5 reasons to get the Citi Double Cash Card

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If you’re looking for a no-hassle rewards card, the no annual fee Citi® Double Cash Card is hard to beat and it’s the perfect card to have if you want to maximize your rewards for the widest range of purchases. Right now, most of us are spending primarily on groceries, food delivery and at online stores, like Amazon, and this card is a one-stop shop for earning rewards in all of those categories.

While it doesn’t make the cut as one of the top cards for travel – as those are cards with specific travel-related perks – having a cash-back card with a solid earning rate is an excellent choice if you’re looking to add to your card arsenal. That’s especially true if you spend a significant amount in categories that don’t typically earn bonus rewards. In fact, we rank the Citi Double Cash Card as the best overall cash-back credit card and the simplest no-annual-fee card.

Let’s take a look at five reasons you should consider adding it to your wallet.

The information for the Citi Double Cash Card has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Earn 2% back on everything

While the Citi Double Cash Card doesn’t offer a welcome bonus, but you will earn 2% cash back on every purchase — 1% when you make the purchase plus 1% when you pay off the purchase.

You won’t earn cash back on credit card fees, interest, cash advances, money orders and balance transfers, and your cash back expires if there is no activity on your card for 12 months.

In addition to the simplicity of the card’s rewards system, there are no caps on the amount of cash back you can earn. So, for example, if you spend $1,000 per month on the Double Cash Card you’ll earn $10 back when you charge those purchases and another $10 back when you pay them off. That adds up to $480 cash back over the course of the year.

The best personal card for non-bonused spend

One of the most enticing things about the Citi Double Cash Card is its simple rewards structure. Like we mentioned above, you’ll earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase and 1% when you pay it off, for a total of 2% cash back. There isn’t another no-annual-fee card that earns that much on non-bonus spending.

Comparable cards like the Chase Freedom® or Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card only earn 1% cash back on purchases that aren’t eligible for bonus rewards.

Even better, if you have a Citi Thank You points-earning card like the Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card, you can convert the cash back you earn with the Citi Double Cash Card to Thank You points at a ratio of $1:100 points. Then, you can transfer your Citi ThankYou Points to any of Citi’s airline partners to maximize the value of the rewards you earn. That makes the Double Cash card the best way to earn Citi ThankYou points on non-bonus-category spending. In fact, it’s one of the best and easiest ways to earn any of the transferrable point currencies.

The information for the Capital One Savor and Citi Prestige cards has been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

For example, if you converted $150 in cash-back earnings to ThankYou points you’d have 15,000 points. You could then transfer those ThankYou points to Turkish Airways for a round-trip coach flight on United Airlines anywhere within the U.S. (including Hawaii). Those tickets can easily cost hundreds of dollars.

I recently used Citi ThankYou points for three last-minute round-trip coach flights between Missoula and Denver on United, booked through Turkish Airways. The cash price of those tickets was about $630 each, so not only did I save upwards of $1,800 by using travel rewards, but I saved tens of thousands of reward points by booking through Turkish instead of United, as United was charging 25,000 United miles for the same tickets.

No annual fee

The Citi Double Cash Card doesn’t have an annual fee.

Access to Citi entertainment

Citi Double Cash cardholders will have access to exclusive experiences and presale tickets to events like concerts, sports games, theatre, performances and more. For example, eligible cardholders may have the opportunity to get preferred seating or VIP packages before the general public can buy them.

Can get if over 5/24

Another perk to this card is that you can get it if you’re over Chase 5/24, which can be restrictive for those looking to be approved for Chase credit cards. So, if you already have a number of the best Chase credit cards and are looking for a no-annual-fee card, but can’t get the Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited®, the Citi Double Cash is an excellent choice. Plus, it has a better earning rate on non-bonus spending than either of those cards.

Bottom line

We consider the Citi Double Cash Card to be the best overall cash-back credit card and there are good reasons why. Most notably, it offers one of the best earning rates for non-bonus spending of any of the cash-back cards. Plus, you don’t have to worry about bonus categories or award charts; earning and redeeming the cash back couldn’t be easier.

If you have a Thank You points-earning card, like the Citi Prestige, you can convert the cash back you earn with the Citi Double Cash Card to Thank You points at a ratio of $1:100 points, which makes the rewards you earn with the Citi Double Cash Card all the more valuable.

You can read our review of the Citi Double Cash Card here.