | All purchases | 900 |
These cards look pretty even in terms of earning, but there’s some nuance here: the Citi Rewards+℠ Card after all will round up points earned to the next 10, whereas the Amex EveryDay® Credit Card will give you 20% more points in an earning period if you happen to make 20 or more purchases in that time.
Let’s suppose that both the Citi Rewards+℠ Card and Amex EveryDay® Credit Card made the same $600 purchase across 20 payments of $30 each. And let us also suppose that the Citi Rewards+℠ Card cardholder spent $31 instead of $30 on each of those payments. The rewards earned will look a little different.
Comparison assuming $600 spent across 20 payments of $30 each
| Credit card | Highest earning category | Points earned |
|---|---|---|
| Citi Rewards+℠ Card | 2x points at US supermarkets and gas stations | 2100 |
| Amex EveryDay® Credit Card | 2x at US supermarkets | 1440 |
| Chase Freedom Unlimited® | All purchases | 900 |
As you can see, the rounding feature of the Citi Rewards+℠ Card can lead to a wild swing in point earnings depending on how you use it. If you were a real madman, you could hypothetically make six hundred $1 purchases at a grocery store for a gain of 6,000 points. But for today, we’ll dally in the realm of the practical.
Cards to pair with Citi Rewards+℠ Card
If you’re interested in boosting the value of the points you earn with your Citi Rewards+℠ Card, you’ll want to look at picking up one of these two Citi cards: the Citi Prestige® Credit Card or the Citi Premier℠ Card.
Both of these cards let you transfer your points to Citi’s travel partners. For most partners, you can move your points over at a ratio of 1:1 in 1,000 point increments, though there are some exceptions. Points moved this way can be worth double their standard value (or even more!) and are generally the best way to use your ThankYou points.
The Citi Premier℠ Card also lets you redeem your ThankYou points through the Citi travel portal at a 1.25x value, which is useful if you don’t feel like doing the extra research involved in transferring points.
Bottom line
The Citi Rewards+℠ Card competes nicely with its competitors while offering a totally unique feature you won’t find anywhere else. If you need an everyday spending card with an extra dash of spice for those coffee and battery runs, this card is worth a look.