Citi® mtvU™ Platinum Select® Visa® Card for College Students

Citibank's MTV U is a great card. We believe it's the best student rewards card because you get 5x bonus points on categories that students spend a bulk of their money on: restaurants, bookstores, record stores, movie theaters and video rental stores.

It is similar to tbe Citibank's Forward for College Students card, except with a lower signing bonus, so we recommend you get the Forward instead.

The two Citi cards are hands down the best card for a student’s entertainment expenses (dining, books and textbooks, movies, and music reward) due to the 5x rewards (5 points per $1 spent) in the category. However, be cognizant of the 75,000 point annual limitation.

Rewards are 5 points per $1 spent on dining, books, movies, and music, and 1 point per $1 spent elsewhere. They also reward you 100 points each month if you pay on time and stay under your credit line. These 100 points per month are not included in the 75,000 point cap.

As a holder of the Chase Freedom, which frequently blamed lower than expected category bonuses on “mis-categorization” by the merchant, I was very skeptical about whether or not you actually get 5% back on dining with Citi MTV U.

However, based on a survey of several current Citi card holders, the card actually works as advertised, even at smaller non-chain restaurants in the Manhattan area. The only gripe is that Citi ThankYou Points are annoyingly hard to redeem at 1 cent per point. You have to save up 10,000 points to get a $100 retail gift card at a limited number of merchants. If you can’t wait for 10,000 points, expect to get a bit less than 1 cent per point – you can redeem 6,000 points for a $50 gift card at a very wide selection of restaurants and stores.