Citi Custom Cash® Card review: Innovation or inconvenience?

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card could be a more lucrative option if you prioritize flexibility, but the Citi Custom Cash wouldn’t capitalize on enough of your potential rewards spending. 

It gives you the unique option to choose one of six potential 3 percent cash back categories that you can swap out each month to take advantage of upcoming expenses. The choice categories — gas, online shopping, dining, travel, drugstores and home improvement stores — cover purchases from more retailers than competing cards offer, expanding your earning potential. You also earn 2 percent back year-round at grocery stores and wholesale clubs.

However, the Bank of America Customized Cash saddles the 3 percent and 2 percent categories with a combined $2,500 spending limit per quarter (or $833 per month, if split evenly). While higher than the Citi Custom card’s spending limit, this can still be a deal-breaker depending on your spending habits.

For sheer reward potential and category variety, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ is the best choice overall if you aren’t planning to pair Citi cards. Unlike the Citi Custom Cash card, the Freedom Flex earns rewards on more than one category at a time. It earns year-round elevated cash back on dining, drugstore and Chase Travel purchases in addition to Chase’s rotating categories. The Chase Freedom Flex’s rewards could also be pooled with Chase’s premium cards and redeemed for 25 or 50 percent more value toward Chase Travel℠ purchases without using transfer partners.

Still, the Freedom Flex doesn’t automatically reward your biggest category each month, so the Custom Cash is more convenient if you want automatic cash back without worrying about category activation and tracking.

The Citi Strata Premier lets the Custom Cash card shine a bit more thanks to its range of bonus categories, travel perks and transfer partners. The Premier card’s restaurant, supermarket, gas station, air travel and hotel categories cover some of the Custom Cash card’s heaviest spending categories, freeing up your Custom Cash card to rake in 5 percent back in rarer bonus categories like transit and live entertainment.

Adding the Citi Double Cash® Card to your wallet would shore up many of the Custom Cash card weaknesses by providing boosted rewards on all purchases. A flat-rate cash back card is especially helpful since it can cover any purchases outside the Custom Cash category and its rewards spending cap.

The Citi Rewards+® Card can be a handy partner for small purchases, especially at supermarkets and gas stations. This card rounds up your rewards purchases to the nearest 10 points per dollar, which means even a $4 sandwich would earn 10 points. Leaning on the Citi Rewards+ Card could let you earn more rewards on day-to-day purchases and make space for the Citi Custom Cash to earn rewards on your other purchases that might not normally earn 5 percent rewards.

If you spend heavily in one of the card’s bonus categories, you could earn a higher cash back rate compared to similar cards. This could be one of the most lucrative options if you want a card dedicated to recurring purchases such as gym memberships and streaming service subscriptions or routine spending on dining, Uber and Lyft.

You can easily maximize your earnings if you take the time to plan out purchases that qualify for the elevated cash back each billing cycle, paying attention not to overspend. This method is likely to work best with its travel, transit, home improvement, grocery and live entertainment bonus categories. If you have a large expense coming up, such as a planned trip, house renovation, family dinner or concert, this card is the obvious choice. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards) of around $22,500. Some of the major spending categories include that contribute toward the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $5,700
• Dining out:  $3,600
• Entertainment: $2,400
• Gas: $3,100
• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance.

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards.

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value.

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee.

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score.

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less-than-standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits.
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges.
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection.
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs.
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

There’s no specific range given for the Citi Custom Cash card, as it is set when you are approved based on your credit score, income and other factors. Citi’s terms for the card state $500 is the minimum credit limit you can receive. However, the latest data from Experian shows that the average credit card limit for all U.S. cardholders was generally around $30,000, but this can widely vary based on elements like your length of credit history. 

If you need a larger credit limit, you can typically ask for a credit limit increase after multiple on-time payments, but this request can temporarily affect your credit score.

Applying to the Citi Custom Cash with a good to excellent credit score (a FICO score of 670 or higher or a VantageScore of 661 or higher) may give you the best approval odds. 

However, there are other factors that increase your approval odds. If you want to gauge your approval odds before applying, it’s also worth trying out Bankrate’s CardMatch™ tool.

At first glance, it may look like the Citi Custom Cash Card would earn you the most cash back since it earns elevated cash back on your top spending category each billing cycle and select travel. However, its bonus category spending cap means you may earn more rewards with the Citi Double Cash Card’s unlimited cash back.

Unless you regularly travel, the Double Cash card might be a better pick if your biggest expenses fall outside the Custom Cash Card’s 10 bonus categories or if the $500 spending limit for one category per billing cycle would hobble your rewards potential.