Creating a Citi Trifecta: The Best Way to Pair Citi Credit Cards

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Triple credit refers to using three credit cards from the same issuer to maximize your rewards. Ideally, each card brings different features and fills the gaps between the other cards while charging no or low annual fees. Creating three credit cards can help you get the most out of each card without having to compromise or sacrifice features on another card.

When looking at Citi credit cards, we recommend using the Citi Double Cash® Card, Citi Custom Cash® Card*, and Citi Strata Premier℠ Card together to earn great rewards on most, if not all, of your purchases.

Reward and Redemption

Each of these three Citi cards offers unique rewards. While there is some overlap between the Citi Custom Cash and Citi Strata Premier, the strategy for maximizing rewards doesn’t involve using these cards for the same types of purchases.

City Double Cash

The Double Cash is an obvious and lucrative cash back card. You’ll rely primarily on this card for most of your spending because it earns rewards no matter what you buy. You’ll earn 1% cash back when you shop, and another 1% when you pay it off. It’s also worth noting that it does earn rewards in the form of ThankYou points, just like the other two Citi cards.

Citigroup Cash Distribution

Custom Cash is a flexible rewards card that lets you earn higher rewards rates when you purchase goods or services that fall into certain groups or spending categories. You’ll automatically earn 5% cash back on the qualifying tier, which is the amount you spend most each billing cycle (up to $500 per billing cycle, then the rewards rate drops to 1%).

Eligible categories include: Restaurants, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Select Travel, Select Transportation, Select Streaming Services, Drugstores, Home Improvement Stores, Health Clubs and Live Entertainment. You can also earn a $200 cash back bonus after you spend $1,500 in purchases in the first six months from account opening (subject to 20,000 ThankYou points to redeem for $200 cash back).

This works best if you spend more in one of the above categories. Note that there is a $500 spending limit per billing cycle, after which the rewards drop from 5% to 1%.

Urban Stratification Prime Minister

The Strata Premier is primarily a travel card, but it also covers some everyday spending categories. They charge a $95 annual fee, but it may be worth it if you can take advantage of the travel rewards and competitive welcome bonus. You earn 10 points per dollar spent on hotel, car rental, and attraction bookings on CitiTravel.com. You earn 3x points per dollar spent at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and electric vehicle charging stations, as well as air travel and other hotel purchases. All other purchases earn 1x points.

Earn 70,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening, and a $700 welcome bonus when you redeem your points for travel rewards or gift cards at Thankyou.com. The value of your points may be higher if you transfer them to one of Citibank’s travel partners.

How to use City Trifecta

Using these cards together, you’ll see which purchases earn you the most rewards, as well as the best ways to redeem your rewards.

Allocated cash earns 5% cash back on one qualifying purchase category (first $500 per billing cycle, 1% thereafter), so you’ll want to spend it on one of the rarer qualifying purchase categories like gas stations, grocery or convenience stores, home improvements, health clubs, or live entertainment.

It’s also important to consider your spending limits. Once you reach the $500 limit per billing cycle, you’ll need to switch to Double Cash or Strata Premier, depending on the type of purchase.

Use Strata Premier to pay for all flights and general hotel and restaurant purchases and earn 3X points per dollar. You can also use Strata Premier if you don’t use cash for gas or groceries. If you use Custom Cash to pay for categories where Strata Premier earns 3X points, be sure to switch to Strata Premier once you reach your $500 Custom Cash limit.

Double Cash will cover all of your administrative costs. It will fill the gap between purchases where Custom Cash or Strata Premier don’t offer a better reward.

Using the proper redemption method is also a key factor in getting the most out of your credit card. To ensure you get 1 cent per point, redeem your points for statement credits, direct deposits, or gift cards. Using points to make purchases on Amazon through “Shop with Points” only gives you a value of 0.8 cents per point.

However, transferring points from Citi Strata Premier to Citi travel partners may make your points worth more than 1 cent each. If you want to redeem Citi points for travel, you can transfer ThankYou points from your Custom Cash and Double Cash cards to Strata Premier and combine them through ThankYou.com to get a better deal at Citi’s hotel or airline partners. You can find all of Citi’s travel partners and their transfer rates here.

*All information about the Citi Custom Cash Card was collected independently by CNET and has not been reviewed by the issuer.

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