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Citi Custom Cash℠ Card sign-up bonus: $200 cash back

Citi Custom Cash℠ Card card art
Citi Custom Cash℠ Card

The Citi Custom Cash℠ Card offers an easy-to-earn sign-up bonus of $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases within the first 6 months of opening your account.

  • Online, you can get $200 cash back, awarded as 20,000 ThankYou® Points, after spending $1,500 in purchases within your first six months of having the card.
  • This is the standard welcome offer on this card.

Here’s what you need to know about the Custom Cash welcome bonus offer:

Online 20,000 point Citi Custom Cash℠ Card welcome offer

Citi Custom Cash℠ Card card art

Learn how to apply.

Annual fee: $0

This is a direct bank link. All information about the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card has been collected independently by cardsandpoints.com.

Citi Custom Cash℠ Card sign-up bonus

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The 6-month window to earn this bonus makes it an easy bonus to earn.

More about this card


Benefit highlights:
Citi Entertainment® – Access to event ticket pre-sales.

Rewards:
5% cash back on your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, on up to $500 of purchases.
5% eligible categories include restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment.
1% cash back on all other purchases.
Rewards are earned as ThankYou® Points.

Learn more:
Learn more about the Citi Custom Cash in our review of the card.
See our overview of the ThankYou® Rewards program.

My take on the Citi Custom Cash℠ sign-up bonus

I don’t know of any previous increased welcome offers on the Citi Custom Cash℠ card, so now is as good a time as any to get the Custom Cash. While you can get the sign-up bonus on the Custom Cash more than once, if you’re invested in the ThankYou® Rewards program, you will probably only get the bonus on this card once.

That’s because you can only be approved for a new Custom Cash card if you do not already hold the card. But you can get a second, third, or more Custom Cash cards by downgrading other Citi Cards. Like you might expect, you can get a Custom Cash by downgrading a Citi Strata Premier℠ card, but many American Airlines cards can also be downgraded to the Citi Custom Cash.

My verdict: If you don’t already have the Citi Custom Cash℠ and aren’t trying to keep yourself under 5/24 for Chase applications or have another reason to limit your card applications, now’s a good time to apply for this card. Once you have opened your first Custom Cash and earned a welcome bonus, you should use downgrades from other cards to get additional Custom Cash cards.

A few notes on applying for Citi credit cards

  • Citi has limits on the number of applications you can submit. You can only apply for one personal card every eight days and no more than two cards every rolling 65 days. Business cards are subject to the same eight-day limitation, but you can apply for no more than one business card every 95 days.
  • You can get a new customer welcome bonus on Citi cards multiple times, but Citi has rules on how often you can earn a welcome bonus.
    • ThankYou Point welcome offers are typically not available if you’ve received a new account bonus on the same card in the past 48 months.
    • Welcome bonuses on AAdvantage cards are only available if you have not received a welcome bonus for the same card within the past 48 months.
  • There is no limit to the number of Citi cards you can hold.
  • You can check your application status on the Citi website or by calling 1-866-606-2787.

Frequently asked questions

Can you get more than one Citi Custom Cash℠

Because the Citi Custom Cash℠ earns 5% cash back rewards in one category each month on up to $500 of spending, you might want to get another Custom Cash either to increased your spending capacity in your favorite category or to access 5% rewards in additional categories. While you can only get one Citi Custom Cash as a new cardmember, you can get multiple Custom Cash cards by downgrading other cards.

How much is 20,000 ThankYou® Points worth?

The 20,000 ThankYou® Points you’ll get with a new Citi Custom Cash℠ card are worth $200 toward cash back redemptions. However, you can get even more value out of them if you also hold a Citi Strata Premier℠ card, which enables point transfers to all of Citi’s travel transfer partners.

About the author

  • Aaron Hurd

    Aaron Hurd is a credit card, travel rewards, and loyalty program expert. Over the past 15 years, he has authored over a thousand expert contributions published by leading outlets including WSJ, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, NerdWallet, The Points Guy, Bankrate, CNET, and many others. He has also served in consulting roles for many of these same outlets, designing content strategy, hiring teams of teams of editors and contributors, developing thought-leadership pieces, and ghost-editing for senior editors. Aaron is well-known in the miles and points community and regularly presents about travel rewards at conferences like the Chicago Seminars and Minnebar. Aaron has enjoyed the game of optimizing credit card rewards since getting his first credit card shortly after he turned 18. He started learning about credit cards and travel rewards from the (now defunct) FatWallet Finance forums and FlyerTalk. He holds more than 40 open credit cards and has first-hand experience with almost every major credit card product.

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