Citi Rewards+ Card benefits guide

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The Citi Rewards+® Card allows cardholders to earn 2X points at supermarkets and gas stations (up to $6,000 per year, then 1X points). However, this card has other praiseworthy features, such as its introductory APR offers for purchases and balance transfers and many ways to earn additional rewards.

Whether you’re considering the Citi Rewards+ or already have it and want to maximize its benefits, here’s a breakdown of its features and how to best take advantage of them.

Citi Rewards+ Card rewards benefits

Rewards on gas and grocery spending

Earning rewards is where you can really maximize the value of this card. The rewards structure offers 2X points at supermarkets and gas stations, with a limit of $6,000 in combined spending in those categories per year. Once you reach the limit for these spending categories, you’ll earn 1X points per dollar spent. Plus, as a special offer, you can earn 5X points on hotels, rental cars and attractions booked through the CitiTravel.com (offer through December 31, 2025). All other purchases earn 1X points.

Many ways to redeem rewards

The Citi Rewards+ card accrues “basic” ThankYou points, which means you can’t transfer points to all available Citi airline and hotel partners (a more valuable redemption option). However, you can transfer qualifying points to a participating Choice Privileges, JetBlue TrueBlue or Wyndham Rewards loyalty program account.

You can also use basic Citi ThankYou points to book travel through the Citi portal. Other redemption options include gift cards, shopping with points at eligible merchants (like Amazon and BestBuy) and paying with points to cover eligible purchases as a statement credit. The best way to redeem your points is for gift cards or travel since both options provide 1 cent per point in value. Other redemption options may net less than 1 cent per point in value.

Round-up feature

The Citi Rewards+ card offers a unique way to earn more rewards through a round-up feature that allows you to round up your points to the nearest 10 points. So, if you make a $2 purchase, you’ll earn 10 points instead of 2 points. A purchase for $43 would round up to 50 points.

Note that your gas and grocery purchases will only be rounded up after the 2X rate is applied. So, $64 of groceries would earn 128 points, which would be rounded to 130 points.

Annual redemption bonus

You’ll receive 10 percent of your points back on the first 100,000 points you redeem annually. If you max out this benefit, you could earn up to 10,000 points back, which is worth $100 in gift cards. Note that this benefit doesn’t apply to sharing points.

Citi Rewards+ Card intro benefits

Welcome bonus

Another excellent benefit of this card is the welcome bonus. You can earn 20,000 bonus points after spending $1,500 in purchases within three months of opening the account. You can redeem these points for $200 in gift cards at ThankYou.com.

Intro APR offers

The Citi Rewards+ card offers a 0 percent intro APR for 15 months after account opening on both purchases (from the date of account opening) and qualifying balance transfers (from the date of the first transfer; balance transfers must be made within the first four months). After your intro APR offer ends, you’ll have a variable APR of 18.24 percent to 28.24 percent.

If you decide to use the balance transfer offer, you’ll pay an intro balance transfer fee of 3 percent (minimum $5) on each transfer completed within the first four months after account opening. After the first four months, a balance transfer fee of 5 percent (min. $5) applies.

Citi Rewards+ Card other benefits

No annual fee

One of the great features of this card is that you can earn rewards on your everyday spending without having to justify the cost of an annual fee. This means there’s no need to strategize your spending to cover the cost of card membership. When you’ve got a no-annual fee card, simply using it to earn rewards will net a lot of value. However, be sure to pay your balance each month to avoid interest fees.

Citi Entertainment

Citi Entertainment is a perk offered to all Citi cardholders. You’ll get access to presale tickets and exclusive experiences for concerts, sporting events, dining experiences and more.

Maximizing the Citi Rewards+ Card

If you want to get as much value as possible from this card, here are some tips that will help:

• Use your card for gas and grocery spending to maximize your rewards. 
• If you have high-interest debt, take advantage of the balance transfer offer to pay off your debt.
• Use your card for multiple small purchases to take advantage of the round-up feature.
• Redeem points for gift cards and other redemption options worth 1 cent per point.
• Pair this card with a premium Citi card (or go for a Citi card trifecta). With a premium Citi card, you can pool all of your points together and transfer them to any Citi Travel partner. This option provides a higher average redemption value of 1.6 cents per point.

The bottom line

The Citi Rewards+ Card offers several respectable benefits for a no-annual-fee card, including grocery and gas station spending rewards. Although the card’s bells and whistles are minimal, you can still get enough perks to justify getting (or keeping) the card.