Citi Rewards+ Student Card Review

Full Review of Citi Rewards+ Student Card

Pros Explained

• Decent rewards rate for a student card: The Citi Rewards+ Student credit card offers a respectable rewards rate on purchases: 1 or 2 points per dollar. This card also sweetens the pot by offering a few ways to increase rewards earnings when you spend and redeem.
• Good for everyday spending: This card has a tiered rewards rate, meaning that purchases made in certain categories earn more rewards than others. Some of the most generous returns—that is, double points—are for mundane purchases, like groceries and gas.
• Pay no interest on purchases initially: This card offers a 0% introductory APR on purchases for the first seven months. After that, the normal variable APR kicks in, ranging from 14.49% to 24.49%, based on your creditworthiness.

Cons Explained

• Not ideal for travel abroad/travel rewards: Students who want to earn big points or miles for travel might be disappointed with this card, as it doesn't offer anything special or major for such purchases: just the standard 1 point per dollar. Besides that, the Citi Rewards+ Student credit card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee, making it less suited for a semester or summer abroad. 
• Penalty APR for late payments: When you're still learning the ropes of using credit responsibly, it's not unthinkable that you could slip up and pay late one month. While there are some student credit cards that won't penalize you for that by raising your card's annual percentage rate, this card isn't one of them. A stiff penalty rate of up to 29.99% can be applied when you pay late or if your payment bounces.

Who This Card Is Best For

The Citi Rewards+ Student credit card is, obviously, geared toward students. It seems specially designed for those who have never had a credit card before. This card makes it as easy as possible to earn rewards when you spend, with no cap on the number of rewards you can earn.

It also has features to appeal to the budget-conscious, like no annual fee. Plus, those initial seven interest-free months could be good for a student who's splurged on a big purchase (like a new laptop, for instance) and needs time to pay it off, or someone who's just learning how credit card payments and interest work.

Citi Rewards+ Student Card Bonus

There is an introductory bonus offer for this card, which is worth 2,500 Citi ThankYou Points. To qualify for the introductory bonus, students need to charge $500 in eligible purchases within the first three months. Redeemable for a $25 gift card, the bonus isn’t the most generous in the world, compared to those offered by traditional credit cards, but it's a nice little bump to get students started with earning rewards. The minimum spending requirement is also low enough that students can meet it fairly easily without worrying about accumulating a large amount of debt.

Rewards Earning Details

This card features two reward tiers for purchases. When you spend with this card, you can earn:

• 2 points per dollar at supermarkets and gas stations, up to the first $6,000 in purchases each year
• 1 point per dollar on all other purchases

The $6,000 cap averages out to $500 a month in supermarket and gas station spending. Once you hit that threshold, you'll continue earning 1 point per dollar on those purchases. 

What makes this card a little different with its rewards structure is the Round-Up feature. This benefit rounds up every purchase you make to the nearest 10 points with no cap. Say you charge $27 for gas—you would earn 54 points, then Citi would round it up to 60 points. If you charge $225 for concert tickets, Citi rounds it up to 230 points earned. Since the maximum roundup is 10 points, the biggest boost comes from smaller purchases: for example, a $3 pack of pens would net you more than triple the number of points (not just three, but 10). Spending $10.15 for a sandwich and soda gets you 20 points.

You don't have to do anything to earn those extra points, other than spend as you normally would. There's no limit on the number of points you can earn from these round-ups. 

Rewards Redemption Details

Once you've earned some rewards, Citi gives you several ways to redeem them. Students can use rewards to:

• Shop online at Amazon.com or BestBuy.com
• Redeem for flights, hotels, cruises, and other travel expenses
• Get gift cards from partner restaurants and retailers
• Pay off purchases as a statement credit
• Pay bills from a linked Citibank checking account
• Redeem for cash
• Make payments toward their student loans
• Make charitable donations

Citi makes redeeming points more rewarding by offering 10% points back on all redemptions on up to the first 100,000 ThankYou Points redeemed each year. So if you redeem 5,000 points, you get 5,00 of those points back. Similar to the round-up rewards, the 10% back bonus is applied automatically when you make a qualifying redemption. 

How to Maximize Your Rewards

If you're opening a brand-new account, the first thing you'd want to do is work on reaching the $500 minimum spending requirement to earn the 2,500-point bonus. This comes out to $167 in purchases on average for the first three months, which might equal one or two trips to the grocery store each month.

The next way to maximize rewards is to continue charging at least $500 in supermarket and gas station purchases each month. This way, you can max out the 2 points per dollar rewards rate for the first $6,000 in purchases each year. Once you do that, you can continue charging those purchases at the 1 point per dollar rewards rate but you'll still benefit from points round-ups.

You can round out rewards earnings by charging all other purchases to the card and redeeming them to get the 10% points back bonus. 

Citi Rewards+ Student Card's Outstanding Benefits

• Automatic points round-up
• 10% points back bonus on redemptions
• Exclusive access to selected entertainment events

Standard Benefits

• 24/7 customer service
• Digital wallet-compatible
• Touch or tap for contactless pay

Cardholder Experience

Citi finished sixth out of 11 in J.D. Power's 2022 Credit Card Satisfaction Survey, putting it right in the middle of the pack. Its score of 808 was just below the segment average of 814. American Express had the top score of 848.

The Citi Rewards+ Student card offers the standard account management tools you'd expect, including online and mobile banking access. Citi customer service representatives are available via live chat or phone by calling 1-800-950-5114. You can link your card to your preferred digital wallet app for secure and more convenient shopping in-store or online.

Security Features

In addition to being able to shop security through digital wallet apps and contactless pay, Citi offers additional security features to protect your account. Those include Citi Identity Theft Solutions, $0 liability on fraudulent and unauthorized purchases, and fraud detection services to monitor for suspicious activity. Citi also offers the Quick Lock feature, which lets you disable your card if it's lost or stolen to prevent anyone from using it to make purchases or cash advances.

Fees to Watch Out For

The biggest fee to consider with this card is the 3% foreign transaction fee. If you're planning on spending a semester overseas or spending spring break outside the U.S., then another credit card with no foreign transaction fee may serve you better. Other than that, this card doesn't pack any surprise or hidden fees.

Final Verdict

The Citi Rewards+ Student credit card is a good option for young people ready for their first piece of plastic. Its 1-point-per-dollar rate is typical of what you can expect with a student credit card, and 2 points for certain categories is even on the generous side. No annual fee is nice, but pretty common with student cards. Having your points rounded up is an excellent added benefit that you won't get with other cards and it can significantly augment your rewards points balance. 

The biggest benefits are for those who spend most heavily at gas stations and grocery stores, which suggests this card is best for students living off-campus.