Citi Dividend Platinum vs. Chase Freedom Visa: Which Is Better?
Some of you may not like the idea of trying out a new credit card with an annual fee and possibly having to cancel the card later (even if comes with a big sign-up bonus!), though the effect on your credit score is a lot less than many media articles would lead you to believe. Here are a couple of cards with $200 sign-up bonuses and minimal requirements (indeed, they would have been rock stars in 2008 and 2009) – but are also everyday “keeper” cards with no annual fee. I’ve had both of them for years.
Chase Freedom Visa – $200 Bonus
Citi Dividend Platinum Select Visa – $200 Bonus
Which one is better?
Both offer a $200 bonus after spending $500 on the card for anything (40% back). Both offer 5% back on select categories, and the good thing is you can benefit from having both cards since their categories often don’t overlap. Both require you to “activate” the 5% online each quarter, which is a bit annoying but only takes a minute. Both cap their rewards at similar levels (5% of $1,500 is $75 per quarter = $300 per year). Both have no tiers on their 1% back on everything else. The Chase Freedom has no expiration of rewards as long as the account is open, whereas the Citi Dividend rewards do not expire as long as you have activity once every 12 months. Last I checked, the minimum redemption amount was $20 for Chase, $50 for Citi. Overall, they are both very similar in my opinion.
However… in my credit card survey a few weeks ago with over 3,000 reader responses, there was an open-ended question asking which card was the “best credit card on the market today”. The #1 most popular answer was the Chase Freedom card, beating out everyone including travel cards. Where was the Citi Dividend card? Not even in the top 20. The people have spoken, but I’m really not sure why! Better commercials?
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@dev: thanks for pointing out the better deals on gift cards available through the Chase program – I’d just assumed none of their offers would provide more value than just cash back, but now I see several gift card options (including Amazon, Kohl,s, Macy’s) that give you $25 value for $22.50 in points. If you often shop at these places, you’re effectively increasing your cash back by another 11%!
Regarding the additional points for Chase checking customers: I recently looked over my last several months of activity, and the bonus points effectively provided an additional 0.23% cash back. So I’m getting 1.23% cash back on all purchases – or 1.37% if I use it all on discounted gift cards – and that’s before considering the additional 4% on rotating categories. And that (along with the easy redemption) is why I voted for the Freedom card.
I actually have both (thanks to the signup bonuses) and while they seem silimar on paper, I find the Freedom has far better redemption options than the dividend.
Chase UR points been really good for me. Chase gives any amount of $20 or more down to the cent, plus with events like the 25% off best buy, or being able to transfer the points via a sapphire prefferred, you can get even better deals.
Compare this versus the option to only get checks in $50 increments. Plus the balance doesn’t combine with the rest of my citi cards, which are on the thankyou point system.
Though Citi does have the ability to get your full yearly max bonus in any one quater, which makes it an excellent card this first quarter (medical expenses and utilities), but after having used up the full amount that means it’s getting tucked away for the rest of the year.
The blue card looks cooler…
Sorry, I guess you did state that in the specs, I just read it differently in the text.
I just noticed one other thing – it looks like the $300 limit on the Citi dividend is for all purchases other than those through Citi’s online mall. Chase’s $75/quarter limit is only on the 5% offers, the base points you earn are unlimited.
@steve: they are points, but you can chose to credit them to your account. On Chase you can redeem to the penny now once you are over 2000 points, to your statement, chase bank account, or check. It’s good, because when you go to redeem there might be other offers on redeeming points for gift cards and such that are actually a better deal if it’s relevant to you.
It’s referred to as cash back, because at a minimum you can get that level of cash back from the rewards, but you have the choice to use it otherwise if you want.
If you are a chase checking account holder you also can get additional points back on the chase freedom card after you’ve had the card for a bit – 10 points per POS purchase + 10% additional points (similar to the 7% dividend on sapphire cards, but instant). If you’re using the card for small purchases like meals every day, that per purchase bonus adds up.
Also, if you or your family has other cards like the sapphire that use ultimate rewards you can combine points on the cards, which is pretty awesome if you want to use the airline features of one card but the rewards rates of another.
Citi has “Foreign Transaction Fees” (3% when you fill your Skype account for example, as is apparently a foreign transaction – LUX). Chase never had that for me but maybe I didn’t tried enough.
With Chase Freedom you can choose to have the amount credited to your monthly statement.
Or, if you don’t want to track categories which of course the credit card companies rotate to obfuscate the true rate you would get on all purchases, just sign up for the CapitalOne CashBack Rewards Visa card. 1.5% on everything. Life is too short to track rotating categories.
Are these actually cash back, or just “points”? I don’t think either is credited to your monthly statement.
David, this Citibank card is not a Thank You card. It’s one point per cent and all you have to do is go online and click a button to get your check. It’s just as hassle-free as Chase Freedom.
I have both cards. My strategy this year is to use the Citicard for the 5% bonus areas only, since all rewards cash is capped annually. Most people arent likely to hit this maximum, since it would mean charging $6000 in bonus categories and up to $30,000 in non-bonus categories.
However, the card does allow hoardiing in bonus categories each quarter. As you noted, there is no cap on quarterly 5% earnings. My recent pre-insurance dental bill was almost $500 and I moved all my utility bills to this card. With the Citicard, I’m getting 5% back and not bumping up against any quarterly limit.
For me, it’s not a question of which one is better. Rather, they complement each other. With no annual fees for either card, why choose?
One thing I like about chase is that their redemption is fairly simply. Get enough points, and they mail you a check. With citi you have to deal with the thank you network, where getting a check costs considerably more points.