Is The Citi Custom Cash Still Worth It In 2023?

so the city custom cache is a five percent cash back card that can get you around 300 back per year if you spend five hundred dollars per month in an eligible category that's it end of video bye okay so while this is a very simple credit card on face value there's actually quite a bit to talk about in this video we're going to cover what's actually covered in these five percent categories how to get even more than five percent back with this card and finally who this card is good for and who it's maybe not so good for so I think we can all agree that the goal with credit cards is to get the most value possible and for cash back cards the gold standard is right around that five percent Mark which is exactly what the city custom cash promises with this card you'll be getting five percent cash back on your top eligible spend category up to five hundred dollars spent each billing cycle and since this card has no annual fee it's easy to come out in the green as long as you don't carry a balance so now we're gonna break down what the eligible spend categories actually are which should help you decide whether or not you'll be able to get value from this card so at a quick glance we see the five percent eligible categories are restaurants gas stations grocery stores select travel select Transit select streaming Services drug stores home improvement stores fitness clubs and live entertainment now if you go and use this card in multiple categories this card is actually going to calculate your highest spend category for that billing cycle and give you five percent cash back for those purchases as for your other purchases those are all going to earn one percent cash back this is nice because you don't have to manually switch the category and I don't know about you but I personally prefer when things are automated like this since it makes my life just a little bit simpler but let's dive into the eligible categories and see what's actually included for the restaurant category it's going to include cafes bars lounges and fast food restaurants what's not included are purchases at bakeries Caterers and restaurants located inside another business so if you're at a hotel restaurant these are probably going to be excluded from this category and things like this can be confusing because on face value I think that if I'm at a restaurant that's going to be restaurant spent but now we know and no going is half the battle now one of the categories that a lot of people use this card for is gas stations however city does have some exclusions in their fine print that we must be mindful of gasoline purchases at warehouse clubs discount stores convenience stores or other Merchants that do not use the gas station Merchant category code will be excluded from the gas station category grocery stores is another big one if you spend less than 500 per month on groceries this is an excellent use for this card and it includes purchases at supermarkets neat seafood stores Dairy Stores bakeries and miscellaneous food slash convenience stores excluded are purchases at general merchandise slash discount Superstores think Kmart Walmart and Target plus wholesale slash Warehouse clubs as well as candy nut and confectionary stores now online grocery delivery services may or may not qualify in order to qualify they must classify themselves as a supermarket with the supermarket Merchant category code apparently enough select travel is up next and this category includes Airline Hotel Cruise Line and travel agency purchases it does not include timeshares boat leases and rentals campgrounds and trailer parks and real estate agencies so if you find yourself walking into a Bass Pro Shop and then casually walking out with a full vacation planned that vacation is likely not going to qualify for the five percent back now I've read that Airbnb does code AS travel with his card but I can't confirm this is 100 true if you have experience with this please let me know down below and from what I've read verbo does not count toward this category now select Transit is a separate category from select travel and includes car rentals ferries commuter Railways Subways taxis limousines car services passenger Railways bridge and road tolls parking lots garages bus lines and motor home and recreational vehicle rentals interestingly it excludes bikes scooter rentals Auto clubs and insurance company so if you live in a city I can potentially see this category being one of your top picks for this card the next category is Select streaming services and it looks like it covers just about every streaming services you could possibly want I'll throw them up on the screen there's 21 of them listed here I don't really see this category being a great use for this card since you're more likely to spend more money in other eligible categories but I suppose if you have other cards that take care of those categories this could be a good option drug stores are up next and this category includes purchases made at pharmacies inside of grocery stores general merchandise discount Superstores and wholesale slash Warehouse clubs if those Merchants submit the purchases with the drugstore and Pharmacy Merchant category code and of course this category will include purchases made at actual drugstores like your CVS Walgreens and Rite Aids the home improvement stores category is going to include purchases at home supply warehouse stores Lumber and building materials stores paints and wallpaper stores hardware stores nurseries lawn and garden supply stores and paints varnishes and supply stores it does not include florists and floor supply stores Nursery stock wholesale construction stores or glass doors I can see this being a nice category if you're doing some light work around the house but obviously the 500 monthly cap is going to present an issue since as you may be aware home renovations and repairs are very expensive the fitness clubs category is one that's probably not a fantastic use of this card for most people but it does include membership fees and other purchases at Athletics sports and recreation facilities now it's going to exclude virtual Services personal monitoring devices and fitness streaming classes so something like a Peloton subscription wouldn't get the five percent back with this card the live entertainment category can potentially be a decent use for this card if you find yourself liking to be entertained frequently so this is going to include concerts live sporting events live theatrical Productions amusement parks and orchestras however since this category is called live entertainment and not just entertainment it excludes charitable organizations that provide live entertainment sporting camps Sports complexes where you participate in the sport public and private golf courses country clubs bowling alleys movie theaters horse attractions museums and art galleries if you're considering using this card for the live entertainment category but find this category to be too restricting definitely check out the Capital One saver one while it's only going to earn three percent in its entertainment category it includes more things such as tourist attractions bowling alleys and a few other things so if you want to check out my City Custom cash link below it actually includes a calculator where you can plug in your expected spend and it's going to pop out how much cashback you can expect to get from this card for instance let's say we go in and plug in that we're gonna max out the gas category at 500 per month we can see that's going to get us 300 per year in cash back easy peasy as I mentioned a little earlier the cashback for this card is given to you in the form of city thank you point which can be used for a handful of different things first and foremost you can cash them out for a statement credit direct deposit or a check or you can use them to purchase gift cards or to book travel through the thank you reward center or even use them to shop with points at partner Brands I'd personally stick with the cashback options but that's just my personal preference plus the nice thing about redeeming for a statement credit or direct deposit is there's no minimum required to redeem however if you want to get even more value from your thank you points there's one way we can turn this city custom cache from a five percent cash back card into a five and a half percent cash back card but in order to squeeze this extra value out of these points you've got to be willing to open up another credit card and that credit card is the city rewards plus the thing is you can actually transfer your thank you points over to this card where you will get 10 points back when you redeem your points and they allow you to do this up to the first 100 000 points per year the good thing is the city rewards Plus card is also a no annual fee card but the not so good thing is the card has an underwhelming earning structure another nice thing about the city custom cash is it generally has a decent welcome offer available check my link down below to see the current welcome offer but as I'm recording this video they're offering 200 in cashback after spending fifteen hundred dollars on purchases in the first six months of account opening that means if you're using this card only for that five percent cash back you'll be getting around 18 ineffective cash back on that first fifteen hundred dollars to spend once you tack on this welcome offer that's pretty solid but in order to qualify for this offer you must not have received the bonus offer for opening a new City Custom cash card in the past 48 months now the city custom cache isn't the card that's full of additional benefits but you will get protections like ID Theft Protection zero dollar liability for unauthorized charges and City quick lock plus you'll have access to your FICO score which is always helpful to keep an eye on and an interesting little note about the FICO score that City provides you may notice that it goes all the way up to 9 900 which is like what I thought this thing only went up to 8.50 what gives but this is because they're actually showing you your FICO bank card score eight and this particular score is more relevant to credit card applications as opposed to other types of loans so who do I think this card's good for well I think if you need a credit card for one individual spend category and that's all you're going to use this card for then this is an excellent fit this allows you to really maximize that five percent back but if you're someone who doesn't want multiple cards in their wallet and prefers a single catch-all card you may want to take a look at a two percent flat rate catch-all card or even a card like the autograph or the saver one that provides three percent cash back in multiple categories now I don't currently have this card not because I don't think it's worth it I'd pick this card up in a heartbeat but if you're like me and you're concerned about your 524 status with Chase that makes it so you have to be very selective in which cards you decide to apply for so if you are interested in picking up Chase cards you may want to get those out of the way first but otherwise I think this is a phenomenal card at the end of the day it's really hard to beat five percent cash back and if you want to check out the cards I'm currently slapping around on a daily basis check out this video thanks for watching peace

Channel: Joshua Butler

Views: 16,894

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Id: 1_YyHg_26JU

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023