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Citi Double Cash Card review: Earn 2% back or 2x points on everything

  • Meghan Hunter

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    Citi is an MMS advertiser partner. 

    If you’re looking for a cash-back credit card, the Citi® Double Cash Card is hard to beat. With this card you earn 1% cash back on all your purchases and another 1% cash back on payments. Essentially, you’re earning 2% cash back on everything.

    We rank it as the best overall cash-back credit card among our top 10 cash-back cards.

    Let’s take a look at the details of the Citi Double Cash Card so you can see if this card deserves a spot in 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.

    There’s no limit to the amount of cash back you can earn with the Citi Double Cash card. (Photo by Rrraum/Shutterstock)

    Who is the Citi Double Cash card for?

    This card isn’t good for purchases overseas because it charges a 3% foreign transaction fee. Plus, if you’re open to a card with an annual fee and can make the most of the perks from it, there are other top travel cards that may offer you more value. But if you don’t want the hassle of tracking bonus categories, the no-annual-fee Citi Double Cash Card is an excellent choice.

    Current offer

    The Citi Double Cash Card doesn’t come with 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’d be remiss to pass on this card just because it doesn’t offer a welcome bonus, tough, especially if you’re looking for a card with simple earnings and redemption structures. This card will earn more on everyday, non-bonused spending than most other cash-back cards out there. And you won’t have to deal with or even think about any bonus categories — you’ll know that you’ll earn 2% back (or 2x ThankYou points) on all purchases.

    But note, 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.

    Benefits and perks

    In order to earn the 1% cash back on payments, you must meet the minimum payment each month. So, for example, if you have $1,000 worth of charges for the month and the minimum payment is $20 but you only pay $15, you won’t earn the 1% cash back on your $15 payment.

    However, we recommend that you always pay off your bill on time and in full; otherwise, any interest you pay will negate the value of the cash-back you earned.

    How to redeem your rewards

    You must have at least $25 in cash-back rewards in order to redeem, which can be mailed to you as a check, credited to your statement or used for gift cards. Or, if you have a Citi Thank You points-earning card, like the 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.

    Citi ThankYou points can be especially valuable when transferred to partners like Virgin Atlantic, Turkish Airlines or Avianca. For example, you can transfer 15,000 Citi points to Turkish Airlines and book a round-trip United Airlines partner award from the continental U.S. to Hawaii. Normally, 15,000 points would be worth $150 cash back, but even a flight within the U.S. can easily cost more than that. And a round-trip flight to Hawaii can sometimes go for north of $1,000.

    So if you spend $7,500 on the Citi Double Cash and have a card that earns ThankYou points, you’d have enough to book one of these round-trip award flights to Hawaii through Turkish.

    You can rack up ThankYou points quickly with the Citi Double Cash card. (Photo by Shane Myers Photography/Shutterstock)

    Is the annual fee worth it?

    The Citi Double Cash Card doesn’t come with an annual fee so you can keep it year after year at no cost.

    Pairing the Citi Double Cash Card with other credit cards

    What’s extra-special about the Citi Double Cash Card is the ability to convert the cash-back rewards you earn with the card into Citi ThankYou points at a ratio of $1:100 points. So not only can you redeem the rewards you earn for cash back but you can also redeem them for Thank You points.

    If you have either the Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card, you can combine your Citi ThankYou points and transfer them to any of Citi’s 15 airline partners. 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 Citi Prestige 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.

    Bottom line

    It’s hard to go wrong with a no-annual-fee card earning you 2% cash back like the Citi Double Cash Card. And having the option to take advantage of the Citi ThankYou transfer partners allows you to greatly increase the value of your rewards.

    The drawbacks are the 3% foreign transaction fee and the lack of a sign-up bonus. But for anyone looking to get cash back or extra Thank You points on regular spending, this is a great card to consider.

    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)