Citibank Double Cash Card Opinions

[redcap]

I just heard about the Citi Double Cash Card from Citibank. Is this a better card or just a gimmick to make it sound better than other cards? What's your opinion?

[kork13]

Possibly some of both, but so far I'm happy with it. I've only had it for a month, but it's fairly straightforward. 1% of your spending credited upfront, 1% of your payments credited on the back end. Very slight downside, your cash back rewards reduce your payments, so you don't truly get a full 2%...it's really about 1.98% cash back (unless you have them mail you a physical check for the rewards). But for a card with no annual fee & very simple overall, I rather like it. Citi is also going to start providing your credit score (jumping on the bandwagon), so that'll be a nice benefit.

[MonkeyMama]

It's a great card. I personally don't like at all the "rotating categories" and all that jazz. I already had a 2% cash back card (have had for many years) but it's an American Express and not accepted many places. We jumped on the Citi to replace that one because it's a Master Card that is accepted everywhere.

(We have other cards that always get 3% or 6% back on certain categories that we use a lot, but we use the Citi double cash for everything else).

[redcap]

(We have other cards that always get 3% or 6% back on certain categories that we use a lot, but we use the Citi double cash for everything else).

What card is that?

[MonkeyMama]

Blue Cash Preferred American Express has 3% cash back on gas and 6% cash back on groceries. Those are our biggest spending categories so is a useful card for us.

I've also got a credit union Visa (just our local CU) that gives us 3% back at restaurants.

[Eagle]

Blue Cash Preferred American Express has 3% cash back on gas and 6% cash back on groceries. Those are our biggest spending categories so is a useful card for us.

I've also got a credit union Visa (just our local CU) that gives us 3% back at restaurants.

@MonkeyMama
Re: Blue Cash Preferred American Express

Is the annual fee of $75 worth it?

Looks like right now you can also get a credit for $100 towards Amazon Prime.

[corn18]

Heck, 1.98% on money I spend is way better than the cash I have in the bank right now. I use my airline mileage card, but in the end, that only gets me about 1% cash equivalent. I spend about $120,000 a year on my card, so switching to the citi card could net me an additional $1,200 or so. I could use an extra $1,200. Hmmm.....

Tom

[MonkeyMama]

@MonkeyMama
Re: Blue Cash Preferred American Express

Is the annual fee of $75 worth it?

Looks like right now you can also get a credit for $100 towards Amazon Prime.

Depends how much you use it. For us, it's a no brainer - we still net 4% or 5% cash back after fees. (We mostly use for groceries - feeding a family of 4 - and also buy gift cards at our grocery store for the extra 6% discount).

[MonkeyMama]

Heck, 1.98% on money I spend is way better than the cash I have in the bank right now.

Tom

Exactly. We earn infinitely more credit card rewards than bank interest in this interest rate environment. I do look at the credit card rewards (which have been more massive than usual in recent years) as bank interest replacement.

I do not believe that either of our 2% cash back cards has a cap on their rewards? Don't quote me on that - but is something to check if you do shop reward credit cards. I don't know that many cards will pay out rewards on a full $120k per year. But maybe half on one card and half on the other.

[MonkeyMama]

P.S. I googled it and the Citi rewards are currently limitless on their Double Cash Card. That's what I had thought.

[corn18]

Thanks for the heads up on this card. Applied, approved and on the way. Will use this a lot, pay it off and get paid to do it. I guess I should feel giddy but I know I am paying 3-5% higher prices because the credit card companies charge a fee. So in reality, I'm just getting some of MY money back.

[cardtrick]

Citi sucks! Be prepared to constantly get embarrassed when your card is declined because of security freezes. Even if you're only using the card at a store you frequently visit, that is right in your neighborhood.

I was on the phone trying to cancel all my Citi cards (after over a year of going through the security freeze issues) and the rep said she would get me an answer for the security freeze issues. I said I would keep my cards if she could get me an answer. After almost 2 hours on the phone, she gave up too. Even she kept getting bounced back and forth between departments. I even wrote to the head of consumer credit at Citi and basically got a polite "F off, you don't spend enough to make it worth our time" response.

So, stay away from Citi. Fidelity Cash rewards also give you 2% on everything. I now use this anywhere Amex is accepted. Otherwise, I will use one of my rotating 5% cards.

[corn18]

Citi sucks! Be prepared to constantly get embarrassed when your card is declined because of security freezes. Even if you're only using the card at a store you frequently visit, that is right in your neighborhood.

I was on the phone trying to cancel all my Citi cards (after over a year of going through the security freeze issues) and the rep said she would get me an answer for the security freeze issues. I said I would keep my cards if she could get me an answer. After almost 2 hours on the phone, she gave up too. Even she kept getting bounced back and forth between departments. I even wrote to the head of consumer credit at Citi and basically got a polite "F off, you don't spend enough to make it worth our time" response.

So, stay away from Citi. Fidelity Cash rewards also give you 2% on everything. I now use this anywhere Amex is accepted. Otherwise, I will use one of my rotating 5% cards.

Yikes! That would suck for me as I will be using this for everything, including any and all bills that accept credit cards. I will look into the Fidelity Amex. I have an Amex now for airline points and there are a few places that don't take it so I have to have a backup for it. One extra card in the wallet.

Tom

[kork13]

Citi sucks! Be prepared to constantly get embarrassed when your card is declined because of security freezes. Even if you're only using the card at a store you frequently visit, that is right in your neighborhood.

I've had my account flagged once so far at a neighborhood department store, on Christmas Eve actually. Probably happened because my wife, not minutes earlier, had made a charge with her "authorized user" card at the same store. In my view, a totally rational reason to be flagged.

However, fixing it was very uneventful... I got a text from Citi asking if my charge was valid. Responded with a "1" (yes) and everything was fine. Not even a call from the fraud department (which I've always despised dealing with, regardless of the company). So actually, I'm quite happy with the fraud protection so far.

[Eagle]

Depends how much you use it. For us, it's a no brainer - we still net 4% or 5% cash back after fees. (We mostly use for groceries - feeding a family of 4 - and also buy gift cards at our grocery store for the extra 6% discount).

Well, MonkeyMama you really got me thinking. So I signed up for this AMEX Preferred BlueCard.

Did the math and we spent about $7000 last year in groceries and gas. Probably should earn about $400 then just on those two categories.

Plus the recent promotion is $100 card credit when you spend $1000 in the first 90 days. Then also a free year of Amazon Prime (It's a $99 value).

So we'll get about $600 value by using this card on what we buy everyday. Our first AMEX! We jumped on that! Thanks for pointing it out!

How does that work with buying the gift cards? It just shows up on your AMEX as a grocery store purchase?