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Best Citi Credit Cards: NerdWallet’s Picks

Best Rewards: the Citi Forward

Citibank Forward%28R%29+ Credit Card
The Citi Forward gives 5% rewards on restaurant, movie, music, and bookstore purchases. On everything else, the card offers 1% rewards. Lucky for you, Citi counts Amazon.com as a bookstore, so your new blender and those ski boots you’ve been dreaming of will earn you 5% rewards.

Beyond the straight rewards, the Citi Forward offers a number of other small perks that just might seal the deal:

  • No annual fee
  • 0% interest on balance transfers for the first 12 months and on purchases for 7 months
  • 1,000 bonus points for going to paperless statements
  • As much as 2% APR reduction and 1,200 bonus points each year for good behavior

The only downside is that the Citi Forward caps your rewards at 75,000 ThankYou Points per year.

All in all, this card may be for you if you’re an urbanite who eats out more than you buy groceries and doesn’t use much gas. If you don’t match this description, you may be better off with either the Chase Freedom, or Capital One Venture. The Freedom offers 5% cash back on rotating bonus categories and 1% back everywhere else. It has no annual fee and pays a $200 signing bonus. The Venture gives an overall 2% reward rate, one of the highest out there.

Best low APR/balance transfer deal: the Citi Simplicity

Citibank Simplicity Credit Card
The Citi Simplicity astounds us with 0% interest on both purchases and transfers for a full 21 months. At 3%, the balance transfer fee is below the standard 5%. While Citi has a few cards with 21 months interest free on balance transfers, the Simplicity stands out in that it charges neither a penalty APR  nor late fees. Citi’s Diamond Preferred and Platinum Select cards (along with most other credit cards) charge as much as $35 for late payments. They’ll also jump on the chance to up your interest rate to almost 30%. Not so with the Simplicity. Late on a payment? There’s no fee, and you won’t lose your relatively low APR of 12.99% to 21.99% (at the time of this writing). With an unbeatably long 0% intro period and no penalty APRs or late fees to speak of, the Simplicity is a clear winner.

 

Best for college students: the Citi Forward for College Students

Citibank Forward%28R%29+for+College+Students Credit Card
Similar to its adult counterpart, the Citi Forward for College Students offers a low interest rate, coupled with an impressive rewards program. The Forward for students gives 5 ThankYou points per dollar spent to purchase music and books, or to pay for dining out and movies. Like the Simplicity, this card counts Amazon.com as a bookstore, so you can take advantage of big savings on a variety of Internet purchases. Students will also earn the high rewards rate when they shop at campus bookstores, purchase textbooks, order pizza, and crash the local movie theater with their friends. Outside of these bonus categories, the card earns 1 TY point per dollar spent.

On top of ongoing rewards, the Citi Forward for College Students gives a signing bonus of 1,000 TY points. Students also get 0% interest on purchases for the first 7 months. After that, the APR is 13.99% to 22.99% (as of this writing). The Forward’s combination of generous rewards, a 0% interest period, and low ongoing APR make it one of the top student cards out there.

Best of both worlds: the Citi Dividend

Citibank Dividend+Platinum+Select+Visa+Card Credit Card
In terms of straight-up rewards, Citibank can’t compete with the likes of the Capital One Venture or Chase Sapphire, but in terms of low interest and balance transfer offers, the issuer can’t be beat. Where the Citi rewards cards shine, predictably, is in combining a balance transfer offer with rewards. The Citi Dividend offers 5% back on rotating bonus categories, though it caps its rewards at a mere $300 a year. It also offers a $100 cash back signup bonus. Solely as a rewards credit card, the Dividend is hampered by the severely restrictive rewards cap, but since it offers 15 months interest-free, it’s a great combination of a balance transfer/low interest credit card and a rewards credit card.

Citi ThankYou Points

While we’re on the subject, let’s talk about Citi ThankYou Points. We used to dislike them quite a bit, because you had to rack up 10,000 of ‘em to get the full value. But they’ve recently revamped their program so that you can get a full-value $25 gift card for a mere 2,500 ThankYou Points. It’s safe to say that we at NerdWallet are directly responsible for this change, of course. Gift baskets accepted. But be warned – if you want straight-up cash back, your rewards will still take a hit.