Citi Strata Premier Card vs. Citi Custom Cash Card [Detailed Comparison]

The Citi Custom Cash^® Card is one of the newest cash-back credit cards from Citi. And it has drawn a few comparisons to the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, which is arguably Citi’s flagship rewards credit card.

Even though these 2 cards share a few similarities, the core value proposition is totally different. The Citi Custom Cash card is great for low-spenders who want to maximize rewards on 1 specific category of purchases while minimizing costs.

Meanwhile, the Citi Strata Premier card earns stronger rewards across more categories but comes with an annual fee.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to choose between these 2 cards.

Overview

Even though these 2 cards are both issued by Citibank, there are lots of differences. Here are the benefits and features at a very high level:

When you compare the Citi Strata Premier card with the Citi Custom Cash card, you’ll notice that the rewards structures are totally different, and the Citi Custom Cash card generally falls behind the Citi Strata Premier card in terms of benefits, too.

Indeed, the Citi Custom Cash card has no annual fee, while the Citi Strata Premier card does, so you can expect that the Citi Strata Premier card is probably a better option for rewards and benefits.

The Citi Custom Cash card has both cash-back rewards and a low introductory APR as part of its welcome bonus, which is a notable distinction from the Citi Strata Premier card.

Welcome Bonus Comparison

The Citi Strata Premier card offers a great welcome bonus that can easily be worth over $1,000 when transferred to travel partners.

However, the Citi Custom Cash card offers a small welcome bonus plus a low intro APR promotion on purchases and balance transfers. It’s designed to help people consolidate debt or avoid racking up credit card interest for a short period of time.

Here are the credit card welcome bonuses for each card:

Citi Strata Premier Card

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

Welcome Offer

For a limited time: Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $750 in gift cards or travel rewards on thankyou.com.

75,000 points

UP's Bonus Valuation*:

$1,200

Annual Fee

$95

APR

20.49% to 28.49% Variable APR

Why We Like This Card

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card is a great all-around travel rewards card that allows you to earn big rewards on a variety of purchases like air travel, at restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and more, along with flexible redemption options, all for a modest annual fee.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 10x points on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
• 3x points on air travel, other hotel purchases, restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and EV charging stations
• $100 annual hotel benefit

Cons

• $95 annual fee

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• For a limited time: Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $750 in gift cards or travel rewards on thankyou.com.
• Earn 10X points per $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com.
• Earn 3X points per $1 on air travel and other hotel purchases, at restaurants, supermarkets, gas and EV charging stations.
• Earn 1X point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
• $100 Annual Hotel Benefit: Once per calendar year, enjoy $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through CitiTravel.com. Benefit applied instantly at time of booking.
• No expiration and no limit to the amount of points you can earn with this card.
• No foreign transaction fees on purchases.

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.49% to 28.49% Variable APR
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Citi Custom Cash Card

Citi Custom Cash^® Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

Earn big on purchases in your top eligible spend category, up to the first $500 each billing cycle, without an annual fee!

Citi Custom Cash^® Card

Earn big on purchases in your top eligible spend category, up to the first $500 each billing cycle, without an annual fee!

Welcome Offer

Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou^® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.

$200

Annual Fee

$0

APR

0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.49% - 28.49%.

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Fair to Excellent (580-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Citi Custom Cash^® Card is inventive when it comes to cash-back credit cards. Instead of earning a set amount of cash-back on predetermined bonus categories, the Citi Custom Cash card earns 5% cash-back on your highest eligible spend category each billing cycle, with a $0 annual fee.

Thanks to that unique perk, you’ll never need to worry about whether you’re using the right card for the right purchase, as your Citi Custom Cash card will always pay you 5% back on whichever category you end up spending the most on each month.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 5% cash-back (on up to $500 each billing cycle) from your largest purchase category, including restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment
• $0 annual fee
• Multiple redemption options

Cons

• Your 5% category is limited to $500 in spend ($25 in cash-back) each month
• Not particularly rewarding for any purchases outside of your top 5% cash-back category

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou^® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
• Get 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.49% - 28.49%, based on your creditworthiness.
• Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1% cash back thereafter. Earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.
• Special Travel Offer: Earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026.
• No rotating bonus categories to sign up for – as your spending changes each billing cycle, your earn adjusts automatically when you spend in any of the eligible categories.
• $0 annual fee.
• Citi will only issue one Citi Custom Cash^® Card account per person.

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.49% - 28.49%.
• Foreign Transaction Fees: 3%

Introductory 0% APR

In addition to its rewards bonus, the Citi Custom Cash card offers a 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the variable APR will be 18.49% - 28.49%, which is impressive.

Just keep in mind that there’s a balance transfer fee of 5% (minimum of $5) on each balance transfer.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t offer any 0% introductory APR benefits.

Earning and Redeeming Citi ThankYou Points

Even though both of these credit cards earn ThankYou Points, having the Citi Strata Premier card opens up many more possibilities to get amazing value from your points.

The Citi Custom Cash card’s ThankYou Points can only be transferred to JetBlue TrueBlue, Wyndham Rewards, and Choice Privileges, which are subpar choices in comparison to the Citi Strata Premier card’s full list of transfer partners, including Avianca LifeMiles and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

Additionally, these points can be used for statement credits, cash-back, Citi Travel Center bookings, Amazon.com purchases, gift cards, online shopping, and more.

But we don’t recommend using your points for these redemption options — stick to transfer partners to maximize your value!

Earning Potential Comparison

* Eligible categories include restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, select travel, select transit, select streaming services, drugstores, home improvement stores, fitness clubs, and live entertainment.

Since we value ThankYou Points at 1.6 cents per point, your rewards earned on the Citi Strata Premier card will be equal to a 4.8% return on spending if earning 3x points or 1.6% return on spending if earning 1x points. But the 1.6 cents per point valuation only applies when you have access to the full list of transfer partners.

By doing the math, you’ll discover that the Citi Custom Cash card can outperform the Citi Strata Premier card on the first $500 in spending each billing cycle on that highest eligible spending category!

Bottom Line: The Citi Strata Premier card outperforms the Citi Custom Cash card in multiple categories, especially for people who spend more than $500 per month.

Redemption Options

The points from your Citi Strata Premier card can be transferred to travel partners to book luxury award travel. If you plan your flights properly, you can book super expensive business and first class flights for a lot less than you think.

For example, you can transfer as few as 45,000 Citi ThankYou Points to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles to book a one-way business class flight from the U.S. to Istanbul. These plane tickets routinely cost $3,000+!

If you have the Citi Custom Cash card, though, you can’t use the same list of transfer partners — you’ll only be able to access a muted list consisting of JetBlue TrueBlue, Wyndham Rewards, and Choice Privileges, and at reduced transfer rates compared to the Citi Strata Premier card.

You can redeem your Citi Custom Cash card’s points for gift cards, merchandise, Amazon.com purchases, statement credits, and Citi Travel Center reservations.

Hot Tip: Savvy travelers should focus on transferring Citi ThankYou Points to travel partners to get the best points value.

Statement Credits Comparison

The Citi Strata Premier card offers a $100 annual hotel savings benefit once per year. It gets you $100 back off of a single hotel stay of $500 or more excluding taxes and fees booked through thankyou.com.

The Citi Custom Cash card doesn’t offer any statement credit benefits.

Travel Protection and Benefits Comparison

In this section, we’ll walk you through what to expect from the 2 cards in the way of travel perks.

Hotel Benefits

The Citi Strata Premier card is a World Elite Mastercard, which means you can access a few different travel benefits, including the Mastercard luxury hotel and resorts portfolio.

Booking a hotel in this portfolio gets you free breakfast daily for 2 travelers, $100 amenity credits, and more at participating properties around the world.

The Citi Custom Cash card doesn’t offer this benefit.

Ride-Share Benefits

When you use your Citi Strata Premier card to book 3 Lyft rides per month, you’ll get $5 in Lyft credits for future rides, which is great! This benefit is made possible by World Elite Mastercard.

The Citi Custom Cash card doesn’t have such a benefit.

Travel Protections

The Citi Strata Premier card offers trip delay insurance, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, and lost or damaged luggage insurance. It also has MasterRental coverage (secondary car rental insurance).

Access to Citi Entertainment

Whether you have the Citi Strata Premier card or the Citi Custom Cash card, you’ll get access to Citi Entertainment, an exclusive platform to get you presale tickets or access to events around the world. These range across music, sports, arts, culture, and more.

Access to Citi Merchant Offers

Citi cardholders can add select Citi Merchant Offers to their cards to earn statement credits on deals covering retail, dining, travel, and more.

Shopping Protection and Benefits Comparison

Now, let’s take a look at how the Citi Strata Premier card or Citi Custom Cash card can make your life easier when you’re not traveling.

DoorDash Benefits

Thanks to World Elite Mastercard benefits, the Citi Strata Premier card gets you a free 3-month membership to DoorDash DashPass, along with $5 in monthly credits when you activate DashPass.

The Citi Custom Cash card has no benefits with DoorDash.

Complimentary ShopRunner Membership

When you hold the Citi Strata Premier card, you can activate your complimentary ShopRunner membership. This membership gets you free 2-day shipping and free returns at stores including Bergdorf Goodman, Kate Spade New York, Peet’s, the NBA Store, and NFL Shop.

Unfortunately, this benefit is not included with the Citi Custom Cash card.

Purchase Protection

If you go shopping and your item is damaged or stolen, you can use purchase protection to get reimbursed for replacements or repairs. The Citi Strata Premier card offers terrific purchase protection coverage through World Elite Mastercard.

On incidents that occur up to 90 days after the date of purchase, you can get up to $10,000 per item in purchase protection. This is capped at $50,000 per calendar year.

The Citi Custom Cash card doesn’t offer this benefit.

Extended Warranty

Another great benefit of the Citi Strata Premier card (made possible through World Elite Mastercard) is extended warranty coverage.

On eligible warranties, you can extend the coverage length by up to 24 months, as long as the total coverage doesn’t exceed 7 years.

The Citi Custom Cash card doesn’t have extended warranty.

$0 Liability on Unauthorized Purchases

Both the Citi Custom Cash card and Citi Strata Premier card help protect you against credit card fraud with $0 liability on unauthorized purchases.

This coverage essentially means you aren’t ever responsible for purchases that you did not authorize.

Virtual Account Numbers

Citi credit cards enjoy a unique benefit whereby you can generate Virtual Account Numbers while shopping online to avoid having to use your real credit card number.

This adds an additional level of fraud protection if your payment information is hacked or leaked.

Any fraudsters who get their hands on this information will only have your Virtual Account Number, not your real credit card number.

ID Theft Protection

Offered by Mastercard, ID Theft Protection helps monitor and alert you to suspicious transactions made on your credit cards.

Both the Citi Strata Premier card and the Citi Custom Cash card offer this perk.

Contactless Payments

The Citi Strata Premier card and Citi Custom Cash card are chip-enabled, making it easy to utilize contactless payments.

Digital Wallets

You can also add your Citi Strata Premier card and Citi Custom Cash card to your digital wallets, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay.

Fees and Adding Additional Users

In this final section, we’ll go over what to expect in fees, as well as how authorized users can benefit from these cards.

Annual Fees

The Citi Strata Premier card has a $95 annual fee, while the Citi Custom Cash card has no annual fee.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Citi Strata Premier card has no foreign transaction fees, while the Citi Custom Cash card has a 3% foreign transaction fee.

Authorized Users

The Citi Strata Premier card and Citi Custom Cash card both have no additional annual fees for authorized users.

Now, let’s talk about inclusions for the Citi Strata Premier card. Authorized users will not get their own welcome bonus. They will also not get their own $100 annual hotel savings benefit (although they can use the primary cardholder’s annual hotel savings benefit without issue).

After that, authorized users on the Citi Strata Premier card will enjoy everything else just the same as the primary cardholder.

The Citi Custom Cash card is the same way — authorized users will not get their own welcome bonus, including the balance transfer benefit. Even though purchases made by authorized users will be eligible for the 0% APR benefit on purchases, authorized users cannot use the 0% balance transfer APR for credit card balances under the authorized user’s name.

Every other benefit is fair game for the authorized user, including the Virtual Account Numbers and $0 liability on unauthorized purchases.

Credit Score Requirements

In general, we recommend that you have a FICO score of at least 670 before applying for these cards. However, it might be even better to increase it to 700 before submitting an application.

In particular, the Citi Strata Premier card tends to be sensitive about not having too many new open accounts in the 6 months before you apply for the card.

Final Thoughts

If you want to accumulate rewards as quickly as possible, the Citi Strata Premier card is probably a better fit for you than the Citi Custom Cash card.

However, the Citi Custom Cash card offers enhanced rewards every month that are designed for low, consistent spenders.

It also has an introductory 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers that will help you reduce the amount of credit card interest you pay.

We hope that this guide has been useful to you in determining which option is best for your situation!