Citi Double Cash

Citi Double Cash
3.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 283
#201

Be Careful with the “0%” rate

We received a mailed offer in our name for a 0% Introductory rate. Fast forward to our first bill and we were charged interest. I called to discuss the issue with both staff and a manager. They are stating that there is no promotion tied to my account. We had multiple zero interest offers and chose this one BIG mistake. I just payed a transfer fee to move it on to my normal card. For $129 in interest, they lost all future transactions and a customer. Not impressive.

#202

Best Cashback Program

I’ve been using my Double Cash Card for almost 2 years now and I have never had a problem. I’ve used this card a few times in Europe and Canada without any issues and as long as you pay the balance on time, the rewards can really add up. The foreign transactions fee is the one sticking point with this card but there are plenty of other options out there to make up for this shortfall.

#203

Best card out there

We moved over to this card from the Citi AADvantage Executive World Elite card and it’s absolutely awesome. e still keep the other card for lounge access, international charges, etc. but this card for our daily use is phenomenal. We spend over $10k a month and love cashing in on the rewards each month. The limit they gave us was on par with what we have on the Executive card right at the six digit mark. Customer service has been absolutely phenomenal whenever we needed them and our experience overall, top to bottom has been absolutely perfect. Now that Costco has moved their credit card over to Citi, we love that all our cards are on one login. Will stay with Citi forever.

#204

This is the base card I always carry

This is probably one of the only cars that gives you 2 percent on everything. So I use other cards for the specialty categories like travel or dining and thus one for everything else.

#205

Great cash back; everything else is meh.

This card is (currently) the best cash back card you will find, that isn’t invite-only. Everything else is so-so. I’ll compare this card to the Capital One QuickSilver (1.5% cash back), which I also use.

Disclaimer: These experiences reflect my personal experience. Your experience (and many other reviewers’) will vary, depending on how you use the card, your credit profile, and whatever other factors come into play.

CASH BACK:
Cash back is only awarded once every statement cycle. (Contrast to Capital One, where cash awards are instantly available once a transaction is posted.)
Minimum redemption amount is $25. (Cap One: Redeem any amount for statement credit or against purchases.)
Redemption options: Statement credit, ACH, gift cards, and check. ACH is my favorite, and usually posts in 1-2 banking days. (ACH is nice. Cap One doesn’t have that.)
Redemption is manual - no automatic option. Just log in and request when you get your statement notice. (Cap One lets you set up automatic redemption.)

APR:
I wouldn’t look at a cash back card if you’re carrying/transferring a balance. The higher APR will eat in to any potential cash back you might earn. This is only truly a 2% cash back card if you pay in full.
Don’t go for the promo 0% or 1.99% offers - it just ties of part of your credit line you can’t use to earn more cash back!
(I don’t even know what my APR is on either card. Again, don’t use rewards cards if you’re carrying a balance.)

PAYMENT CREDITING:
I’ve been a Citi customer for a long time, and they still randomly put my ACH payments on hold for “10 banking days” as others have stated. I once had a payment on hold for over a month. Even more infuriating, I make a payment online, Citi confirms my available credit is increased from the payment, and the next day they take back the available credit due to “payment review”.

Whether or not you get bitten by this process depends on whether you fall within their parameters for “normal” payment volume and frequency. Citi is very risk-adverse, so be prepared.

Capital One, on the other hand, has always credited my payments on the next calendar day (not banking day) and has never subjected a payment to review. I have never bounced a payment to either Citi or Capital One, or anyone else.

I recommend the following:

  1. Request a credit line increase. If you can get it to where you’re not spending more than 50% of your credit line every statement cycle, you won’t have issues no matter how long Citi takes to credit your payment. Remember, you should keep your statement balances under 30% of your line to improve your score!
  2. If you’re in a hurry to increase available credit (e.g. you need to make a large purchase NOW), call customer service and make a “debit card payment” - it is instant. Plus, you can overpay your current balance by 10%.
  3. For normal payments, I recommend using your bank’s online bill pay. Most decent banks will have the payment posted effective the next banking day, although it may take a day or two after that for the available credit to be available.
  4. Make normal ACH payment via Citi website. Depending on time of day, day of week, wind direction, moon phase, etc. Citi may decide to increase your available credit immediately or not. If it doesn’t increase, cancel the payment and do a debit card payment.
  5. If you’ve already made an ACH payment and it has cleared your bank, but Citi is still holding it, call Credit Services number listed below and ask them to verify with your bank. They will conference in your bank, who will verify your identity and confirm to Citi the payment has cleared.

Final note on payments: The payment holds only affect AVAILABLE credit. Your total balance is always updated as of the date you make the payment.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:
If you call the number on the back of your card, you will likely get offshore CSR on the first round. They are all friendly and well trained - but anything the tier 1 reps can do, you can usually do yourself online (except debit card payments).

If you need more advanced help, perhaps to deal with a payment issue above, ask for the Credit Services team, or call them directly: 888-302-9291
They have a little more ability to look at your account, although they generally will not make policy exceptions. They can also manually clear payments as mentioned above.

I’ve only called Capital One once (to file a chargeback): An onshore CSR answered right away, and handled the issue quickly.

OVERALL:
If your spending/payment habits fit within Citi’s risk-averse models, you won’t have any issues. If you regularly spend up to your limit and pay it off, be prepared for trouble.

If you’d prefer an overall better experience, go for the Capital One QuickSilver. If you spend $50k a year, you only “lose” $250 in cash back - how much is your time (and sanity) worth?

#206

Be smart with this card

I have an 805 credit rating, I carry zero revolving credit debt and I make over $150k per year not including my wife’s salary and they gave me a $4000 credit limit and a 22% APR. I laughed…LOL considering my two other cards have a 20k limit on each.

I still use this card, but I use it with caution. I charge $3000 per month on utility bills, flights, gas, groceries, stuff for kids, etc. Once the statement posts I pay the entire balance. This maximizes your reward.

Its key to only pay the statement balance. If you pay the statement balance plus purchases posted after you will not earn on the payment for purchases made after the statement.

Bottom line - I will never pay Citi a red cent in finance charges.

I did notice that the second I make my payment they extend my available credit to include that payment even though it may take Citi 2 days to pull it from my bank. People have been complaining about how long it takes to post rewards, but I knew that before applying for the card and I really don’t care. Its a bonus and I like to build up these rewards and then use it all at once.

#207

GOOD REWARDS, HORRIBLE SERVICE

Love the rewards program, but service is incredibly poor…god help u if need ANYHTHING AT ALL!! Now I know why they pay double points…

#208

Overly aggresive fraud protection

I like getting 2% cash back but this card constantly gets denied at the register due to their over reaching fraud department. Its one thing to protect a consumer but they are so aggressive that i cant use this card so its useless to me.

#209

Not worth considering for business spending …

I know this is a personal card, but since it is the only free card with a 2% cash back reward at the moment, i thought i would try it for my business expenses.
First, they gave me too low of a credit limit (ridiculously low compared to my other “business” cards).
Second, there is a company I purchase from every single day. The purchase gets denied by the overzealous fraud protection a couple times a week in spite of phone calls to the fraud department pointing out that i have been purchasing every day for five months from this vendor.
Then because of the low credit limit and my purchase volume (for a retail business) I have to pay the card off everyday. Now because of that frequency they flag my payments and hold them for seven days as “suspicious”.
Most days i cannot use the card though it has a zero balance because the pending purchases and “held” payments equal the credit limit even though its been raised once.
Pay the $59 a year to get a Capital One Business Spark card with 2% cash back instead! Currently the $500 sign up bonus will pay the annual fee for almost 8 and a half years anyway. And they gave me an ample credit limit and so far they are hassle free.

#210

Ridiculous Company Charged Unfounded Late Fee

After being a customer with 2 credit cards for years and paying on time more than minimum payment every single year, we got royally screwed. We made a balance transfer to our card on July 7. We asked when the due date normally was, July 13. So, the first due date for the balance transfer would have been August 13. We made a $450 payment, WAY over the minimum on July 15, but they would not count that towards the August 13th due date and assessed a $35 late fee and flagged us as late. I’d be fine if that was automatic, but they saw what happened and revoked the late fee. Instead, I was transferred 8 times, and put on hold 11 times, to finally have a “manager” tell me I’m the one who screwed up and paid during this July 13-17 payment no-man’s land. Well, goodbye Citi, I’m sorry you don’t care one bit about your customers. Going with some smaller bank or a company like discover.

#211

Not worth the plastic it is printed on.

If only I could give 0 stars. The card worked in my home state. I sent it with my teen to college and it was declined. Service was both unable and unwilling to be reasonable and assist us. One reason they gave was that they couldn’t verify my identity because I ‘only’ have one phone number registered to my name. How many do I need? They left a new college student in the lurch with no options of any kind on a ridiculous fraud protection excuse. That kind of protection is dangerous when you need access to the funds you’ve set up and tested in advance (Uber, hotel, rental car). Capital One issued a card for her with no problems at all. Citibank has refused to close the account unless I send a copy of my social security card. They said I can’t use it, I can’t close it and they won’t cancel it unless I send a copy of my SS card. They say it will just be on hold indefinitely. A useless line of credit backed by a useless service team - including the US service supervisor in Md. They are not reliable enough to be granted the trust that is needed when depending on credit.

#212

Horrible Customer Service

Website was down for an entire week - I always pay on time - always pay online. Couldn’t access my payment. Was one day late. Website was down. They wouldn’t refund me a late fee. Such pieces of trash - horrible. 7 years of being a client who pays on time every month. Website down and they can’t help a client out once?!?!

#213

Great Credit Card

This card is great. 2% back on just doing everything you already do as long as you pay off your statement in full. Free FICO score, and it intelligently knows when you are going on vacation if you book travel with it. Never had an issue with this card, and easy to request limit increases. Couldn’t be happier.

#214

2%, simplicity is a feature

I hate trying to optimize with other cards with revolving categories (discover IT and chase freedom), airline or frequent flyer miles, rewards ceiling (Amex blue), annual fees, convoluted rewards redemption rates (citi thank you) b/c ain’t nobody got time for all that. Citi Double is the best card for most people. 1% for all purchases and 1% for all payments. So easy.

#215

Not impressed

I haven’t even had the card for a month and have only been able to successfully sign in online once. The rest of the times I have gotten error codes or something saying their site is temporarily down. And I looked into getting the mobile app but you have to agree to letting citibank make phonecalls with your phone number. No thanks. So far I’m not impressed. If it wasn’t for the 18 month 0 % apr on balance transfers I wouldn’t use this card. Which also by the way I’ve been waiting to happen for 2 weeks now.

#216

Card works great for me

I was a bit surprised by the low score on here when I viewed this. I use the Double Cash Card as my primary card, and have been for a year now – it works great for me as I never have a problem paying back on time. I only recommend this card for people who pay their balances back. You get 1% cash back on purchases, and an additional 1% back when you pay back on time. It’s not a crazy amount of money you get in return, but it is better than most cards I’ve found.

The Citi online account area is great compared to my PNC virtual wallet, viewing the history is easy, you can find everything very easily. Never had a problem logging in, like one review suggested.

My only beef I have is there is a 3% international fee for using the card in other countries when they charge in local currency(?).

#217

Don’t rely on this one

My Citi Double cash card quit working without warning today while I was 60 miles from home today. 2 different reps told me that a new rule requires them to have more information about me on file and I should receive a form in the mail soon. They will not reactivate it until they receive the form. Stay away from this card until they stop shutting them off with no warning.

#218

Great card on the long run

I got this card with $1000 limit, now my limit is $16000, in one and half year with $630 cash rewards ready to be redeemed, i highly recommend it, comparing with Capital one, Wells Fargo and many other cash back credit card, this is one of the best, by the way, i love the NO ANNUAL FEE .

#219

Good reward, simple & straight forward

Pay it of in full within a few days of getting the bill leaving no chance to any possibility of delay in payment for any reason hence never any fines no headaches, just enjoy 2% discount on all purchases, in addition to all the additional protections like against fraud, extended warranty etc. All in all a win-win situation.

#220

Best card for overall rewards

I apparently have had a much different experience than many others who have reviewed this card. I will note that I have never done a balance transfer. I have never had the problems others have described with customer service. They have always been prompt and courteous. I use this card all the time due to the effective 2% cash back. I have had very few problems with this card. The only issue that stands out is I could not sign it up for Mastercard Securecode for a foreign purchase.