Turn Citi Double Cash cashback into Thank You points

Citi Double Cash rewards its users with 1% cashback at the time of purchase, and then another 1% when the balance is paid. That’s 2% cashback on every single dollar you purchase, but the greatest perk is the ability to convert that cashback into Citi Thank You points when you concurrently hold a Citi Thank You Premier or Citi Thank You Prestige.  Let’s walk through how you can convert your Citi Double Cash into Citi Thank You points and take advantage of Citi’s list of transfer partners.

Why would you want to convert cashback into Thank You points?

While I, personally, don’t value Citi Thank You points as much as Amex or Chase, they have a great list of transfer partners and facilitate aspirational travel experiences through those transfer partners.  Many of their partners are also Chase/Amex/Cap1/Marriott partners, which is beneficial from the perspective that you can spread your drawdown across various flexible currencies.

Giving the Citi Double Cash the ability to convert cashback into Thank You points is Citi’s way of emulating what Chase permits with its Freedom and Freedom Unlimited cards. Both of those Chase cards are technically cashback cards, but when paired with a Chase premium card, the door opens to conversion into Ultimate Rewards. We often talk about blending a portfolio of Chase cards to optimize earn via a Quadfecta or Trifecta ( read more ).

This is using same underlying strategy, but with Citi: any purchase that doesn’t have a category bonus, put on the card that earns the highest cashback rate, then transfer into the flexible currency, Thank You points.

Citi Thank You transfer partners

Here’s a look at Citi Thank You transfer partners, 17 ( 16 Air + Sears )

Step by Step Guide to converting Citi Double Cash into Thank You points

When you’re logged in, on the home screen, you’ll see the following on the right. Click on View/Redeem Cash Rewards

That will load the following screen. Click “Convert to Points”

Then Cash Rewards to Points

Then you’ll choose how many you want to convert.

The conversion should be instantaneous; however, when I did it this afternoon for this post there was a lag in the conversion. The points are kept in each account, so you’ll see the total amount for each card.

Hope this helps!