Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Back on May 23, 2025, I received the following email from Citi regarding my Citi Rewards+ Credit Card.  Affective July 20, 2025, the Citi Rewards+ Credit Card would become the new Citi Strata Credit Card.  Citi made it sound like this was an upgrade, but this was definitely a downgrade for me.  Here were the announced changes:

• 5X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel®.
• 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Supermarkets.
• 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on Select Transit and at Gas & EV Charging Stations.
• 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons or Pet Supply Stores). Please see your Citi Strata Card Terms and Conditions below for full details.
• 2X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Restaurants.
• 1X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
• Your ThankYou Points will no longer be rounded up to the nearest 10 points.
• When you redeem your ThankYou Points, you will no longer receive 10% points back for the first 100,000 ThankYou Points redeemed per calendar year.

Unfortunately, the last 2 changes were the 2 best features of the Citi Rewards+.

In early June, I wrote Predicting Citi ThankYou Point Transfer Bonuses to Max Out Citi Rewards+ 10% Rebate.  With the help of ChatGPT, I asked “Which Citi ThankYou Point transfer bonuses should appear in June and July 2025?”  Here were ChatGPT’s predictions and the results of those predictions:

• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles – Incorrect: no transfer bonus in June or July.
• Air France–KLM Flying Blue – Correct: 20% transfer bonus from June 22 through July 19.
• Avianca LifeMiles – Incorrect: no transfer bonus in June or July.  Last transfer bonus was from March 16 – April 12.
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club (Avios) – Incorrect: no transfer bonus in June or July.  Last transfer bonus was from May 1 – May 31.
• Wyndham – Correct: 25% transfer bonus from May 18 to June 21.

I had many great comments on the post, but my favorite comment came from Jose.  He said:

That was a very good point.  Why force a transfer now in order to receive a 10% rebate when I can wait for a decent transfer bonus in the future that will have a higher transfer bonus than 10%?  Great idea Jose!

As the July 20, 2025, deadline approached, there were no transfer bonuses that made me pull the trigger, so I called Citi and asked the rep to convert my Citi Rewards+ to a Citi Custom Cash.  As a reminder, the Citi Custom Cash offers 5% cash back on your top eligible spend category up to $500 spent each billing cycle.  The 5% eligible categories include:

• Restaurants
• Gas Stations
• Grocery Stores
• Select Travel
• Select Transit
• Select Streaming Services
• Drugstores
• Home Improvement Stores
• Fitness Clubs
• Live Entertainment

I am a big fan of the wide variety of 5% bonus categories and like that I can pick and choose which category to go after each month.  Some months, I use the cards for restaurants, grocery stores, select transit, live entertainment, and gas stations.

Here are more details and specifics about the 5% cash back categories:

At the time, I already had 3 Citi Custom Cash cards, but the rep didn’t notice or care, so I was able to product change to my fourth Citi Custom Cash.  Here is the welcome letter that came with my new card.

Here are the 6 Citi credit cards that I currently have, including the 4 Citi Custom Cash cards.  On the back of each Citi Custom Cash card, I wrote #1, #2, #3, and #4, so I can keep track of the cards and make sure I use 1 credit card for each category.

I am not sure if product changes will be possible / allowed after the Citi Rewards+ become a Citi Strata, so you might only have a few days to make the switch.  If you have any questions about product changing a Citi Rewards+ into a Citi Custom Cash, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!