Citi Custom Cash vs Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards, compared on caps

The short answer

Both are no-annual-fee cash-back cards with a higher-earning category, but they choose it differently. Citi Custom Cash picks your highest-spending eligible category each billing cycle. Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards lets you select the category yourself.

Julia's comparison assumes you already own Custom Cash. Citi closed new applications on May 28, 2026 and says existing holders are unaffected, so the question is whether the Bank of America card gives you a useful additional option.

On her example budget, Custom Cash for groceries plus a 2% card earned $540 a year. Customized Cash for dining plus the same 2% card earned $408, which is $48 more than the flat card alone but $132 less than the Custom Cash pair. Her answer is to keep groceries on Custom Cash and add the Bank of America card only if its actual account bonus, or a different category, gives it a worthwhile job.

Side by side

• Annual fee: $0 on both.
• Custom Cash: 5% on the first $500 in your top eligible category each billing cycle, then 1%. You don't activate a category, and the cap resets each billing cycle, not on the first of the month.
• Customized Cash: 3% in the category you choose, 2% at eligible grocery stores and wholesale clubs, and 1% after the cap. The choice category and the grocery purchases share one $2,500 cap each quarter. You can change the choice category once each calendar month, but switching doesn't create another quarterly allowance or change earlier purchases.
• First-year offer: Customized Cash adds 3 percentage points to the selected category, making 6% within the shared cap before any relationship bonus. Any one-time welcome bonus is a separate first-year extra.
• Relationship bonus: BofA Rewards offers 10% at Member, 25% at Preferred Plus, 50% at Preferred Honors and 75% at Premier, with an eligible checking account and enrollment. The bonus increases the rewards by that share, so the ongoing 3% becomes 4.5% at 50%; it doesn't add 50 percentage points. Check the promotion's terms before applying a banking bonus to a temporary extra rate. Balance thresholds and transition rules matter, and older Preferred Rewards members may have an extended card benefit, so check your own account.
• Wallet Scores on Julia's everyday card test: Custom Cash 63, Customized Cash 60, out of 100. They leave out welcome offers and relationship bonuses, so the ongoing cards are compared on the same footing.

The arithmetic

Julia's example household spends $500 a billing cycle on qualifying groceries, $400 at restaurants and $600 elsewhere. Over 12 cycles that's $18,000 a year, and a no-fee 2% card earns $360 on all of it.

• Custom Cash for groceries: $25 a cycle, or $300 a year. The other $12,000 on the 2% card earns $240. The pair returns $540, which is $180 more than the flat card alone.
• Customized Cash for dining, at its ongoing 3% choice rate: $4,800 earns $144, and the 2% card adds $264 on the rest, for $408. That is $48 more than the flat card and $132 less than the Custom Cash pair.
• With the first-year offer, dining earns 6%, or $288. Add the $264 and the pair returns $552, beating Custom Cash's $540 by $12. When the temporary rate ends, the result returns to $408.
• With a 50% relationship bonus, groceries can earn more than the 2% fallback, so you'd move them. Each quarter, $1,200 of dining and $1,300 of groceries fill the $2,500 cap: dining earns $54 and groceries $39, a total of $93, and the remaining $2,000 earns $40 on the fallback. That's $133 a quarter, or $532 a year: $172 above the flat card and $8 below the Custom Cash pair.

At the unboosted rate, the 2% fallback already matches Customized Cash's grocery rate, so keeping groceries on the fallback preserves the cap for higher-paying dining purchases. A banking bonus changes the result, but subtract any extra cost of maintaining the tier. If your accounts already suit you, those costs may not change.

You needn't replace either card. With groceries on Custom Cash, dining on Customized Cash and the 2% card for everything else, you'd earn $48 more than the Custom Cash pair without a banking bonus. With the 50% bonus, the dining advantage over 2% is $120. Another dining card you already own might provide some or all of that, so count only the extra value of changing.

Where each one wins

• Custom Cash suits a steady, high-spend eligible category such as groceries. Citi's smaller allowance is used again every billing cycle, and the card picks the category for you. Its record names the fit as a regular high-spend eligible category or a specialist second card.
• Customized Cash suits a planned category you select once and use within the shared cap. A single large order, such as furniture, may fit more comfortably inside Bank of America's larger quarterly allowance, if you select an eligible category in time. Its record notes that no relationship uplift is counted and that category and grocery purchases compete for the cap.
• Timing can matter as much as the yearly total. Don't divide a quarterly cap by 3 and assume the cards work the same way.
• On Custom Cash the highest-spending eligible category gets the rate. A large eligible home-improvement purchase could displace groceries, and a purchase outside the eligible list can't create a new category.
• Both cards lose ground when spending runs beyond their caps, and in Julia's test Custom Cash's automatic 5% category helps. Her grocery example is more specific than that broad test, so use it to choose a job for a card you already own.
• If you're applying for a new card, Custom Cash isn't an available choice. Compare uncapped options such as Savor for eligible dining and groceries.

Before you apply

On Bank of America's page, check which categories you can choose, the current choice-category rate, the combined quarterly cap, the first-year offer's exact terms and end date, and your BofA Rewards tier and enrollment steps. On Citi's page, check whether Custom Cash applications have reopened and how the billing-cycle cap works.

Julia's figures were checked on October 6, 2026, and her script recorded the May 28, 2026 closure. Terms may have moved since. A good offer can be useful without changing which card you prefer for groceries.

The cards in this guide