Citi® Double Cash Card – 18-month BT offer vs. Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card

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Cash back credit cards can earn you some nice rewards on every purchase you make. That’s a big advantage over using your debit card or cash. Two of the best cash back credit cards are the Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer and Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card. We compare these cards so you can decide which one to apply for, or if you want to apply for both.

Welcome Offer

The Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer has this offer: Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of your Citi Double Cash® card account opening. Six months is a good length of time to earn this bonus, and the spend is easy to achieve.

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card doesn’t have a welcome offer, but it does offer a year-end bonus of sorts, but we’ll get to that. If we’re going purely on welcome offer alone, the Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer wins this round.

Cash Back Rewards

Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer pays 1% cash back when you make a purchase and 1% cash back when you pay the bill, for a total of 2% cash back. If you pay the bill in full each month, you can get 2% cash back every month.

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card offers 5% cash back on purchases for a different category each quarter, and 1% cash back on everything else. You need to activate the 5% cash back category, though, so if the little details of life have a way of slipping through your fingers, you might not be able to take advantage of this. For April through June 2024, you get 5% cash back on gas stations and electric vehicle charging stations, home improvement stores and public transit. The categories for July through September will be announced June 1, 2024.

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card also has Cash Back Match for the first year. You can get a dollar-for-dollar match on whatever cash back rewards you’ve earned throughout the year. If you max out your cash back rewards on your 5% category, that’s $300. Discover will match that with an additional $300 automatically. Since you also earn 1% cash back on everything else you spend, technically, there’s no limit to Cash Back Match. Discover It easily wins this round.

Here are the details for each card:

Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer 

Rewards:  

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card

Rewards: 

Rates and Fees

Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer offers 0% APR on balance transfers only for the first 18 months. After that, your rate will be 19.24% - 29.24% variable, based on your creditworthiness. This is a great deal if you want to transfer higher-interest credit cards and can help you get out of debt faster. Keep in mind that balance transfers do not earn cash back.

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card offers 0% APR on both purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months months. After that, your rate will be 17.24% to 28.24% variable, depending on your creditworthiness. If you have either higher-interest debt or want to make a major purchase, this could be a great choice.

Neither card has an annual fee, but Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer has a foreign transaction fee of 3%. The Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card card doesn’t have any foreign transaction fees. Discover is a better choice if you plan on international travel because those foreign transaction fees can really add up.

Who the Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer is Best For

Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer is a great card and one of our favorites at Allcards.com. You earn 2% cash back on everything you purchase; you have a 0% balance transfer offer, and there’s no annual fee. There are no rotating categories to keep track of; just a simple 1% when you purchase and 1% when you pay. Because of the way the rewards are structured, this card is perfect for people who pay their bill in full every month: then you get a straight 2% cash back on every purchase. There are no caps on rewards, either. Because it’s so easy, this card is a great choice for anyone who doesn’t want to fuss with credit card rewards.

Because of the foreign transaction fee, this card is not a great choice as an international travel companion. But if you’re interested in travel, the Citi Premier® Card offers a sign on bonus, plus elevated rewards for on certain categories for an annual fee of just $95. This allows you to wring out the maximum value from your Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer because you can transfer your points to the Premier and use them with Citi’s travel partners.

Who the Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card is Best For

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card is a great card for anyone who doesn’t mind choosing a different category every quarter (set an alert on your phone). That can get you elevated rewards on categories like grocery stores, fitness clubs/gyms, gas stations, Target, restaurants, and Amazon (some of these were categories in 2023); for April through June you’ll earn 5% cash back on gas, electric vehicle charging stations, home improvement stores and public transit.

You also get that Cash Back Match, which is a great boost at the end of the first year of card membership. Discover’s customer service is often complimented. And, although this is completely frivolous, Discover offers 25 card designs to choose from, so you can have a card that reflects your personality (or at least a design that you like).

Another card to consider if you don’t mind rotating categories could be the Chase Freedom Flex(SM). Not only do you get a signup bonus, but you earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, which are quite valuable when transferred to Chase’s travel partners. And there’s no annual fee.

Does it make sense to get both cards?

Since neither card has an annual fee, you could use your Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card for the 5% category and use the Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer for everything else. This would give you the best of both worlds: you’ll earn 5% on one rotating category and 2% on everything else.

Approval Odds

The credit score data for the cards listed below comes from publicly available information in several forums. The accuracy of the information cannot be verified. Keep in mind that credit card issuers consider more than an applicant’s credit score and that underwriting standards change over time.

Approval odds for the Citi^® Double Cash Card - 18 month BT offer

Discover It® Cash Back Credit Card

Citi Double Cash has far more denials than Discover it does. Discover might also be the better card to apply for if you have a credit score well under 700. Citi can afford to be picky, but it is a great card so if you have excellent credit, go for it.