Best Citi Credit Cards for March 2023

The Citi Double Cash Card provides cardholders with 2% cash back for their purchases, one of the best flat rates available. You get 1% cash back when the purchase is made, and the other 1% when it’s paid off. There’s no annual fee, and you have the option to take advantage of a competitive balance transfer offer.

The 0% introductory balance transfer APR lasts for 18 months (then 18.74% to 28.74% variable). Transferring a balance from a card with a high APR to the Citi Double Cash would be a good way to pay down credit card debt faster by avoiding interest payments. Just keep in mind that there’s an intro balance transfer fee of 3% ($5 minimum) so long as any transfers are made within four months of account opening (after that 5% or $5, whichever is greater) – but you’ll need to do that anyway in order to take advantage of the balance transfer offer.

Between its rewards and balance transfer offer, the Citi Double Cash is a powerful rewards card to add to your wallet.

Read more in our Citi Double Cash Card review.

Designed with travelers in mind, the Citi Premier Card offers rewards for a few travel-related expenses including restaurants, gas stations, airfare and hotel stays. However, it doesn’t come with too many travel-centric perks, despite having a $95 annual fee.

It does include an annual $100 hotel credit for a hotel stay of $500 or more, and offers strong rewards for both travel spending and everyday spending like gas stations and supermarkets. There aren’t any travel protections like travel accident insurance or lost luggage reimbursement that many travel credit cards tend to include, but the flexibility in rewards makes up for it. And while a lot of travel cards require you to book through a specific travel portal to earn rewards, but you don’t have to worry about that here.

This card also offers a sizable welcome bonus that’s competitive with travel cards with similar annual fees.

Check out our Citi Premier Card review to learn more.

The Citi Diamond Preferred exists solely to alleviate some pressure you may be feeling beneath the weight of credit card debt. Cardholders get an intro 0% APR for balance transfers for 21 months, and 12 months for purchases (then a 17.74% to 28.49% variable APR). Just be aware the card offers no rewards, and you’ll need to complete any balance transferred within the first four months of account opening.

Its balance transfer offer is one of the longest available, giving cardholders a large chunk of time to pay down a transferred balance at no interest. It does unfortunately have a high balance transfer fee of 5% ($5 minimum), which keeps it from greatness. There are other balance transfer credit cards that provide the same length of time but with a lower balance transfer fee.

Read our Citi Diamond Preferred review for more information.

If you’re looking for a bit more flexibility in your rewards program, consider the Citi Custom Cash card. For no annual fee, cardholders earn 5% cash back (on the first $500 spent, then 1%) on the eligible category you spend the most on each billing cycle. Eligible purchases include restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs and live entertainment.

5% is a strong rate for a no annual fee credit card, however, because of the $500 limit, cardholders can only earn a maximum of $25 each billing cycle at that rate before rewards fall to 1%. That means a flat-rate cash back card, like the Citi Double Cash, will likely overtake the Custom Cash’s rewards once that limit is reached.

However, very few credit cards offer rewards for home improvement stores, fitness clubs and live entertainment, so it could be worth it up to the $500 limit for those categories and then swapping to another rewards card with a higher rate.

It also features an introductory APR for purchases and balance transfers.

Read our Citi Custom Cash Card review to learn more.

It’s all in the name with the Citi Simplicity Card*. Aside from its introductory 0% APR for balance transfers for 21 months, and 12 months for new purchases (then 18.74% to 29.49% variable), there isn’t much else to say.

It exists only to be used to avoid interest charges on another card or on a large, planned purchase. The balance transfer offer is one of the longest on the market, and the introductory balance transfer fee for transfers completed within four months of account opening is the standard 3% ($5 minimum) -- though it does jump up to 5% ($5 minimum) after that. But you’ll need to complete any balance transfers within the first four months of account opening anyway to qualify for the intro offer.

Take a look at our Citi Simplicity review to learn more.

The Citi Rewards+ Card* has a few unique features that are worth paying attention to. Rewards will be rounded up to the nearest 10 points for every purchase and you’ll have 10% of the first 100,000 points you redeem each year returned to you.

Otherwise, its rewards are lackluster compared to similar credit cards with no annual fee, but you can take advantage of the introductory APR. If you need to get rid of some credit card debt, it could be a worthwhile choice, despite having a limited value when compared to other rewards credit cards.

The Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard provides rewards and perks focused on making American Airlines flights more rewarding and comfortable. It has a $450 annual fee, so it should only be considered by people who travel many times a year.

Cardholders can enjoy annual Admirals Club airport lounge membership – which usually costs $650 – priority boarding, priority check-in, priority airport screening, a 25% discount on in-flight purchases, an application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, among other benefits. In addition, it earns 2x AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases. That’s not very high, but it’s the card perks that you’re paying for.

If you exclusively fly American Airlines and travel frequently enough to take full advantage of everything the card has to offer, there’s no doubt you’d benefit from this card. However, if that doesn’t sound like you, consider a general travel credit card with a lower annual fee instead.

Read more in our full Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard review.

If you need to establish or rebuild your credit, the Citi® Secured Mastercard®* can set you on the right path. In exchange for a one-time, refundable deposit that forms your starting credit line, you can begin to create a positive credit history of on-time payments.

The card doesn’t earn any rewards, but not many secured credit cards do. Instead, it’s meant to instill responsible credit card habits while improving your credit score. Once your score is looking better, you can move on to better credit cards that feature rewards and other card perks.

You can learn more about it in our Citi Secured Mastercard review.