Citi Cash Back+ card review: 1.6% on almost everything, and nothing to remember

The Citi Cash Back+ pays one rate, 1.6%, with nothing to track. A card with four bonus categories, a minimum spend and a cap can pay more, but only if you keep its rules in mind every month. The catch here is smaller: you have to redeem the cash back yourself, and the fee takes real spending to earn back.

Here's what it pays, the fine print that changes the number, how you get the money out, and a worked year you can redo with your own numbers.

The Citi Cash Back+ at a glance

Figures from the Citi Cash Back+ Card Program Information in the Cardmember's Agreement (in effect from 1 May 2025), the Bonus Cash Back terms and the Citi product page, checked 1 Nov 2026.

How much cash back does it pay?

Clause 3(a) of the Program Information is one sentence: cardmembers receive 1.6% cash back on retail purchases. The Bonus Cash Back terms confirm there's no minimum spend and no cap, and that the 1.6% is counted per statement month, the period between two statement dates.

So $2,000 of spending in a month is $2,000 × 1.6% = $32. $500 is $8. $6,000 is $96. Supplementary cardholders' cash back goes to the main account (clause 3(f)).

Bottom line: one thing, at one rate. The rest is the fine print around it, and the comparison with cards that do more.

Each purchase is worked out to the cent

Clause 3(e) says cash back is calculated on each purchase, "rounded to the nearest 2 decimal places". Nearest, not down, and to the cent, not the dollar.

Bottom line: unlike cards that count in $5 blocks or whole dollars, small purchases here earn very close to the headline rate. A month of $4 breakfasts doesn't quietly earn less.

You have to redeem it

Citi's Cash Back card credits cash back to your statement automatically. The Cash Back+ card doesn't. It keeps it as a balance until you redeem it as a cash rebate, through the Citi Mobile app or by SMS (clause 4(b) and (c)). Citi says to allow about 7 working days for it to appear (clause 4(e)), and once you send the request it can't be cancelled.

Three more details: - The rebate is a credit on your statement, not a payment. It doesn't reduce the minimum payment due, so the bill still has to be paid on time (clause 4(e)). - The cash back doesn't expire (clause 3(g)). - But if you close the card account, any cash back not yet redeemed is forfeited (clause 2(b)).

Bottom line: the money only becomes money when you redeem it. If you plan to close or change the card, redeem first.

The extra 0.4% for Citi Plus customers

The Bonus Cash Back terms add 0.4% for cardholders who are Citi Plus customers and the primary holder of a Citi Interest Booster Account, and who spend at least $500 on the Cash Back+ Mastercard in a calendar month (clauses 4 and 8). The bonus is capped at $8 a calendar month, which is $8 ÷ 0.4% = $2,000 of spending.

Note the two different months. The 1.6% counts your statement month. The bonus counts the calendar month. The terms include an example: with a statement month of 17 March to 16 April, the 1.6% covers purchases from 17 March to 16 April, while the bonus covers 1 to 31 March.

Bottom line: this depends on a separate banking relationship with Citi, so for most people this is a 1.6% card. If you qualify, the most it adds in a year is $8 × 12 = $96.

Overseas spending: 1.6% in, up to 3.25% out

The terms set no different rate for foreign currency, so a purchase in yen or baht earns the same 1.6%. But Citi's foreign currency fee is up to 3.25% (Cardmember's Agreement, clause 6.9).

On $1,000 spent in foreign currency: $1,000 × 1.6% = $16 of cash back, against up to $1,000 × 3.25% = $32.50 in fees. That's up to $16.50 more paid than earned.

Bottom line: on overseas spending, the cash back offsets about half the fee. This isn't a travel card.

What doesn't earn cash back

Clause 3(d) lists what earns nothing: bill payments, education, government payments (tax, fines, postal services, parking), insurance, payments to banks and brokerages, non-profits, gambling, top-ups to payment apps and prepaid accounts, transit-related transactions, and the codes and merchants on Citi's exclusion list, which include utilities, property rentals, hospitals, BUS/MRT, EZ-Link and YouTrip.

Bottom line: "almost everything" means retail purchases. The big annual bills (insurance, tax, school fees) and the MRT gantry earn nothing.

Is the annual fee earned back?

The product page lists a $196.20 fee and doesn't state a waiver rule. At 1.6%, the spending needed to earn the fee back is $196.20 ÷ 1.6% = $12,262.50 a year, or about $1,022 a month.

Bottom line: if your monthly spending is well under $1,000 and the fee is charged, the card costs more than it pays. Ask Citi about a waiver before the card's anniversary.

When a category card pays more, and when it doesn't

A fair test is Citi's own Cash Back card, which pays 6% on dining and groceries and 8% on petrol and rides, but only in statement months with $800 of spending, capped at $80. Two example months, each with dining in it:

The Citi Cash Back review has the full rules.

Bottom line: the category card pays more when you clear its minimum and your spending fits its categories. The flat card pays more in every month you don't.

How it compares on flat cashback

Cards that pay one rate on almost everything with no minimum and no cap, as at 24 Oct 2026, from each bank's terms, ranked by the rate:

Rates are only part of it. Exclusions, fees and how the cash back is paid differ by card, so read each one's terms.

A worked year

Say Farah is 38 and puts most of her everyday spending on one card: groceries, a few dinners, the pharmacy, online shopping, a weekend trip to Malacca in ringgit. About $1,600 a month. Made-up example.

If her spending were $2,500 a month, the year would be $2,500 × 1.6% × 12 = $480, or $283.80 after the fee. If she qualified for the Citi Plus bonus, it would add $1,600 × 0.4% = $6.40 a month, $76.80 a year.

Bottom line: swap in your own monthly spend, then subtract the fee. The calculator page does the same sums for a few typical months: Citi Cash Back+ on the card rewards calculator.

Three things to remember

1. 1.6% on retail purchases, no minimum, no cap, worked out to the cent. That's the card.
2. The cash back has to be redeemed, and it's forfeited if you close the card.
3. The $196.20 fee needs about $12,260 of spending a year to earn back. Below that, the fee is bigger than the cash back.

Ethan's rating

5.5out of 10

Earn rate

• Very low
• Low
• Moderate
• High
• Very high

Effort to earn

• Effortless
• Easy
• Some effort
• Shiong
• Very shiong

Value for the fee

• Way overpriced
• Overpriced
• Fair
• Good value
• Great value

Against other cashback cards

No minimum spendCashback cards: the lower the monthly minimum, the higher the rating.

• Bottom
• Below average
• Average
• Above average
• Top

Where it earns

• DiningFair
• GroceriesFair
• TransportFair
• OnlineFair
• TravelFair
• OverseasLow
• Everything elseFair

One person's opinion, from the terms in this review. Your own spending decides what a card is worth to you.

Track it in Sum

Import your card statements. On a flat card there's not much for a tracker to do, which is the point: the card optimiser works out what each purchase earned, and the number at the end of the month is the number. The one thing a card like this needs is a nudge to redeem. A bill reminder in Sum, set for the month before the card's anniversary, does that job.

Ethan

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Something here doesn't match your statement, or Citi changed the terms? Reach out to me at [email protected], or leave your email and I'll write to you.

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