Citi Double Cash Comes Out Ahead vs. Bank of America Customized Cash

For almost any cardholder, the Citi Double Cash® Card can deliver significantly more cash back over time than the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card will. Even if you have a Bank of America® account, and you're deciding between rewards and convenience, the Citi Double Cash® Card will probably still come out ahead.

Both cash-back cards are designed to reward you for everyday spending. But the Citi Double Cash® Card outperforms the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card in just about every way. It offers the most rewards for the least cost and hassle, making it a true top-of-wallet card. But you'll need good-to-excellent credit to qualify.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best cash-back credit cards

Why the Citi Double Cash® Card is better

The Citi Double Cash® Card features one of the highest cash-back rates you'll find on a flat-rate card. You'll earn an unlimited 2% cash back on your purchases: 1% back when you buy, and 1% back when you pay it off.

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card, by contrast, is more complicated and earns fewer rewards.

» MORE: Credit cards that earn 2% cash back on all purchases

Here's why the Citi Double Cash® Card is the better choice:

You'll likely earn more rewards in the first year

With the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card, you get a bonus on every purchase — 25%, 50% or 75% more — if you have combined balances of over $20,000 in affiliated accounts and enroll in the Preferred Rewards program.

In other words, instead of getting 3% back on gas, you could effectively be earning 3.75%, 4.5% or 5.25% back on gas, depending on your balances. (For more on how that works, see our Preferred Rewards page.)

But even if you were to qualify for that loyalty bonus and earn the sign-up bonus on the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card, you'd still be better off with the Citi Double Cash® Card. NerdWallet calculated the cash back that a typical family could expect to earn on each card based on average household spending data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the assumption that cardholders would use wholesale clubs primarily for grocery purchases. The Citi Double Cash® Card comes out slightly ahead in the first year, even when it isn't offering a sign-up bonus.

You'll earn more rewards in following years, too — in most cases

When you take the long view, the chasm in earnings between the two cards only deepens. Sign-up bonus aside, the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card trails the Citi Double Cash® Card in rewards by more than $100 annually, assuming average household spending.

In fact, the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card gains a substantial rewards lead of nearly $100 on the Citi Double Cash® Card only for people who have $100,000 in combined balances in their eligible Bank of America® accounts and can qualify for the 75% bonus. With the 50% bonus, the rewards are roughly equal to those you'd get from the Citi Double Cash® Card.

Most people can't qualify for these larger bonuses, though. Consider that the median value of a household's interest-earning assets — including savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, certificate of deposits, and interest-earning checking accounts — at financial institutions was $2,450 in 2011, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data available.

The median value of an IRA or Keogh account in the same year — which only about 29% of households reported having in the first place — was $34,000.

» MORE: Merrill Edge® review

It's simpler

Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card rewards are more complicated because of its spending caps and loyalty bonuses. It caps bonus rewards on combined gas and grocery purchases at just $2,500 per quarter. You also need to maintain certain balances in your accounts to qualify for the Preferred Rewards bonuses.

The Citi Double Cash® Card is less of a hassle. It offers an unlimited 1% + 1% rewards rate on all categories, and you'll get those larger rewards regardless of how you spend your money or whether you bank with Citi.

The cost of convenience

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card has one big thing going for it: convenience. If you bank with Bank of America® and have the card, you'd have the advantage of seeing all your accounts and credit card in one online portal, and that's useful, without a doubt. But it's probably not $100-a-year useful.