How I Earned 5% Cash Back This Month With The Citi Custom Cash Card – Forbes Advisor – Technologist

Let’s start with the basics.

The Citi Custom Cash® Card is a no annual fee cash-back rewards card that requires Excellent, Good credit (around 670-plus) to apply. It offers:

• 0% introductory APR for 15 months from date of account opening on purchases and from date of first transfer for balance transfers completed within 4 months of account opening. After that, the variable APR will be 18.74% – 28.74%, based on creditworthiness. There is also a balance transfer fee of 5% of each balance transfer; $5 minimum
• Earn $200 in cash back after spending $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. The bonus points come in the form of 20,000 ThankYou® Points that can be redeemed for $200 cash back
• Earn 5% cash back on purchases in a top eligible spend category up to the first $500 spent each billing cycle, 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026 and 1% cash back on all other purchases

Bullet number four was pretty dense with “credit card speak,” so allow me to disambiguate.

In a nutshell, the Citi Custom Cash Card gives you 5% cash back on your top spending category each billing cycle. The eligible categories include:

• Restaurants
• Gas stations
• Grocery stores
• Select travel
• Select transit
• Select streaming services
• Drugstores
• Home improvement stores
• Fitness clubs
• Live entertainment

While the 5% only applies to the first $500 worth of spending each billing cycle, that’s still up to $25 cash back you can earn each month—or $300 per year—on your spendiest categories.

With that in mind, here’s how I maximize my cash back each month with the Citi Custom Cash Card (and you can, too).

To recap, the Citi Custom Cash Card gives you 5% cash back within one eligible spending category each billing cycle.

So to maximize my cash-back potential, I sat down and did three things:

1. I first looked at my budget to see which eligible categories I was spending the most in each month. Depending on the month, it was a three-way tie between gas, travel and groceries.
2. I then determined how much cash back I was already earning within those categories by using my existing stable of credit cards. I was already getting 5 points per dollar on Chase Travel℠ using my Chase cards and 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%) using my Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express (Terms apply, see rates & fees). But none of my cards consistently gave more than 2% cash back on gas.
3. With that in mind, I ceremoniously promoted my Citi Custom Cash Card to the title of “Official Gas Card Forever (or Until Something Offering 6% Cash Back Comes Along).”

Since I never spend more than $500 on gas per month, my Citi Custom Cash Card effectively acts as a 5% gas card all month, every month.

That’s no small feat, considering the next-best gas rewards card might be the Sam’s Club® Mastercard®* (5%) or the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi* (4%), but both those cards require about a $50 to $65 annual membership to their respective clubs.

On top of that, the 5% cash back technically comes in the form of 5 Citi ThankYou® Points per dollar spent. You can always cash those out for a penny each—or you can transfer them to one of Citi’s transfer partners for even more travel value.

While I designated my own Citi Custom Cash Card to be my official “gas card,” I suspect that most folks will actually end up using it as their official “grocery card.”

Yes, there are certainly ways to earn more than 5% cash back on groceries. As mentioned above, I personally use the Amex Blue Cash Preferred, which offers an impressive 6% cash back on up to $6,000 worth of grocery purchases per year. But that card charges a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.

So as far as grocery rewards cards go, the Citi Custom Cash may not quite be the most rewarding on the market. But since it has no annual fee, you also don’t have to worry about spending up to a certain amount per year just to break even. You also get the flexibility of being able to change your 5% category from month to month rather than it being fixed.

While I can certainly appreciate my Citi Custom Cash Card for offering me 5% cash back on virtually all of my gas spending (even on road trip months), it’s not perfect and comes with a few caveats to consider:

• Its base 1% cash back on all other purchases is mediocre.
• It doesn’t include any form of trip or rental car insurance.
• Citi’s transfer partners are short on domestic airlines (though you can still book domestic flights indirectly through airline partners, e.g. booking United flights through Turkish Airlines).

You can easily mitigate all three drawbacks by pairing the Custom Cash with a different credit card that earns a higher base rate or that offers more travel benefits. But as a “gas-only” or “groceries-only” card, the Citi Custom Cash Card is hard to beat. And if you’re looking for a card that offers high cash back in multiple spending categories, check out our full list of the best 3% cash-back credit cards.

To view rates and fees for Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express please visit this page.