Citi Custom Cash

The short answer

Citi Custom Cash pays 5% on the first $500 you spend in your highest-spending eligible category each billing cycle, and 1% on everything else, with no annual fee. A billing cycle is the period between two statements. In Julia's example, $500 of eligible groceries in one cycle earns $25, against $10 from a 2% card such as Citi Double Cash.

That $15 gap is real but narrow, and the cap is the reason. Once a category passes $500 in a cycle, the extra spending earns 1%. The card suits one steady, predictable expense near the cap, such as groceries or gas. It works much less well as the single card for a whole household's spending. The Studio's verdict is "A regular high-spend eligible category or a specialist second card."

This is a decision for existing cardholders. Citi closed new applications on May 28, 2026, and says existing cardholders are unaffected.

What it costs

There is no annual fee, and the Studio's record shows no membership cost.

Julia compares the card with a 2% card, including Citi Double Cash, and, for bigger bills, with an uncapped 3% card. Against the 2% card, the cost of Custom Cash is what it pays past the cap: 1% on every dollar over $500 in your top category in a cycle, half of what the 2% card pays on those same dollars.

The sums assume you pay the purchases without interest. Julia is explicit that the closure to new applicants is no reason to carry interest-bearing debt.

What it earns

• 5% on the first $500 a billing cycle in your highest-spending eligible category. The Studio's record counts that as $6,000 a year.
• 1% on anything above $500 in that category, and on every purchase outside it.
• No activation. The card picks the category on its own, so there is no new rotating category to sign up for every quarter.

The eligible categories are restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores and drugstores; select travel, select transit and select streaming services; and home improvement stores, fitness clubs and live entertainment. A big purchase outside those categories does not earn 5%, and what counts inside them is decided by Citi's actual rules.

The card earns ThankYou points. The advertised cash-back calculation values a point at 1 cent when redeemed for cash, so 2,500 points are worth $25.

The credits, used honestly

Custom Cash has no statement credits to count. The Studio's record lists no benefits for the card, so every sum here includes only the rewards.

Those rewards are worth face value when redeemed for cash or a statement credit. The record describes that route as having a minimum of $5 or less and no fixed expiration while the account stays open and in good standing. Earning points and redeeming them are two separate steps. Your account may show other redemption options; compare them with the cash route instead of assuming every checkout button offers equal value.

Protection is the thin part. The Studio runs two protection checks, a purchase check and a trip check, and found no verified payable benefit in either, so the card scores zero on the protection part of its rating. That is a limit on what the Studio could verify, not a claim that the card has none: Citi's page was a closed-applications notice when the Studio checked, and it does not publish the full account guide.

The catch

The cap follows your billing cycle, not the calendar. It resets each cycle, not necessarily on the first of the month, and purchases near the statement closing date can land in a different cycle. Room you do not use does not roll into a busier cycle.

The card chooses the category, and it may not choose the one you meant. It follows your largest eligible category, so an unexpected purchase can move the 5%. Add a $600 home-improvement purchase to a $400 grocery bill and home improvement takes the top spot, leaving groceries at 1%. Citi does not compare your cards to find the combination that earns more.

On a shared account, the card's one job has to be agreed by the household. Otherwise an unexpected purchase can change where the 5% lands, even though nobody missed an activation deadline.

The closure affects new applications only. It does not mean your account is closing or your rewards have vanished, and it does not promise an upgrade. Read any notice about your own account separately.

Finally, the reward is no reason to spend more. Another $100 of purchases at 5% earns $5 while still costing $95.

Who it fits

It fits a household with one recurring eligible expense, such as groceries or gas, that is fairly steady and close to $500 a cycle, and that keeps lower-earning purchases on another card. A household that already uses different cards at different stores may find that split easy.

It fits less well a household whose bill runs far past the cap. At $1,500 in a cycle, Custom Cash earns $35 and a 2% card earns $30, an advantage of just $5. A household that prefers one shared payment method may accept the lower return, since the extra $14 from splitting a larger bill does not have to decide everything. An uneven year fits less well too, as the arithmetic below shows.

On the Studio's everyday card test, Custom Cash scores 63 out of 100. Most of the score comes from value after costs across 3 household budgets, with reward flexibility, effort and 2 protection checks making up the rest. The score is for existing cardholders and does not change the fact that new applications are closed.

The arithmetic

Julia's method is to look at a normal statement first, then at a busier month. Her examples treat groceries as the top eligible category.

• A steady $500 a cycle: $25 on Custom Cash against $10 on a 2% card, so $15 more. Over 12 cycles that is $300 against $120, or $180 more.
• A $1,200 grocery cycle: the card earns $32, not the $60 that 5% on the whole bill would give. Putting the first $500 on Custom Cash ($25) and the other $700 on a 3% grocery card ($21) earns $46, which is $14 more for the same groceries.
• A $1,000 cycle: $25 on the first $500 plus $5 on the next $500 makes $30, an effective 3%, the same as an uncapped 3% card. At $500 that card earns $15 against Custom Cash's $25; at $1,200 it earns $36 against $32.
• An uneven year: $200 a cycle for 6 cycles and $800 for the other 6 is still $6,000. The quiet cycles earn $10 each and the busy ones $28 each, for $228, which is $72 less than the steady $300. A 2% card still earns $120.
• A category that moves: $400 of groceries plus a $600 home-improvement purchase earns $30 on Custom Cash alone. Putting home improvement on a 2% card earns $32 instead, $20 on groceries and $12 on home improvement.
• Two categories: $500 of groceries and $400 of dining earn $25 and $4, or $29, on Custom Cash alone. Moving dining to a 2% card brings the total to $33.

Before you apply

New applications were closed when the Studio last looked, so the first thing to check on Citi's page is whether that is still true. If you already hold the card, confirm the $500-per-cycle cap and the eligible categories there.

Julia checks her latest statement for 3 things: which category won, how much of it went past $500, and what earned only 1%. That shows whether the card suits one expense, needs a fallback card beside it, or gives way to a simpler uncapped rate.

The Studio checked these terms on October 6, 2026.