PayPal 2% vs Citi DC

[jayjayhawaii]

I'm aiming to pull the trigger on the PayPal 2% MC in a couple of weeks when my util is below 30% and my TU is above 700. For fun however, I checked the CItibank website for pre-approved offers and it came back with a preapproval for the Citi Double Cash. I had brushed the Citi DC aside because only my TU report is clean (not sure who they pull), but the preapproval makes me think twice.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

I'd like a card with a decent SL, or at least generous CLI growth. I figured Synchrony met the match since they pull TU and gave me a $3k SL on CareCredit in June. I've been weary of Citi since I heard they do a double HP? Double cash is nice, double pull is not.

(Quicksilver is nice, but since it's a PC from secured plat, the growth potential isn't so nice)

[Anonymous]

You may have a shot for the PayPal 2% MasterCard. A user with roughly the same scores as you got approved it not too long ago. In addition, you do have a relationship with Synchrony through your Care Credit account. YMMV, of course.

I can't speak for Citi.

[Anonymous]

My TU is much lower than yours (640) and I was approved for 4K with PayPal. I like the PayPal card over the DC for several reasons —

Minimum redemption is $25 for DC, $1 for PayPal. 

If you take statement credit for DC you don’t get 2% back. 

It’s easier to get approved for PayPal and there’s generous SP CLIs every 3 months. So the card grows quickly. Not sure about DC.

Lastly, it’s possible to get 3% back with PayPal using the business debit combination. 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Citi is the devil.

Nuff said.

The business debit combo  no longer works. To get the business debit card now, you have to convert your PayPal to a business account which makes you ineligible for the 2% card.

[Anonymous]

OP, I know nothing of the Paypal card and can only speak of the Citi DC. 

The DC is known to come with a relatively low SL for most relative to what their SL would be on most other major cards.  Many report SLs coming in around 50% less than their SLs on other cards obtained around the same time on a similar profile.  If you have prior favorable history with Citi, it could help.  If you don't, I'd expect a low SL.  As far as growth, the DC won't grow extremely fast.  Your first SP CLI (around 6 months) likely won't be very large, where your second one can easily be 2X-3X the first simply based on your account being 1+ year old once that time comes.  After getting a SP CLI from Citi, you can call them and give up a HP in attempt to get more.  There have been mixed results on this forum from those that have tried this.  Some have gotten nothing or $500 more, where others have gotten literally $20k more. As for the double HP from apping, that's a definite possibility as well and should be considered when applying.  

[Anonymous]

Citi DC has their Price Rewind program which is a BIG deal. I never realized how much I would save or use it. I didn't even realize it was a benefit until after I had the card. I wonder if Citi still has the $150 sign up bonus?

I love the Citi DC.

[Anonymous]

"The business debit combo  no longer works. To get the business debit card now, you have to convert your PayPal to a business account which makes you ineligible for the 2% card"

Yep... I found this out the week before last when my new PayPal Business Debit Card arrived and I tried to app the PayPal 2%. I was not happy about this. 

I'm not sure how to get the card now.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"The business debit combo  no longer works. To get the business debit card now, you have to convert your PayPal to a business account which makes you ineligible for the 2% card"

Yep... I found this out the week before last when my new PayPal Business Debit Card arrived and I tried to app the PayPal 2%. I was not happy about this. 

I'm not sure how to get the card now.

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You can only get the 2% if you revert your PayPal back to personal.

[imaximous]

The PP combo works if you get the 2% CB card first. Then you get the business debit card. That's how I did it several months ago.

The PP card may not have automatic "price rewind," but you still get price protection. So you can get a refund but you have to search yourself. I have both cards, and I've had a chance to use PP's price protection. It took about a week to get a refund check from Mastercard. The whole claim was processed online and was pretty simple. I think that by doing your own legwork, you can probably find a better price than Citi's program. I matched the product I'd bought to a site that I'd never heard of before and they accepted it.

Both cards offer SP CLIs, but for me, PP card has grown much faster compared to DC. My SL with PP was $10k and after 7 months, I got an increase to $25k. The Citi DC started somewhere around $6k almost 4 years ago, and it's at $12.2k now by getting small $1.5k to $2k SP increases every 6 months. 

Then there's the issue of SYNCB vs Citi. Personally, I've had no issues with SYNCB so far, but some people hate them. Citi is a little more difficult to obtain credit from, so the approval and growth odds are also a factor if you don't have the right profile.

[SBR249]

The Paypal CB/Debit combo still "works" in the sense that if you get both you still get the 3% combined CB. The process is just now more convoluted. You'd need to start with a personal Paypal account, apply for and get the 2%CB MC, then upgrade to a business paypal account and get the debit card. If you got the debit first and then downgraded to personal to get the CB MC then it's probably best to upgrade back to business once you get the CB MC because DoC has been reporting DPs of Paypal forcing personal users to convert their business debit to personal versions w/o the 1% CB. 

Personally I like my Paypal CB MC better than my DC because there's no minimum redemption threshold. Redemption is to paypal and then transfer to bank account. There's also no foreign transaction fee with the CB MC (though the business debit card does have one IIRC so if you are using the combo that's something to watch out for if you make foreign purchases). Those 2 factors combined make me lean more towards the Paypal card. But since the DC is my oldest TL, I'll put it back in rotation every now and then for old time's sake.