In April 2022 I changed my AT&T Access card to a Citi Custom Cash. While I made a small mistake during the process, I looked forward to the Custom Cash filling a hole in my card portfolio created when the Citi Premier card dropped live entertainment as a bonus category.
The Custom Cash card pays 5X points on up to $500 of purchases in whatever category you spend the most that statement cycle. Here is the list of eligible categories.
- Restaurants
- Gas Stations
- Grocery Stores
- Select Travel
- Select Transit
- Select Streaming Services
- Drugstores
- Home Improvement Stores
- Fitness Clubs
- Live Entertainment
I’ve exclusively used the card to pay for concert and theater tickets, including our tickets to see the final shows of Come From Away on Broadway.
The tickets weren’t cheap, but we earned 5X points on (most of) the purchase.
We had tickets to Walt Disney World which we needed to change because of Hurricane Ian. I called WDW to make the change but our replacement day was more expensive so I needed to pay the difference. Yes, Disney still made me pay to change tickets because their parks were closed on the day we originally booked.
The Custom Cash card was on my desk and I didn’t think any of my cards earned bonus points for themepark tickets.
I was surprised when I found out Citi counts themeparks as “live entertainment.”
I dug into the terms and conditions and found a list of what counts for this category.
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Includes ticket purchases for live entertainment, including: concerts, live sporting events, live theatrical productions, amusement parks, and orchestras. Excludes: charitable organizations that provide live entertainment (benefits), sporting camps, sports complexes where you participate in the sport, public and private golf courses, country clubs (including membership fees), bowling alleys, movie theaters, tourist attractions, museums and art galleries.
I’m glad to see amusement parks on this list as it’s an unexpected perk to earn 5X ThankYou points from a no-annual-fee card. There’s no chance to earn tons of points since you’re capped at 2,500 bonus points monthly. However, I might change our Citi Prestige to the Custom Cash card so we’ll have 2 of them and can double our earning potential.
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2 comments
Good to know. Thanks.
I have 2 Custom Cash CCs. For the exact reason you described. I changed a Citi Custom+ to Citi Custom Cash. I use one for live entertainment and the other for home improvements. Almost monthly, I earn 5k of TYP. I may regret changing the Custom+, but we shall see if I transfer any points in the near future. The 10% rebate of using points may be worthwhile in the future, but I am just accumulating points right now. Citi makes it very easy to product change accounts.