Citi Custom Cash® Card Complete Guide
Travel Freely partner, Citi, offers an innovative answer to flexible spending with automatic 5x rewards with their Citi Custom Cash® Card. It directly competes with other versatile cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠ or Discover it® Cash Back Credit Card, but with an automatic adjustment of bonus categories based on your highest spending category each month.
The Citi Custom Cash Card is an excellent no-annual-fee option for those who value flexibility and automatic maximization of their spending rewards. It’s a powerful addition to a Citi-based rewards strategy, especially when paired with a premium ThankYou card like the Citi Strata Premier® Card.
The Citi Custom Cash Card earns versatile ThankYou Points, each redeemable for 1 cent, making it a solid choice for everyday spending. While the card itself offers direct transfer options to the full roster of Citi transfer partners, its true potential is unlocked when paired with the premium Strata cards. This is because those cards unlock a higher transfer ratio when transferred to Citi’s airline and hotel partners.
This combination enhances the transferability of your points, boosting their value to approximately 1.45 cents each, according to our Reasonable Redemption Values. For optimal value, transfer points to a diverse array of hotel partners, including Accor and Leading Hotels of the World, or take advantage of excellent airline options like American Airlines, Avianca LifeMiles and Turkish Airlines. Whether planning stateside adventures or international excursions, the strategic use of the Custom Cash alongside a premium Citi card can significantly enrich your travel rewards portfolio.
This guide has everything you need to know about the Citi Custom Cash, its benefits, and how it integrates into the ThankYou Rewards ecosystem.
Citi Custom Cash Card Application Tips
Citi Application Tips
|
Should you apply?
The Citi Custom Cash offers a lucrative way to maximize rewards in your highest spending category each billing cycle without having to activate or select categories, making it an excellent choice for flexible spenders. Its 5x points on categories like dining, gas, and groceries up to $500 each month provides substantial rewards potential.
Are you eligible?
To get this card, ensure it has been 48 months since you last received a bonus on any ThankYou card.
How to apply
You can find the current best welcome bonus for the Citi Custom Cash below. Click the card name to go to our Citi Custom Cash card page for more details and a link to apply.
Application status
After you apply, call 1-866-252-0118 to check your application status.
Reconsideration
If your application is denied, definitely call 1-800-695-5171 for reconsideration. It’s surprising how often denials can be changed to approvals just by asking.
Perks
Travel Benefits
- Earning Categories: 5x points in your top spend category each cycle, up to $500 (then 1x), including categories like restaurants, grocery stores, and gas stations.
- Flexible Redemption Options: ThankYou Points can be redeemed for cash back, travel bookings, or transferred to a variety of airline and hotel partners. Combine your points with with the Citi Strata Premier or Citi Strata Elite for potentially greater value given their higher transfer ratio.
Travel and Protections
While the Citi Custom Cash does not include extensive travel protections, it offers essential security features suitable for everyday spending.
Purchase Protections
- Extended Warranty: Citi extends the manufacturer’s warranty by 24 months on items with a manufacturer’s warranty of 5 years or less. This is the best extended warranty coverage of any issuer.
- Damage and Theft Protection: Covers your new purchases for 90 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per calendar year.
Earn Points
Welcome Bonus
This card earns valuable ThankYou points. Here’s the current welcome offer:
Redeem Points
Fortunately, there are many ways to redeem your points from the Citi Custom Cash® Card. As a standalone card, cash back is your best option, however, if you’re able to pair the card with a premium Strata card like the Citi Strata Premier, then that increases the value of your options. This is because with the Citi Strata Premier, you are able to transfer your points to many travel partners at a higher ratio, making your points worth even more.
Cash Back
Cardholders can redeem points for 1 cent each either as statement credits or as cash back. Note: As of 8/24/25, the cash back rate for the Citi Strata Premier (and Citi Prestige) decreased to 0.75 cents per point (originally 1 cent per point).
Under the “Cash” tab, select “Statement Credit,” “Direct Deposit,” or “Check by Mail”
From there, you’ll insert your bank information and confirm the total number of points that you’d like to redeem in the form of cash back.
Redeem points to pay for travel (no, don’t)
While it’s possible to redeem points for travel through Citi’s ThankYou Rewards travel portal, I do not recommend it. You’ll only get 1 cent per point that way, you’ll be limited to the prices found in the travel portal, and you won’t earn rewards from that spend. Unless you are taking advantage of the card’s annual $100 hotel benefit, you’re better off booking travel through other sites or direct from the travel provider. That way, you can earn points on that booking while at the same time booking with whatever source offers the best price. If you want to then use your points to cover that travel purchase, simply redeem points for cash back.
Combine points to transfer to partners
You cannot transfer points at the full 1:1 ratio from Citi’s fee-free cards, such as the Citi Custom Cash® Card or Citi Double Cash® Card, to airline and hotel partners, but you can pool points with your Citi Strata Premier and then transfer the points at full value. Points can be transferred to the loyalty accounts of the primary cardholder or any authorized user on the account. For more on this, check out our Citi ThankYou Points Guide.
Transfer points to airlines and hotel programs
The best use of ThankYou points is to strategically transfer points to airline and hotel partners in order to book high-value awards. Your best bet is usually to wait until you find a great hotel or flight award before transferring points. If you have at least one premium card, such as the Citi Strata Premier, most points transfer at a ratio of 1:1, but Citi regularly runs promotions where they offer a transfer bonus to a specific program.
To transfer points, you’ll want to be logged into your ThankYou Portal. From here, navigate to the “More Ways to Redeem” tab.
Under “More Ways to Redeem,” select “Points Transfer”
Once on the “Points Transfer” page, you’ll find a list of all of Citi’s transfer partners from which you can choose. As mentioned above, it’s best practice to confirm award availability on the airline’s website before you proceed with transferring your points.
After selecting your preferred airline, you’ll be prompted to select the total number of points you’d like to transfer. Citi requires that you transfer a minimum of 1,000 ThankYou points and you can transfer up to 550,000 ThankYou points.
Select the number of points you’d like to transfer and insert your rewards membership number
Other ways to redeem points
Our blog post, Citi ThankYou Points Complete Guide, details the many ways you can redeem your Citi ThankYou points.
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (Amazon.com for example). Don’t do this. These options offer very poor value. Further, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone gets into your Amazon account, they might spend your ThankYou points – causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated). The only time it is worth using points this way is when Amazon runs a coupon to save when using points: you can sometimes use 1 point to save $15 off of $50 or something like that, and in those cases it might make sense to use only 1 point, though it’s best to de-link your points from Amazon after utilizing the discount.
Transfer Points
Transfer Tips
- Wait to transfer points: Don’t transfer points until high-value awards are available and you are ready to book them. Transfers are one-way only. Citi ThankYou points are valuable for their flexibility. Once you transfer, you are locked into a single program that may or may not have awards available.
- Watch for transfer bonuses: Citi sometimes offers improved transfer ratios through limited-time transfer bonuses.
- Move points from one account to another (even to friends’ accounts): You can freely move up to 100,000 points per year to any other Citi ThankYou Rewards account. The catch is that once points are moved, they expire within 90 days. Make sure you have immediate plans for those points before moving them. Exception: The Custom Cash card does not allow moving points.
Transfer points to airlines and hotels
| Expense | Points Redeemed | Retail Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accommodation/ Hotel | Andaz | 80,000 Hyatt points | $1,720 |
| Corin Portal (Master Suite with Volcano View) | 50,077 points | $625.96 | |
| Marriott Hacienda Belen | 1 Free Night Award | $230 | |
| Flights | AA Miles | 157,500 miles | $2,670 |
| Rental Car | Venture Miles | 26,757 | $267.57 |
| $5,513.53 |
Manage Points
Combine Points Across Cards
If you are the primary account holder with multiple cards, you can combine ThankYou Rewards accounts. When your points are combined, they can then automatically be redeemed at the same value as your best card. For example, if one of your cards is the Strata Premier card, you will be able to transfer points to various partners even if the points were earned on a card other than the Strata Premier card.
There are some disadvantages to combining points:
- You lose the ability to pick and choose which points are used when you redeem awards.
- You lose visibility into how many points remain with each card.
The above disadvantages become important when you want to cancel a card: when you cancel a card, all points earned from that account are lost after 60 days. It’s best to downgrade to a no-fee ThankYou card rather than canceling outright. That way, your points are safe.
Share Points Across Cardholders
Citi generously allows people to transfer ThankYou points to anyone else for free. There are 2 “catches” to this:
- Shared points expire after 90 days: Make sure you have a specific near-term use in mind before transferring points.
- 100K limit: Each member may share up to 100,000 points per calendar year. Each member may receive up to 100,000 points per calendar year.
- Exception: The Custom Cash card does not have the capability to share points (but you can combine points with other cards that you have). Yes, it’s extremely weird that all other Citi ThankYou Rewards cards allow sharing points but not Custom Cash.
Why this is valuable:
- If you don’t have the Strata Premier or the Strata Elite cards (the cards in Citi’s lineup that allow full-value transfers to partners at a higher ratio), you can move your points to a friend who has one of those cards, and then they can transfer the points to an airline or hotel program in order to book high-value awards.
- If a friend has airline elite status with one of Citi’s transfer partners with which you want to book an award, you may be better off transferring points to your friend, who can then transfer the points to the airline partner and book the award for you (to get free award changes, for example).
How to Keep Points Alive
There are several situations in which you may have Citi ThankYou Rewards points that will expire:
- Points earned by a credit card account expire 60 days after canceling that account.
- Points transferred to your account expire after 90 days.
- Points earned from some older credit cards expire in a set amount of time after points were earned (e.g. 3 or 5 years after December 31 of the year in which the points were earned).
- Points earned from some credit cards expire if your credit card account has no purchase activity in 18 months.
- Points earned from Citibank banking products expire 3 years after December 31 of the year in which the points were earned.
Credit card points: how to keep points alive
With most credit card points (except with some older credit cards which are no longer available), points remain alive until you cancel the card from which they were earned. Once you cancel the card, points expire after 60 days.
Combining accounts does not solve the problem. When you combine multiple ThankYou accounts, it’s natural to assume that as long as you keep any ThankYou Rewards credit card open, your points will be safe. That’s simply NOT the case. Citi keeps track of where each ThankYou point came from. If you cancel a card, the points earned on that card expire after 60 days. Period. They are NOT known to reinstate points.
The best way to preserve your ThankYou points is to keep your credit card account alive. If you don’t want an annual fee, then call to downgrade to a no-fee ThankYou card. There is a side benefit to this approach, too: Your no-fee card may be eligible for occasional lucrative retention offers.
Card Lifecycle
How to meet minimum spend requirements
Once you are approved for a Citi card, you generally have 3 months to meet the required spend in order to get the signup bonus. If your usual spend isn’t enough, check out our article entitled, “21 Ways to Reach a Minimum Spending Requirement.”
Keep, cancel, or product change?
Is the Citi Custom Cash® Card worth keeping in the long run? As a no-annual-fee card offering flexible 5x categories up to $500 per month, it certainly provides ongoing value for everyday spending. However, if your spending patterns or rewards goals change, you might consider how it fits into your broader credit portfolio. While the Custom Cash alone does not allow for 1:1 point transfers to most travel partners, pairing it with the Citi Strata Premier can enhance its value by enabling higher value ThankYou Points transferability to a wide range of airline and hotel partners. If you are reassessing your cards, consider how the Custom Cash complements your spending habits and whether pairing it with another card in Citi’s lineup could maximize your rewards potential further.
Related cards
(Some of this content originally appeared on The Frequent Miler and has been posted with permission.)
