The silver sheen has faded, but its power still lingers.
I have not really gone away; I am only waiting for the right caller.
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Card Positioning
- Long-Term Hold (Cost: $0)
- 5% cash back rotating each quarter
- Citi’s retention is generous
- No annual fee
- Short-Term Hold (Cost: $0, Earnings: $0)
- Cannot be applied for directly; no bonus for upgrades/conversions
My Experience With This Card
This is, for the blogger, the second credit card. It started with a $2,000 limit. For big-ticket purchases like plane tickets, it replaced a Discover card with only a $500 limit. Later, this card launched 5% pharmacy cash back, and in just a few days, people were able to hit the annual $300 cash back through purchases like Vanilla and charging up Serve. Recently, after holding this card for two years, customer service was generous enough to offer 5% retention on all cash back, which made this card the top choice for no-bonus-category spending. But when the $300 cap was reached and finally fully redeemed, it was time to say goodbye. The card was then reborn as Citi AT&T Access More. Goodbye for now—I'll wait for my Citi AA to bring it back to life.
Discontinued Backup Card Overview
Application
- This card can no longer be applied for directly. It can only be obtained by upgrading from another existing Citi card. Citi conversion generally requires at least one year of card ownership. Conversion must be done by calling customer service, and the new card usually arrives in about two weeks.
Key Features
- Sign-up bonus: 0
- Spending rewards: 5% cash back by rotating categories each quarter (below is this year’s):
- Q1: Macy's, Home furnishing Store
- Q2: Home Depot, Home Garden Store
- Q3: Airlines, Hilton hotel purchases
- Q4: Best Buy, department stores
- 1% cash back in all other categories
- Maximum annual cash back: $300
- Cash back redemption starts at $50; redemption does not have to be in $50 increments
- No annual fee
Highlights
- Can be obtained through upgrade
- Some Citi annual-fee cards, such as Citi AA, can be converted to this card when it is time to pay their first annual fee after one year. This preserves your card age and credit limit, which helps with credit score building.
- 5% cash back quarters have no individual cap (but total still limited to the annual cap of $300)
- Sometimes the 5% categories fall on strong spend categories, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, so you can max out the full $300 annual cash back within a single quarter.
- Citi card benefits
- Price Rewind: if an item’s price drops, you can ask Citi for a price adjustment
- Free FICO credit score from Equifax, with your history displayed as a chart
- Private Pass: they gave out a free movie ticket once, and I happened to miss it
- Retention is fairly generous: if you threaten to cancel, you may receive a promotion
Drawbacks
- Redemption requires at least $50 in cash back
- 5% cash-back categories are niche, with a $300 annual cap
Final Thoughts
Although this card cannot be applied for directly, it is still worth keeping as a Citi backup card since it can be converted from other annual-fee Citi cards and still has value in 5% categories. If you are closing a Citi card, you can consider converting it to this one—you might be able to generate up to $300 in cash back in a year.
Application Link
- Call Citi customer service and request a conversion from a Citi card you have held for more than one year to this card