Citi Rewards+ Card: Unique perks with no annual fee

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You can earn 20,000 Citi ThankYou points when you open the Citi Rewards+® Card and spend $1,500 in purchases with your card within three months of account opening; Plus For a limited time, earn 5 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on air travel and hotels up to $6,000 in the first 12 months and then 1 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent thereafter. This card also has no annual fee.

The card’s welcome bonus is worth at least $200 in gift cards or travel booked through the Citi travel center, but it can be worth even more if you partner it with the right Citibank credit card. I’ll explain why and help you figure out if this is the right card for you.

Citi Rewards Card review

Current bonus

With this card you can earn 20,000 bonus points after you spend $1,500 in purchases with your card within 3 months of account opening. For a limited time, earn 5 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on air travel and hotels up to $6,000 in the first 12 months and then 1 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent thereafter.

Benefits and perks

The Citi Rewards+ card has a couple of bonus categories that earn you 2x Citi ThankYou points per dollar:

• Supermarkets
• Gas stations

The bonus on these purchases only applies to the first $6,000 you spend per year, after that you’ll earn 1x points per dollar. All other purchases will earn one Citi ThankYou point per dollar.

Also, the points you earn on every purchase will automatically be rounded up to the nearest increment of 10. So you’ll never make less than 10 points on a purchase. For example, if you spent $25 at the mall, instead of only earning 25 Citi ThankYou points you would earn 30 points. This also means that a $1 purchase would earn 10 Citi ThankYou points. In addition to the sign-up bonus, the Citi Rewards+ card has other benefits and it doesn’t have an annual fee. So it’s worth keeping long term.

The best benefit to this card is the 10% points rebate you’ll get on the first 100,000 points you redeem each year. So having this card makes your points more valuable, even if you earn them with other ThankYou cards (and have the accounts combined).

How to redeem points

You can use the Citi ThankYou points you earn with the Citi Rewards+ to book travel or get gift cards and your points will be worth one cent each (not including the 10% rebate). You can also redeem points for purchases at specific websites, like Amazon and Best Buy, but the value you’ll get per point is less than one cent per point.

You can also transfer points to JetBlue at a 5:4 ratio. However, if you have the Citi Premier® Card or Citi Prestige® Card you can combine your Citi ThankYou accounts and then transfer your ThankYou points to any airline partner at a 1:1 ratio. Having the ability to transfer your points is a huge boost in value. For example, you can transfer 15,000 ThankYou points to Turkish Airlines and book a round-trip flight from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii on United Airlines.

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.

Is the annual fee worth it?

The Citi Rewards+ has no annual fee, so it’s a great card to keep long term.

Who is the Citi Rewards+ Card for?

The Citi Rewards+ is a great complimentary card to other cards that earn ThankYou points. But the timing of your application for this card matters because Citi will not let you earn the sign-up bonus from more than one card that earns ThankYou points within 24 months. The terms say:

Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Rewards+®, Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi ThankYou® Premier/Citi Premier® or Citi Prestige®, or if you have closed any of these accounts, in the past 24 months.

So if it’s been less than 24 months since you earned a welcome bonus with or closed a Citi Prestige, Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card or Citi Premier Card, you aren’t eligible to earn the bonus, even if you are approved.

Also, keep in mind that the Citi Premier card currently has a much larger sign-up bonus than the Citi Rewards+ card. And if you open a Rewards+ card right now, you won’t be able to earn the bonus on the Citi Premier for 24 months from when you earn the welcome bonus.

Insider tip

The Citi Rewards+ card’s 10% points rebate applies to points transferred to airline partners, including transfers if you combine your account with a Citi Premier or Citi Prestige card. That means you could get up to an extra 10,000 points back each year on points transfers. That’s an excellent perk for a no annual fee card.

Pairing the Citi Rewards+ with other credit cards

The Citi Rewards+ card earns Citi ThankYou points which can only be transferred to travel partners if you also have either the Citi Prestige or Citi Premier card. The problem is that getting this combo could take you two years because of the application restrictions I mentioned, unless you’re okay not earning the welcome bonus on those cards.

Another card that is perfect to pair with the Citi Rewards+ is the Citi® Double Cash Card. The Citi Double Cash Card earns 2% cash back on all purchases, 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay. It’s not only one of the best cards for everyday purchases, but also a top credit card that earns cash back. And, if you pair the Double Cash with a card that earns ThankYou points (like the Rewards+ card) you can convert your cash back into ThankYou points (one dollar converts to 100 ThankYou points).

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.

Bottom line

Right now the Citi Rewards+ card has the highest sign-up bonus and best perks of any no annual fee card that earns Citi ThankYou points. The ThankYou points you earn with the card are worth one cent each for gift cards or travel booked through the Citi ThankYou portal.

You’ll also get a 10% points rebate on redemptions for the first 100,000 point per year. And the card has a unique perk – on every purchase the Citi ThankYou points you earn will be rounded up to the nearest 10. So a $2 latte will still earn you 10 points, the toughest part will be finding a $2 latte.

But your points can be worth a lot more if you have the Citi Prestige or the Citi Premier Card because with these cards, you’ll have the ability to transfer your points to Citi ThankYou’s airline partners.