Citi Rewards+ Credit Card (Discontinued, Transfer-In Allowed)

【2025.5 Update】This card has officially been discontinued, and you can no longer apply for it. However, based on recent information, you can still transfer into this card from another Citi Thank You Rewards card or an AA card. If you have unused Citi cards, I strongly recommend transferring one in. Because this card has no annual fee, and it can give a 10% TYP redemption reward every year (redemptions from other Citi cards can also get it), it is also quite good for small-value spending.

Citi Rewards+ Card Overview

Highlights

• Automatic points rounding, minimum 10 points: The biggest feature of this card is that any purchase earns at least 10 ThankYou Points (worth $0.1), even a $0.01 spend. In theory, the cashback can be more than the amount you paid. Of course, I do not recommend people to abuse this feature—this is the age of big data, and it’s too easy to get caught. Also, this card automatically rounds points up to the nearest multiple of 10. For example, with $91 in spend, you should normally earn 91 points, but this card can round it up to 100 points. Overall, based on these two features, this card is best for small purchases and has the highest effective return rate.
• 10% Redemption Rebate: ThankYou Points earned on this card can receive a 10% points rebate, with a yearly cap of 10,000 points. My testing showed that any points redeemed from any card are eligible.
• Built-in benefits on all Citi cards: Trip Cancellation/Interruption Protection, Car Rental Insurance, Travel Accident Insurance, Damage & Theft Protection, Extended Warranty, 90 Day Return Protection

Citi Card Benefits

• Price Rewind: If the price drops, you can ask Citi to make up the difference
• Free FICO credit score: from Equifax, with your history shown in a chart
• Private Pass: They gave out free movie tickets once, and I personally missed it
• Retention is fairly generous: when it comes time to pay the annual fee, if you threaten to close the account you may receive promotions

Cons

• Sign-up bonus is average, and you cannot transfer points directly with this card

Points System Overview

• 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 Thoughts

From a return-rate perspective, this card is a top-tier small-spend credit card. But for other types of spending, it does not offer a major advantage. If you can downgrade into it from another card, keeping one in your wallet for coffee, parking fees, and so on is still very worthwhile.

Also, according to OutandOut, as long as you hold this card and link this card’s TYP account to an existing TYP account, all TYP redemptions can get a 10% points rebate, including TYP transfer-to-miles from Premier/Prestige, and it should also include direct 1.25c/p travel and airfare redemptions. If you have other Citi cards you do not need, I suggest transferring all of them to this card. After all, as a no-annual-fee card, getting 10% rebate worth 10,000 points a year is still very worthwhile (equivalent to earning back about $130). I still do not know how the rebate is calculated if you hold two cards (if you hold 10 cards... does that mean 100% back?). If you don’t have this card yet, applying for one is a good idea too.

【2019.7 Update】I had previously speculated that if you hold multiple Rewards+ cards, the 10% rebate benefit might stack, and in an extreme case—if you held 10 Rewards+ cards, could it return 100% at redemption? I finally saw a DP today that answered my question. The DP came from FM. Here are the details:

• Background: The two Rewards+ cards in his case were both obtained through downgrades/upgrades, and both TYP accounts were already linked to premier/prestige. He then redeemed a statement credit and transferred airline miles.
• Result 1: Whether redeeming airline miles or statement credit, the 10% rebate was triggered.
• Result 2: Even with two Rewards+ cards, he received only one points rebate email after redemption, and only one 10% rebate in total. The overall 10,000-point 10% rebate cap was also not stacked.
• My Guess: The mechanism for the 10% rebate may be whether a Rewards+ card is linked to the TYP account. If so, the first 100,000 redeemed in that TYP account gets 10% rebate, with an annual cap of 10,000. If you have multiple TYP accounts—say, if the TYP accounts for Premier and Prestige cards are not combined from the start, and each TYP account is combined with one Rewards+ card—this might double the 10,000 annual cap.

Application

• This card is under the 24-month restriction for TYP cards. If you have opened or closed ThankYou Preferred/ThankYou Premier/Prestige within the past 24 months, you won’t get a sign-up bonus on reapplication.

• 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