Citi Double Cash Credit Card: Historic High $200 Welcome Bonus Is Back

【Updated 2023.11】The $200 welcome bonus on this card is finally back! As a no-annual-fee credit card that earns 2% on all purchases, it’s well worth having—especially for people who don’t like doing a lot of research and prefer a one-card setup.

• Application link

Also, this $200 welcome bonus actually comes as 20,000 ThankYou Points. If you have a card like the Premier, you can transfer those points to airline miles and hotel points.

• Citi Premier Credit Card [60,000 Welcome Bonus + 10x Citi Travel]

Citi Double Cash Credit Card Overview

Highlights

• 2x ThankYou Points earnings: no cap; earn 1x when you make a purchase and another 1x when you pay it off, making it a good fit for frequent card users
• 18 months 0% APR on balance transfers: if you complete a Balance Transfer within the first four months after opening the card, you can get 18 months of 0% APR. However, balance transfers still have a fee of 3%, with a $5 minimum. In other words, you’re paying a one-time 3% fee in exchange for an interest-free loan for a year and a half
• Citi card benefits
  • Price Rewind: if an item’s price drops, Citi may reimburse the difference
  • Free FICO credit score: from Equifax, with your score history shown in chart form
  • Private Pass: they once offered free movie tickets, but I missed it
  • Retention offers can be fairly generous: if you threaten to close the card, you may receive some promotional offers; for details, see Introduction to Retention Offers

Drawbacks

• Certain types of transactions may earn only 1x back (for example, transactions identified as bank cash-related transactions)

Points System

This card now earns TYP points directly, instead of first earning cash back and then converting at a 1:1 ratio. The TYP points you earn now have more redemption options, using the standard current TYP redemption system. Earned TYP can also be redeemed freely for cash back, with no $25 minimum.

• Official announcement

That said, according to the announcement, the TYP points earned from this card still cannot be transferred directly to airline miles on their own, just like Citi’s other no-annual-fee TYP cards.

If you also have a Premier or Prestige, you can combine points to unlock more uses.

• Point value: Average value is 1.5c/p, 100 TYP = $1.5 (Point value and analysis)
• Direct redemption: Redeem at 1c/p for Statement Credit
• Point transfers: 1:1 transfer to AA (good for U.S.-China and U.S.-Europe redemptions, especially premium cabins); 1:1 transfer to Virgin Atlantic miles (good for Delta One nonstop awards and ANA round-trip first class between the U.S. and Japan); 1:1 transfer to Avianca miles (good for U.S.-China business class, ANA and Asiana first class between the U.S. and China, with no YQ on ticketing); 1:1 transfer to Qantas Airways (QF) miles (good for nonstop U.S. domestic awards and U.S. East Coast to Western Europe). You need to hold the ThankYou Premier or Prestige to transfer TYP to airline and hotel points.
• Program features: You can pool all TYP points into one account and use them together. TYP points on each card expire separately, so it’s best to use up the TYP from a card before closing it. You can transfer up to 100k TYP per year to a friend’s account.
• My quick take: For TYP airline partners, just keep AA, AV, and VS straight. Hilton as a hotel partner is also not really worth transferring to. Redeeming for cash/gift cards is only worth 1 cent per point. So the value is about 1.3c, and a few of the more niche airline partners still make it interesting.
• Detailed analysis: ThankYou Points guide>>

My Take

This card is still worth keeping for the long term. At a minimum, 2x back on all spending fills in the gaps for expenses that don’t fall into 5% cash back categories.

You can also consider holding the following combo:

• Citi Rewards+: get 10% back on TYP redemptions
• Citi Double Cash: 2x TYP
• Citi Premier: TYP can be transferred to airline and hotel points, or redeemed through Citi Travel at up to 1.25c/p

Under this setup, the return from Double Cash can reach 2*1.1*1.25=2.75, or the equivalent of 2.86 back if you value TYP at 1.3 cents each, with a $95 annual fee. For people who don’t want to think too much about which card to use, this is already a very solid setup. Citi currently allows product changes freely after you’ve held a card for one year, so if you have a Citi card you no longer use or don’t want to keep paying an annual fee on, converting it to Double Cash can be a very good option.

If you’re willing to put in a bit more effort and have some knowledge of credit cards, consider the following strategy. Since this card itself does not come with much of a welcome bonus and can also be obtained through a product change from another Citi card, a more reasonable approach is to first apply for a Citi credit card with a bigger welcome bonus and first-year annual fee waived, such as Citi AA (50,000 AA miles welcome bonus) or Citi Premier (ThankYou Points welcome bonus), and then convert it to Double Cash in the second year. For more details on product changes, see “Credit Card Tips — Product Change”.

Application

• Approval difficulty is average. If your credit history is less than six months old, applying directly can be difficult. If you have at least one year of credit history and not many recent HPs, approval is generally possible.

• Citi application status link or call: 877-343-4118
• 8/65/95 rule: You can apply for only one personal card every 8 days, only two personal cards every 65 days, and only one business card every 95 days. This refers to application submission limits, regardless of whether you were approved or not.
• 24/48-month welcome bonus rule: If you have received a welcome bonus on a ThankYou Points card within the past 24 months, you will not be eligible to receive the bonus again. For AA products, the restriction is 48 months, but both rules apply only to the same card; there is no restriction across different card families.
• You can call the reconsideration line (800-763-9795) to speed up the credit card approval process or ask a representative to review a denied credit card application again.
• Having a Citi Checking/Gold relationship may help with your application.
• More about applying for Citi credit cards

Application Link