Citi Forward Credit Card: Signup Bonus, Rewards, and More

Written by Nickel - 4 Comments

Citi has rolled out an interesting new Visa-branded card called the Citi Forward card. If you’re in the market for a new credit card, this one appears to offers a nice combination features, including a generous signup bonus, 0% APR for an introductory period, up to five reward points per dollar spent, and there’s no annual fee.

Signup bonus

New Citi Forward cardholders get a 6k ThankYou point signup bonus as long as they make $250 in purchases within the first three months. Opting for a paperless statement within the first three months gets you another 5k bonus ThankYou points. Taken together, these bonus points can be traded in for a $100 store gift card right off the bat, and you’ll still have 1k points to spare.

Promotional rates

Another nice feature of the Citi Forward card is that it offers a six month introductory period with 0% on purchases and balance transfers. The only real downside here is that there’s a 3% balance transfer fee.

Credit card rewards

In addition to the signup bonus, the Citi Forward card offers five reward points for every dollar spent on books, movies, music, and at restaurants. For all other purchases you get the standard one point per dollar.

An interesting twist on this reward structure is that purchases from Amazon.com using the Citi Forward card apparently qualify for the higher reward tier*. This is huge for us, because we buy tons of stuff from Amazon. Note that this isn’t limited to book purchases — Amazon is technically a bookstore, and all purchases qualify.

All in all, this card looks to be a nice complement to reward credit cards that offer 5% rewards on gas and groceries. This is especially true if you shop at Amazon and/or dine out frequently.

*Note: The Citi mtvU card offers a similar reward benefit.

Bonuses for good behavior

In addition to the above, Citi will give you 100 bonus points every month that you: (1) stay under your credit limit, and (2) pay on time. They’ll also reduce your APR by 0.25% whenever you make a purchase and pay your bill on time for three consecutive months. You can do this up to eight times, for a total reduction of 2%.

The APR reduction is a non-issue for us, as we never carry a balance. The extra 100 points every month is, on the other hand, a nice touch. Not a huge deal, but I certainly wouldn’t turn them down.

Closing thoughts

I have yet to apply for this card, but will almost certainly be doing so. After all, it’s hard to turn down a 5% discount on restaurants and purchases from Amazon. Given our spending patterns, this card would be a great fit alongside our primary reward credit card (AmEx Blue Cash), which pays 5% cash back on gas and groceries.

Published on May 1st, 2009 - 4 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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Comments (scroll down to add your own):

  1. I think the card below is the “Richest” rewards card the Citibank offers. I realize it comes with a $125 fee after the first year – however – I plan on calling and asking for the fee to be waived or I will cancel the card. I got this card last June and have been loving all the points I’m earinging.

    Citi® Platinum American Express® Card

    Earn 15,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after $300 in purchases

    5 ThankYou Points for every $1 spent on purchases made at supermarkets, drug stores and gas stations and 3 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on all other purchases for the first 24 months; 1 point thereafter

    No Annual Fee for 12 months, $125 thereafter

    Comment by david — May 2nd 2009 @ 5:10 am
  2. I also have an AmEx card that started out paying 5% cash back for fuel purchases, but then stopped doing so about a year ago. Do you have any advice on how to negotiate just to get the initial rewards back? Thanks.

    Comment by Kevin — May 6th 2009 @ 11:56 pm
  3. This credit card seems to be the only card I’ve seen that is rewarding good credit behavior. I have seen people in the last six months who pay their bills on time get their credit lines reduced and have their interest rate increased. To me it seems that the Forward Card is the best card out there for people who pay their bills on time.

    Comment by Bill — May 8th 2009 @ 10:23 am
  4. Long shot here, but wondering if you have any experience with how Amazon AWS charges show up ( http://aws.amazon.com/ ). I rack up quite a hefty bill through them each month- would be significant if those got counted as a “book” purchases!

    Comment by Jed — Oct 23rd 2009 @ 10:45 pm

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