Citi Forward Visa Card

Citi's Forward Visa card appears to offer lots of ways students can earn rewards. But there are just so many particulars - many of them conflicting, depending on which website page you go to - that this card may not be worth the trouble for many people.

• College students.

Credit Rating Required

• Fair and up (660+).

Pros

• Generous rewards package.
• Multiple ways to earn rewards, for both spending and good credit behavior.
• Low interest rate (if you qualify).

Cons

• Complicated rewards program.
• Inconsistent information.
• Important restrictions buried in the fine print.
• High interest rates, unless you have really good credit.

Rewards

• Five ThankYou Points for every $1 spent at restaurants, bookstores, music stores, video rental stores and movie theatres.
• One point per $1 spent everywhere else.
• 100 points monthly for good credit behavior.
• 2,500 points when you sign up for paperless statements.
• 3,500 (or 6,000) points after you make $250 in purchases the first three months (depending on which website page you visit).
• 250 to 2,000 bonus points for good grades, depending on your grade point average (twice a year).
• 0.25 percent interest rate reduction when you make a purchase, stay under your credit limit, and pay on time three months in a row; up to lifetime maximum reduction of two percentage points.

APRs

• 0 percent on purchases for first seven months, 12 months for balance transfers; after that, 12.99 percent to 20.24 percent depending on your income and credit history.
• Penalty interest rate: 29.99 percent.

Fees

• No annual fee.
• Balance transfer fee: 3 percent of balance.
• Late fees: $15 to $39.
• Over the limit fee: $39.

At first glance, the Citi Forward Visa from Citigroup offers myriad ways to earn rewards: Points for spending, points for paying your bill on time, points for switching to paperless statements, even points for getting good grades. Sounds like it should be easy to rack up those points.

But like a restaurant menu that offers so many choices you can't decide what to eat, the Forward card suffers from being overly complicated. Citi also presents conflicting information about the card on two different websites.

One website page says you earn 6,000 bonus points after you make $250 in purchases within the first three months, while another page on the same website says you earn only 2,500 bonus points. Which one's correct?

Another problem: Details buried in fine print in the footnotes show that the rewards aren't as attractive as the big print indicates. The big print says you earn five points for every dollar you spend on books, movies, and music. However, when you read the fine print, you find that if you buy that DVD at a "discount" store like Walmart or a "warehouse" store like BJs you only get one point per dollar.

AIf you want to get 2,500 bonus points for that 4.0 GPA, it's up to you to send that information to the bank. When the time comes, will you remember to do that?

On the positive side, Citi's Thank You Points program is really quite generous. You can get a $25 gift card for just 3,500 points, which you can earn after spending just $250 in the first three months.

College students are usually too busy to have time keeping track of their credit card rewards. Unless you have lots of time on your hands and want to spend it trying to track and redeem your rewards points, you're probably better off getting a simpler, no frills rewards card. You also should be concentrating on learning good credit behavior, not earning points.