Yahoo Finance Citibank Cash Back+ Credit Card – MoneySmart Review (2021)
I have a soft spot for cash back credit cards. There’s none of that beating around the bush, trying to predict when your rewards points expire or getting slapped with fees for converting air miles. One of Citibank’s latest cash back cards introduced is the Citi Cash Back+ Card.
It features a familiar blue-and-white card face, but it’s not to be confused with the plain old Citi Cash Back Card, which is a very popular all-round cash back card in Singapore, but operates very differently.
In a nutshell, the Citi Cash Back+ Card falls under the “unlimited cashback card” category, offering 1.6% cash back on all purchases, with no minimum spending and no cash back cap. Let’s see how it stacks up.
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Key Features
1.6% cashback on your spend
No minimum spend required and no cap on cash back earned
Cash back earned does not expire
Redeem your cash back instantly on-the-go with Pay with Points or for cash rebate via SMS
Citi Cash Back+ Card terms & conditions
Citi Cash Back+ Card | |
Annual fee & waiver | $192.60 (first year waived) |
Supplementary annual fee | $96.30 |
Interest free period | 25 days from date of statement of account |
Annual interest rate | 26.90% |
Late payment fee | $100 |
Minimum monthly payment | 1% of current balance (+ 1% of any outstanding unbilled installment amounts and interest charges + late payment charge or $50 whichever is greater |
Foreign currency transaction fee | 3.25% |
Cash advance transaction fee | $15 or 6%, whichever is higher |
Overlimit fee | $40 |
Minimum income | $30,000 (Singaporean / PR), $42,000 (foreigner) |
Card association | Mastercard |
Wireless payment | Yes – MasterCard PayPass, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay |
How the Citi Cash Back+ Card works
The card’s main benefits are the following:
1.6% cashback on everything.
No minimum spending requirement
No cashback cap
Typical exclusions apply: you can’t get cashback when you pay your income tax, late payment fees, etc
The Citi Cash Back+ Card’s strongest selling point is that it’s very straightforward. You don’t have to worry about meeting minimum spending requirements or rack your brains trying to remember what it offers cashback for.
This is typical of all unlimited cash back cards: They’re easy to use because they reward you for all kinds of spending, but the catch is that the cash rebate is relatively low. For such cards, 1.6% is already the market-high.
If you’re looking exclusively in that bag of cards, then the Citi Cash Back+ Card is a good contender. However, if you’re comparing cashback cards in general, then you’ll find that 1.6% is pretty low.
Other cash back cards that offer rebates for selected spending categories typically give a much better earn rate of 5% to 10%. Let’s take the Citi Cash Back (without a +) card for example — that one offers 8% cash back when you spend on dining, petrol and groceries.
Who should use the Citi Cash Back+ Card?
First of all, if you’ve already found a cashback card that suits your daily spending habits, you probably shouldn’t cancel it for the Citi Cash Back+ Card. You can continue using that — your usual card — for your typical expenses like dining out, grocery shopping and transport.
However, due to the lack of a minimum spending requirement, the Citi Cash Back+ Card is a good card to have on hand as a backup card to pay for things you just don’t have a better card for. Think super niche purchases, like repairs at the car workshop, dental appointments or music lessons, to name a few.
Additionally, once you hit your cashback cap for the month, you can switch over to the Citi Cash Back+ Card to continue earning rebates since 1.6% cash back is better than none.
If all that was mind-boggling and you don’t want to think about having multiple cards for different purposes, then this card could be great for you too. The Citi Cash Back+ Card is as straightforward and fuss-free as it gets: just swipe, earn some rebates, and that’s it.
Citibank Cash Back+ Card promotions
If you are not yet a Citibank card member and you sign up now, you get to choose between goodies or straight up cash. It changes every month, so keep a lookout on this page to see the promotions!
Alternatives to the Citi Cash Back+ Card
Here are the Citi Cash Back+ Card’s closest competitors.
UOB Absolute Cashback Card – This card has the highest cashback in the market at 1.7%, and work exactly like the Citi Cashback+ card. The main downside is that it’s an Amex card, so you’ll be hard-pressed to find smaller merchants to accept it.
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Maybank FC Barcelona – These 2 are almost the same. They work the exact same way, and offer the same 1.6% cashback on everything, no minimum spending requirement, no cashback cap. There’s an annual fee of $120.
Maybank FC Barcelona Visa Signature
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Cash Back Features
1.6% Unlimited cash rebate on all local spend
No minimum spend and no cash rebate cap
SCB Unlimited Cashback Card – This card offers 1.5% cashback on everything, just slightly less than Citi’s. There’s also no minimum spending requirement, no cashback cap. The annual fee of $192.60 is waived for the first 2 years.
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Valid until 30 Sep 2021
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Cash Back Features
1.5% cashback awarded for all eligible purchases, such as dining, online shopping, local and overseas spend
Cashback terms and conditions: General exclusions such as bills, payments to educational, financial, and governmental institutions, and GrabPay top up apply
Amex True Cashback Card – Like the SCB Unlimited Cashback card, this card gives you 1.5% cashback on everything. However, there’s an additional +1% cashback on foreign currency purchases, which could be useful. Again, no minimum spending requirement, no cashback cap. Annual fee of $171.20 waived for 1 year.
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Valid until 30 Sep 2021
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Cash Back Features
3% Cashback for the first 6 months up to S$5,000 spend, 1.5% Cashback on any purchase you make thereafter
2.5% Cashback on all foreign currency spend. Valid from 4 August 2019 to 30 June 2021
Unlimited Cashback - No min spend & no cap
First year fee waiver
The Maybank FC Barcelona Card offers the same cashback amount, while the Amex True Cashback Card offers a more attractive 2.5% cashback on foreign currency purchases.
So, if you shop online or travel often, you would probably be better off going for the Amex card.
And as for the Maybank FC Barcelona Card, you can eventually switch to it if your request for an annual fee waiver for the Citi Cash Back+ Card gets rejected and vice versa—it’s always good to have options!
Are you planning to sign up for the Citi Cash Back+ Card? Tell us why or why not in the comments!
The post Citibank Cash Back+ Credit Card – MoneySmart Review (2021) appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.
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