If you’ve been considering adding the Citi Double Cash Card to your wallet, you may want to make that move soon.
The Citi Double Cash Card‘s limited-time offer of earning $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 with your new card in the first six months of membership will be ending soon.
If you don’t get your application in before Citi ends the promotion, you won’t be eligible to earn that welcome bonus.
This cash back credit card is one of money expert Clark Howard’s favorites because it allows for up to an unlimited 2% cash back on almost every purchase.
Clark carries this card in his wallet. Should you? Let’s look at some more details.
Citi Double Cash: Knowing the Basics
The Citi Double Cash Card is a cash back credit card that pays customers both when they spend and when they pay their bills. Cardholders can earn as much as 2% cash back on their purchases by earning 1% when they make a purchase and an additional 1% when they pay the bill.
There is no spending cap for cash back earnings, and you don’t have to spend in a certain category to earn your 1% reward. You can earn your additional 1% reward even if you pay over time. You just need to make the minimum payment each month for the purchase to remain eligible for the back-end 1% reward.
Citi offers 18 months of 0% APR on balance transfers made to this card, followed by the variable APR of 17.74% – 27.74%, based on your creditworthiness. To qualify for this perk, you must transfer the balance to the Double Cash card within the first four months of card membership. And it will be subject to either a $5 or 3% balance transfer fee (whichever is greater).
You can get more details on this card in Team Clark’s review of the Double Cash.
Why Clark Recommends the Citi Double Cash and Has It In His Wallet
Clark’s reason for recommending this card to so many people over the years can be summed up in one word: simplicity.
There’s no annual fee, you get an unlimited 2% back on everything you purchase and Citi has a strong reputation for paying out rewards in a timely manner.
“The best cash back cards pay 2%, and this is one that I’ve recommended for years,” Clark says.
Clark followed his own advice and applied for the card in 2020.
He held out for some time because he’s an avid traveler and a high-volume spender who typically earns better rewards from other types of credit cards.
But in 2020, Clark made a change to his wallet by adding a couple of cash back credit cards to adapt to the changes in his spending patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Citi card was one of them.
It remains in his wallet in 2022, though he has shifted back to using some of his travel cards more frequently. Clark says his wife is now the primary user of their Double Cash card.
Clark made a video shortly after applying for the card that explained the reasoning for his decision at that time.
Clark Does Have a Gripe About This Card
While it’s true that Clark has endorsed this card for years, it’s also true that he has a gripe with Citi over a recent change to the rewards program.
In March 2022, Citi announced that it would start rewarding customers with ThankYou points rather than cash rewards. Clark didn’t care much for that decision.
“It takes away what I love about the card: the simplicity,” Clark said. “You have one additional step now to get your money. Instead of just getting the money, you have to go their website or app and say, “Give me my money.’ But it is still there.”
The good news is that the change is more of an annoyance than an overhaul. You’ll still see the exact same rewards you’ve been getting from the card; it will just require an extra few steps to get your money. You’ll have to convert the ThankYou points to cash back.
You can turn your ThankYou points into “cash value” by one of the following methods:
- Request a check as payment for your rewards.
- Redeem your rewards as a statement credit.
- Redeem as a credit on a Citi savings or checking account.
Or, if you’d rather, you can redeem ThankYou points for things like airline tickets or hotel rooms.
Final Thoughts
This welcome bonus is not one of the best on the market, but the bonuses attached to cash back cards rarely are.
This bonus matches the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card, which is a no-annual-fee card that offers 2% cash back on most everyday purchases. It has a $200 welcome bonus on $1,000 in spending within the first three months of card membership.
Many other flat-rate cash back cards skip the welcome bonus offers altogether, so consider these offers valuable when you are looking for a straightforward everyday spender.
And since this one is a limited-time deal, you may do well to go ahead and claim it if you have been considering adding this card to your wallet.
Will you be adding this card to your wallet? Do you already have it and want to lend some words of wisdom? We’d love to hear from you in the Clark.com community.
