A few days ago I wrote a post about why I almost always request expedited delivery of credit cards. That post centered around my new Citi Double Cash card which became lost in the mail. After about a month of waiting I decided to call Citi and request another new card.
With this request I also asked for expedited delivery of the card. About 24 hours after my call with Citi a package from FedEx arrived. Inside, I found my new Citi Double Cash card.
How My Citi Double Cash Card Came To Be
Now, before I get started discussing the arrival of the card, I need to address the elephant in the room. Why did I get a cash back credit card when I’m so focused on earning points and airline miles? Something doesn’t add up…
Well, there are actually two answers to this question. The first answer is the obvious one. I recently opened a Citi Prestige card account which (along with the other cards I currently carry) largely made my Citi Premier card redundant. However, I’ve had the Citi Premier card account open since late 2015 when I first applied for the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard. A card I opened long before I started blogging.
After about a year and a half of carrying the Citi Executive card, I requested a product change to the Citi Prestige card which also offered Admirals Club lounge access. Then, as Chase and American Express improved their card offerings and Citi cut Admirals Club access from the Prestige card, I downgraded that account to the Citi Premier card.
Now, several years later, I’ve requested one more product change from the Citi Premier card to the Citi Double Cash card. So, if you’re paying attention, this new Citi Double Cash card is actually one of my oldest credit card accounts that shows up in my credit report.
Instead of closing a card account, it can be a great idea to simply convert it to a no annual fee option to maintain a strong average account age for credit score purposes. However, I actually plan on using this card even though it’s “just” a cash back card.
Citi Double Cash Card Explained
At face value, the Citi Double Cash card is a simple cash back credit card that earns 1% cash back when you make a purchase. What makes this card unique is that you also earn 1% cash back on that purchase when you pay off your card balance. So, assuming you pay off your credit card, you actually earn 2% cash back on all purchases.
While cash back is great for many, I much prefer earning flexible credit card rewards points. This brings me to the second reason I opted to request a Citi Double Cash card. A few months ago Citi made it possible to convert Citi Double Cash cash back into Citi ThankYou points with a 1:1 transfer ratio. So, this simple 2% cash back credit card effectively turns into a card that earns 2X ThankYou points on all purchases. Since I value TY points at $0.015 each, that means I’m earning at least $0.03 back on all purchases which represents a fantastic value for non-bonus spending.
In fact, going forward I play to pay my monthly rent on this credit card. I’ve discussed paying rent on a credit card before and found that for most, it’s probably not worth incurring the additional 3% fee. However, I think paying rent with this card and transferring the cash back to the ThankYou program makes paying rent on a credit card a viable option for most. For that matter, I plan to use this card to fund Venmo transactions and any other transactions that incur an interchange fee.
Receiving My Citi Double Cash Card
With all of that, as I mentioned above I finally received my Citi Double Cash card the other day. As noted above, the card arrived in a FedEx cardboard envelope about 24 hours after requesting expedited delivery. Unlike other cards, inside the package was just a piece of paper and the card which were not enclosed in a second white envelope.
As expected the card was affixed to a sheet of paper which contained some information. Mostly the information included how to activate the card and to inform card holders that the Citi Double Cash card is a contactless credit card.
Overall, the card isn’t all that impressive to look at, but the colors are striking. The blue and green on the card are extremely vivid which help this card stand out. One thing to note, the card is extremely light and flimsy. When holding the card it almost feels like its made of cardboard instead of plastic. Obviously card design shouldn’t matter, but I with Citi used a slightly thicker plastic to help this card feel a bit more premium.
Final Thoughts
I’m thrilled to have finally received my new Citi Double Cash card. This is a card that I’ve wanted to add to my wallet since Citi first introduced the card several years ago. This card finally makes it possible to pay for things that incur a credit card fee and not feel bad about it. In the past I always knew that I was losing a bit of value when paying those credit card fees. Now though, I know that I’m at least breaking even on the transaction.
