I had an old Citi home rebate card that was switched to a Thank You card and I realized I never use it, so I called and asked them to just switch it to a Forward. They agreed, starting next billing cycle. No bonus points this way, (hmmm, I wonder if I called again and asked nicely?), but no application needed either. I eat out way too much and really need to get rewarded better for dining out, so I'm going to see how this works out for me.

If travel is the ultimate reward then it's going to be tough to beat the new AMEX Benz. 3x on restaurants, transfered to Delta miles with a 50% bonus, and Delta miles redeemed for business claas international travel valued around $0.03 a mile. That works out to a 13.5% return. Downside is you have to wait for a bonus to transfer, delta miles are tougher to redeem, and you may have to transfer before u actually need an award to get a bonus. Even if you went to another airline with no bonus it's around a 9% return per dollar.

Be careful, there is more than one version of this card.

The version shown on creditcards.citi.com offers 5X points in some categories:

https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-forward/

There is also Citi Forward for College Students, which also offers 5X:

https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-...lege-students/

However, if you search for this card through Google you can find this "back to School" version which offers only 2X:

http://creditcards.citicards.com/usc...11/default.htm

One thing to note about Citi forward is you can earn a maximum of 75,000 ThankYou points in a calendar year. For a lot of people, this does not matter, but I pay for tons of nice corporate dinners, and I bump against that max pretty quickly (it's $15K at restaurants).

For anyone with a TON of restaurant spend, you can get the Forward card as well as the MTVu card, both of which are citi visas with 5x points on restaurants.

I usually redeem the points for travel or gift cards (1 point = 1 penny). The nice thing about travel is you earn EQM/EQS on flights booked this way.

Huh. I didn't get a note about that at all. Any idea if it affects existing users or only new ones?

Ooh, I didn't realize! Good grief. I'll call them back to confirm the 5x.

Embarrassed to admit I would exceed that $15k restaurant limit! :eek: Thanks for pointing it out.

Yeah, I will keep this one in mind. I just applied for SPG Amex though.

Checking some other forums, the discussions were taking place in June. So maybe check your statement and see if there are any notes/amendments.

Someone did post the language and this change will apply to all cardholders. However, if you opened your account between 8/1/10 and 7/31/11, you will still have the 3% cash back at restaurants until your 13th billing period. So you'd still get a full year of 3% but after that, it will drop down to 2%.

Best restaurant cashback card?
 

What's the best credit card with the highest restaurant cashback? I tend to eat out a lot not only at restaurants, but also fast food and take out places.

I'm currently using the Chase Amazon Visa for dining, which gives 2% cashback. Could I do better in this category with a different card?

Citi Forward gives 5 thankyou points on restaurants, which translates to between 3.5-6.5% cashback depending on how you redeem the points.

Moderator action
 

Folded Mediahound's question into previous discussion of same topic. Please review older posts.

Thanks. That sounds like the card I'll apply for.

What does this mean on their site?:

"Earn up to 1,200 bonus points
for paying on time and staying under your credit limit"

When do they give you that?

https://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/c...?screenID=1978

Sounds sota like a catch 22. All they need to do is make your statement show zero due and then they don't have to give you those bonus points.