Citi Premier Card vs. Double Cash Card [Detailed Comparison]

The Citi Premier^® Card and Citi^® Double Cash Card are 2 of the most well-known Citi credit cards in the U.S. Both of these credit cards can be incredibly rewarding (and in fact, there’s actually a pretty strong case for having both of them in your wallet).

But if you had to pick between the 2 cards, which one should you choose?

In this guide, we’ll break down what you need to know about both of these cards so you can make an educated decision about which one to add to your wallet.

Citi Premier Card vs. Double Cash Card — Overview

Check out this table we put together comparing each of the 2 credit cards:

The Citi Premier card is better suited than the Double Cash card for bonus category-centric spending habits. If you spend a lot of money on eating out, groceries, travel, and so on, you’ll come out ahead with the Citi Premier card.

But, if you spend lots of money on different types of seemingly random purchases, the Double Cash card will set you up for success.

Also, the Double Cash card tends to offer a balance of both rewards and benefits for consolidating high-interest credit card debt, thanks to its introductory balance transfer offers.

The Value of a Welcome Offer

Credit card welcome offers are great — if you’re someone with great cash flow and the ability to pay off all balances in full every month, you’ll probably want to look for a card with the largest welcome offer.

However, if you’re in need of low fees and interest, you might have a totally different perspective.

Here are each of the card’s welcome offers, compared:

Citi Premier Card

A Great Welcome Offer

One of the best reasons to add the Citi Premier card to your wallet is the hefty welcome offer it offers. With the ability to earn a solid chunk of transferrable rewards points in the first few months, it’s easy to justify adding this card to your wallet. The Citi Premier card’s welcome offer can be worth hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, towards travel when transferring your ThankYou Points to Citi’s travel partners.

Double Cash Card

Introductory 0% APR

The Double Cash card is one of the few credit cards that offer a special promotion for balance transfers to help you consolidate any high-interest debt.

As part of its welcome offer, you’ll enjoy a 0% intro APR on balance transfers for 18 months. After that, the variable APR will be 19.24% - 29.24%. If you’re carrying a large balance from month-to-month on a card with a high interest rate, taking advantage of this balance transfer offer could save you a ton on interest fees and allow for more repayment flexibility.

Citi ThankYou Points

The Citi Premier card and Double Cash card actually both earn ThankYou Points, even though the latter is advertised as a cash-back card.

The key difference is that the Citi Premier card’s ThankYou Points can be transferred to a long list of airline and hotel partners, while the Double Cash card’s ThankYou Points can only be transferred to limited partners.

Additionally, both the Double Cash card and Citi Premier card have the ability to redeem points for cash-back, travel through the Citi Travel Center, gift cards, statement credits, and more.

Earning Potential

* Remember that for the Double Cash card, the 2% cash-back is always 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay

We value ThankYou Points at 1.6 cents a piece, so earning 3x points with the Citi Premier card translates to a 4.8% return on spending. Earning 1x points translates to a 1.6% return on spending.

Since you can earn 2% cash-back on all purchases with the Double Cash card, so you’ll effectively be earning a 2% return on all spending.

Redemption Options

The Citi Premier card’s ThankYou Points can be redeemed with 14 airline transfer partners and 2 hotel transfer partners, including Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Choice Hotels, Singapore Airlines, and more.

Although you can redeem your points for economy flights and budget hotels, the most valuable avenue for your points will inevitably be when using them for opulent first class flights and luxury hotels.

Suppose you do not also hold a premium ThankYou Point-earning card like the Citi Prestige^® Card or Citi Premier card. In that case, your only transfer partner options as a Double Cash cardholder will be Choice Privileges, Wyndham Rewards, and JetBlue TrueBlue.

Hot Tip: Read our guide on the best ways to redeem your Citi ThankYou Points and how to get maximum value from them.

The Case for Having Both Cards in Your Wallet

As mentioned above, one of the little-known secrets about Citi ThankYou Rewards is that you can combine certain “cash-back” credit cards with the Citi Premier card to earn a lot more points. That way, you can earn 3x points on bonus categories through the Citi Premier card and 2% cash-back (earned as 2x points) on all other purchases using the Double Cash card.

By pairing your Double Cash card with a premium ThankYou Rewards card, you can access all of Citi’s transfer partners.

Statement Credits

The Citi Premier card has a $100 annual hotel savings benefit, which gets you $100 back on an eligible, single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through thankyou.com.

The Double Cash card does not offer any statement credit benefits.

Travel Benefits and Protections

Hotel Benefits

Both the Citi Premier card and Double Cash card offer access to the Mastercard Luxury Hotel and Resorts Collection, which gets you complimentary daily breakfast for 2, an amenity credit of $100, and more at a collection of 3,000 hotels and resorts around the world.

Rideshare Benefits

If you use the Citi Premier card or Double Cash card to book 3 Lyft rides in a month, you’ll get $5 in Lyft credits in that month.

Bottom Line: Compared to other high-end travel cards, neither the Citi Premier card nor the Double Cash card offer amazing travel perks. 

Shopping Benefits and Protections

Now, let’s take a look at the shopping benefits and protections offered by these 2 products.

Cell Phone Protection

Even though both these cards are World Elite Mastercard products, you get access to cell phone protection with the Citi Premier card, which reimburses up to $600 per claim with a $50 deductible per claim and up to $1,000 in coverage every rolling 12-month period. You can be approved for up to 2 claims per rolling 12-month period.

The Double Cash card does not have cell phone protection.

Access to Citi Entertainment

When you use either the Citi Premier card or the Double Cash card, you can utilize Citi Entertainment to get special access to buy tickets to thousands of events around the world, including presale tickets and experiences.

Access to Citi Merchant Offers

Both cards have access to Citi Merchant Offers, cash-back deals that can save you money on shopping, dining, and travel purchases when using your Citi card.

DoorDash Benefits

Because both the Citi Premier card and the Double Cash card are World Elite Mastercards, cardholders will get 3 free months of DoorDash DashPass, as well as a $5 credit every month upon activating their complimentary DashPass membership.

Complimentary ShopRunner Membership

Both cards’ World Elite Mastercard status gets you a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which gets you free 2-day shipping and free returns at dozens of popular retailers. ShopRunner-eligible merchants include Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Allbirds, Coach, and more.

Purchase Protection

The Citi Premier card gets you purchase protection by virtue of its World Elite Mastercard status, and it covers eligible purchases of up to $10,000 per item and $50,000 per calendar year on covered incidents that occur within 90 days of the purchase date.

This could come in handy if your items are damaged or stolen shortly after buying them.

The Double Cash card has the same purchase protection benefits.

Extended Warranty

When you have extended warranty, you can cover yourself in the event that there’s a significant defect in an item you purchase, usually with gadgets or other tech items.

In the case of the Citi Premier card, you can get amazing extended warranty protection that lengthens eligible warranties by up to 24 extra months, with a maximum aggregate coverage length of 7 years.

The Double Cash card doesn’t offer this benefit.

$0 Liability on Unauthorized Purchases

Both the Citi Premier card and Double Cash card have $0 liability on unauthorized purchases, which ensures that you don’t pay for unauthorized charges and that you’re protected against fraud.

Virtual Account Numbers

Also, while you’re shopping online, you might find a lot of value in using temporary credit card numbers instead of your real credit card number.

To help address this concern, Citi credit cards have access to virtual account numbers, and this includes both the Citi Premier card and the Double Cash card.

That way, if fraudsters hack the merchant you made a purchase at, they won’t get access to your primary credit card number.

ID Theft Protection

ID Theft Protection is an enrollment-required program offered by Mastercard to monitor and alert you if any suspicious activity occurs on your credit card account and help you if your identity is stolen.

You can access this through both the Citi Premier card and the Double Cash card.

Contactless Payments

Both the Citi Premier card and Double Cash card have contactless payments technology built into them so you can hygienically shop around the world.

Digital Wallets

Also, the Citi Premier card and Double Cash card can both be added to digital wallets, enabling you to add your card to Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more.

That way, you don’t need to carry your physical card with you while shopping.

Foreign Transaction Fees

The Citi Premier card has no foreign transaction fees, while the Double Cash card has a 3% foreign transaction fee.

Annual Fees and Adding Additional Users

In this last section, we’ll walk you through pertinent annual fees, plus what authorized users should know.

Annual Fees

The Citi Premier card has a $95 annual fee, while the Double Cash card has a $0 annual fee.

Authorized Users

Neither the Citi Premier card nor the Double Cash card have additional annual fees for authorized users.

If you’re an authorized user on the Citi Premier card, you’ll enjoy all of the same benefits as the primary cardholder except for your own welcome offer and the $100 annual hotel savings benefit.

That being said, you can use the primary cardholder’s annual hotel savings benefit for a stay booked under the authorized user’s name without any issues.

Similarly, if you have the Double Cash card, you can enjoy almost all of the same benefits as the primary cardholder, except for any welcome offers or introductory APR offers.

For example, if Jane Smith is the primary cardholder and John Doe is the authorized user, balance transfers can only be done for Jane Smith, not John Doe.

Final Thoughts

The Double Cash card is a simplistic rewards credit card that also offers balance transfer benefits to those who want to consolidate high-interest debt.

The Citi Premier card is a great travel card for people with good credit and the ability to pay off monthly balances in full. If you spend a lot with airlines, hotels, supermarkets, gas stations, and restaurants, the Citi Premier card may be best for you, as you’ll earn a ton of valuable transferrable rewards points.

However, you should actually consider getting both cards to optimize your spending across both cards to earn even more rewards.

Still, the decision of which one to pick is highly personal and depends on your own financial standing.

The information for the Citi Prestige^® Card has been collected independently by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.