Citi Cash Back Review (2026)

Last Updated: 26th December 2025

Citi Cash Back is a really simple card – use the card on things like dining and groceries for 6% cashback, or on things like fuel and ride-hailing apps for 8% cashback. All one needs to do is to spend at least S$800 within the statement month to unlock these earn rates.

Even relatively simple cards, however, have some things to take note of, so here is a closer look at Citi Cash Back (not to be confused with its younger sibling, Citi Cash Back+) and a couple of its quirks.

	Details
Provider	Citibank
Type	Conditional cashback
Earn Rate	6% on dining and groceries 8% on private commute (fuel and ride-hailing) 0.2% on other retail spend
Conditions	S$800 min. spend per statement month
Cap	S$80 monthly cashback

Categories

Categories	Earn Rate	Merchant Category Code (MCC)	Transaction Description
Dining	6% cashback	MCC 5811 (Caterers) MCC 5812 (Eating Places, Restaurants) MCC 5814 (Fast Food Restaurants)	Not required
Groceries	6% cashback	MCC 5411 (Grocery Stores, Supermarkets)	Not required
Petrol	8% cashback	MCC 5541 (Service Stations) MCC 5542 (Automated Fuel Dispensers)	Not required
Private Commute	8% cashback	MCC 4121 (Taxicabs and Limousines)	GRAB COMFORT/CITYCAB GOJEK CABCHARGE ASIA TADA RYDE TRANSCAB PREMIER TAXIS STRIDES TAXI

Having no category caps makes life easier

Category caps are quite a common feature when it comes to cashback cards. It’s now even becoming a thing with miles cards like UOB Lady’s Solitaire and UOB Preferred Platinum Visa.

It’s thus a good thing that Citibank revamped Citi Cash Back years ago to remove category caps. If you are someone who doesn’t intend to put, say, dining spend on this card, you can simply ignore it entirely and spend entirely on just the groceries and private commute categories.

For the longest time, I was using (and recommending) the Citi Cash Back as a “supermarket vouchers” card — just buy at least S$800 worth of vouchers from your favourite supermarket chain, enjoy your cashback, and spend the vouchers over the next few months before they expire. This is still possible today, as long as you are happy with the current 6% cashback earn rate for groceries.

Something to note: cashback blocks

Citi has a peculiar way of crediting cashback, and it is credited in blocks of S$10 with a minimum of S$50 each time. This means that if you spent S$900 within a single month on groceries, you would accrue S$54 of cashback, but only S$50 would offset your bill, leaving S$4 behind.

It doesn’t quite matter if you are going to continually use the card, since the S$4 will add on to your future earned cashback to be credited towards future statements, but if you want it to be “neat”, you should make sure your spend gives you cashback in round S$10 blocks:

	Spend Amount (6% Cashback)	Spend Amount (8% Cashback)
S$50	S$833.34	Does not hit min. spend
S$60	S$1,000	Does not hit min. spend
S$70	S$1,166.67	S$875
S$80	S$1,333.34	S$1,000

6% cashback on Dining and Groceries

When it comes to dining cards, you would want both 5812 and 5814 included which should cover almost any eatery or restaurant that accepts credit cards. I would have liked to see 5813 for Drinking Places covered too, since there are some restaurants which are technically gastropubs and coded under this MCC.

The standard 5411 covers groceries, and you should not have any trouble getting the card’s 6% earn rate on just about any supermarket you go to.

8% cashback on Petrol and Private Commute

The card offers its highest 8% earn rate on transportation. With discounts at Caltex, Esso and Shell, Citibank advertises that the card is offering up to 23.64% of fuel savings inclusive of the 8% cash back. I’m not a driver so it’s difficult for me to evaluate the card’s usefulness here, so I’m counting on people who are familiar with petrol prices to chip in at the comment section or Telegram.

8% cashback on ride-hailing apps like Grab and GoJek is about as high as it gets, with the exception of DBS yuu which of course gives as much as 18% rebates for GoJek. Ride-hailing apps can often differ on prices, so the DBS yuu and GoJek combination isn’t always the best despite the high rebate rate.

One downside, however, to Citi Cash Back’s ability to get cashback on ride-hailing apps is that both the MCC and transaction description must fit within their list. This means that if you go overseas and take an Uber (or any other ride-hailing service not within the table above), you will get only 0.2% cashback for that ride.

Works well with Kris+, ShopBack, and Amaze

When it comes to dining, Citi Cash Back works well with wallet apps like Kris+ and ShopBack so you can stack the 6% cashback with rewards given by those platforms. Interestingly enough, you can even get 6% cashback on places like Mister Mobile if you pay via ShopBack, according to data points provided a chat member.

This extends to using Amaze overseas. Linking your Citi Cash Back with Amaze and using the Amaze card to pay for dining lets you pay an inflated exchange rate which is around 2% more expensive, but still lower than the 3.25% fee Citibank charges for foreign currency transactions. As a plus, you also get to see the MCC immediately after your transaction.

The Verdict

Citi Cash Back has been sitting in a relatively awkward corner for the past year and a half. After dropping from 8% to 6% cashback, it never really competed well with Maybank Family & Friends which continued to give 8% on not just groceries, but a variety of other categories one could pick including dining and transportation.

With Maybank’s nerf from 1st January 2026, however, Citi Cash Back may start to see the light of day yet again. The limited range of categories may prevent Citi Cash Back from being a primary, everyday card for many, but for those whose spend on dining, groceries, and commute can reach at least S$800 per month, Citi Cash Back is now a strong cashback card to use relative to the competition.

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Seth Wee was a licensed financial adviser representative from 2009 to 2025, with over 16 years of experience in Singapore’s financial advisory industry.

He started Sethisfy.com in 2019 to share practical insights on credit cards, banking products, and miles strategies, helping readers identify financial products that deliver the best value. Seth has been featured in CNA, Channel 8, Today, and a host of other publications. In 2025, he was also part of a panel at CPF’s Ready For Life festival.

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