Why The Citi Custom Cash Card Is An Underrated Grocery Card

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The Citi Custom Cash® Card* is a popular cash back card, offering 5% back in your top eligible spending category each billing cycle — grocery stores just one of several lucrative options. This flexibility makes it a surprisingly strong grocery card, even though it’s often overshadowed by bigger names.

The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express is frequently cited as the best grocery card thanks to its 6 percent cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%).

However, it comes with a $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95. — a cost that may not be worth it for some, especially if your grocery spending isn’t high enough to offset the ongoing fee. Others may not think an annual fee is worth the cost, particularly with rising prices already straining budgets.

That’s where the Citi Custom Cash shines. It has no annual fee, and if groceries are consistently your highest monthly expense, you’ll earn competitive rewards without paying extra. Pairing it with another no annual fee card tailored to your other spending can help you build a powerful, low-cost rewards strategy — making the Custom Cash an underrated grocery standout.

Citi Custom Cash benefits

Quick highlights

• Rewards rate:
  • Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1% cash back thereafter.
  • Special Travel Offer: Earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026.
  • Earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.
• Welcome offer:
  • Earn $200 in cash back after you spend $1500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou® points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.

• Annual fee: $0

Saving money on groceries with a rewards card

The average household spends a little over $6,000 per year on groceries, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s around $500 a month. With the prices of everyday essentials still high, that amount doesn’t get you as much at the grocery store as it did a few years ago.

That’s where grocery rewards cards can help. The best credit cards for groceries get you anywhere from 3 percent to 6 percent cash back on your groceries. That could mean around $360 back per year, based on average household spending. Getting money back on your purchases is one of the main ways rewards cards can help you fight against inflation.

Why the Citi Custom Cash has better long-term value than the Blue Cash Preferred

With the Blue Cash Preferred card, you earn 6 percent cash back on up to $6,000 per year on purchases made at U.S. supermarkets, then 1 percent cash back. Using the Citi Custom Cash for groceries get you 5 percent cash back on up to $500 in purchases in your top eligible spending category (in this case, groceries) each billing cycle (then 1 percent cash back). That averages out to the same annual spending limit of $6,000.

One of the biggest differences between the Citi Custom Cash Card and the Blue Cash Preferred Card is the annual fee. The Citi Custom Cash Card gives you the chance to earn one of the highest rates around on your grocery spending if that’s your top spending category — but without having to worry about paying an annual fee. Meanwhile, the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card doesn’t charge an annual fee in year one, but then costs $95 per year.

To offset the Blue Cash Preferred card’s annual fee via cash back in year two and beyond, you’d have to spend about $1,584 at U.S. supermarkets each year. While that should be easy enough for most cardholders, if you go with the Citi Custom Cash Card, you won’t have to worry about offsetting anything. Here’s a look at how that can work in your favor:

With the $0 intro annual fee, the Blue Cash Preferred Card comes out on top, besting the Citi Custom Cash Card by $60 if you spend $6,000 per year on groceries — but only in year one. Once that first year is up, the Citi Custom Cash card earns $35 more per year just for grocery purchases since it doesn’t carry an annual fee, giving the Custom Cash Card greater long-term value in this respect.

Best cards to pair with the Citi Custom Cash Card

The other main difference between the Citi Custom Cash Card and the Blue Cash Preferred Card is their rewards categories.

The Custom Cash card currently earns a high cash back rate in two categories:

• Earn 5% cash back on purchases in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle, up to the first $500 spent, 1% cash back thereafter.
• Special Travel Offer: Earn an additional 4% cash back on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on Citi Travel℠ portal through 6/30/2026.
• Earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Meanwhile, the Blue Cash Preferred Card gives you plenty of chances to earn bonus rewards in several everyday spending categories, not just groceries. The card also earns 6 percent on select U.S. streaming subscriptions, 3 percent cash back on transit and at U.S. gas stations and 1 percent cash back on other purchases.

It’s incredibly convenient to have all these categories in one card, and this variety gives the Blue Cash Preferred Card an edge over others if you prefer to only carry one card in your wallet and can take advantage of its bonus categories.

But depending on your spending habits, you may not use them all. Also, the Blue Cash Preferred Card may not meet all your needs, especially if you tend to spend a lot on dining, online purchases or even cellphone plans. That’s why pairing the Citi Custom Cash Card with the right no annual fee rewards card could earn you just as much cash back or more in the long run for your everyday spending.

Best pairing for groceries and gas: Citi Custom Cash Card and Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express

If groceries and gas are your main spending categories, the Citi Custom Cash Card paired with the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express gives you a powerful combination.

With the Everyday card, you get 3 percent cash back in multiple categories, including:

• 3% Cash Back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases, then 1%.
• 3% Cash Back on U.S. online retail purchases, on up to $6,000 per year, then 1%.
• 3% Cash Back at U.S. gas stations, on up to $6,000 per year, then 1%.
• 1% Cash Back on other purchases.

That annual spending threshold allows you to earn impressive cash back on up to $500 per month in gas purchases, which is far more than most households spend on average (about $204 per month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Because the Everyday card gets you the same rate on U.S. gas purchases as the Preferred card, pairing it with the Citi Custom Cash Card could allow you to avoid annual fees and still earn more cash back than you would with the Blue Cash Preferred card after the first year.

Here’s how things would shake out after the first year if you spent $6,000 per year at U.S. supermarkets and $2,500 per year at U.S. gas stations using either the Blue Cash Preferred or a combination of the Citi Custom Cash and Blue Cash Everyday cards:

The Blue Cash Preferred Card’s total earnings fall even further behind those of the Citi Custom Cash and Blue Cash Everyday card combo when you factor in online purchases and annual fees.

Since the Amex Everyday card provides 3 percent cash back for online spending while the Blue Cash Preferred Card only offers 1 percent for online purchases, you may not even have to wait until year two to start raking in more cash back with this combo if you do a lot of online shopping.

Best pairing for groceries, transit and streaming: Citi Custom Cash Card and Wells Fargo Autograph Card

If you don’t want to give up the Blue Cash Preferred Card because travel, transit and streaming services are a big part of your budget, the Wells Fargo Autograph® Card has you covered. The Autograph Card boasts more everyday bonus categories than most cash back cards, offering 3X points on dining, travel, gas stations (including electric vehicle charging stations), transit, popular streaming services and phone plan purchases — all with no annual fee and no spending limits on rewards.

Pairing the Citi Custom Cash Card with the Autograph Card could allow you to earn cash back on your groceries as well as in a versatile mix of bonus categories that can cover more of your essential purchases than the Blue Cash Preferred Card. And while the Autograph card can’t match the Blue Cash Preferred Card’s 6 percent cash back on U.S. streaming services, its bonus categories may be a better fit for your budget, especially if you spend more on travel, dining or even cellphone plan payments than you do on streaming services.

Here’s a look at how your dining purchases and phone plan payments can give the Citi Custom Cash Card and Wells Fargo Autograph Card combo an edge over the Blue Cash Preferred Card.

The short-term value of the Blue Cash Preferred card continues to be unmatched in the first year, but once the annual fee kicks in, there’s a good chance you’ll earn less money with the Blue Cash Preferred Card than you would by pairing the Citi Custom Cash Card with the Wells Fargo Autograph Card.

Ultimately, your individual spending habits determine whether you’ll be able to take full advantage of all the bonus categories offered by the Autograph card.

Because the Blue Cash Preferred Card only earns 1 percent cash back on travel, dining and phone plans, the Autograph card gives you more chances to earn boosted cash back, thanks to all the bonus categories it offers — especially when you pair it with the Citi Custom Cash card for grocery store purchases.

The bottom line

The Citi Custom Cash card isn’t just a solid cash back card. If you make groceries your top eligible spending category, it’s one of the best grocery cards around — potentially even better than the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card when it comes to long-term value.

That’s because the Citi Custom Cash Card offers 5 percent cash back in your top eligible spending category on up to $500 in spending per billing cycle, without saddling you with an annual fee. If your top spending category is groceries, that rate can put more cash back in your wallet overall after the first year compared to the Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card with its ongoing annual fee.

And when you pair the Citi Custom Cash Card with another no annual fee cash back card, you can earn bonus rewards on more than just your grocery spending. The right combination of cards that fit your spending habits can help you match, or even beat, what you might earn with the Blue Cash Preferred card.