I ended up applying for the Citi Forward card mentioned several days ago as part of my list of credit cards with sign-up incentives. There really wasn’t much to the decision, it was basically the only one I didn’t already have. 
Sign-Up Bonus
New cardholders get 6,000 bonus ThankYou points after $50 in purchases made within 3 months. In addition, you get another 5,000 points for choosing paperless statements within 3 months. As shown below, the 11,000 total points can get you either $100 in gift cards or about $75 towards a prepaid Visa card.
ThankYou Points & Rewards Program Summary
This card works off the same ThankYou points system as many other Citibank cards. 10,000 points = $100 gift card at stores like Sears, Macy’s, Staples, Old Navy, Gap, etc. 14,000 points = $100 prepaid Visa credit card. 16,000 points = $100 in straight cash (a check sent directly to you). If you can find a store where you can use a $100 gift card = 10,000 points, that basically a penny per point.
What makes this card unique is that you get 5 points for every $1 you spend on books, movies, music and at restaurants. On everything else, you get the plain vanilla 1 reward point for every $1 spent. There is no annual fee for the card.
5x Rewards at Restaurants
Again, at 1 penny per point with gift cards, getting 5x points is like getting 5% back when eating out. Even if you convert to straight cash, that’s 3.125% cash back at restaurants (5/1.6). Or 3.57% back if you are okay with prepaid Visa card, which I am since they are usable anywhere that takes credit cards.
5x Rewards on Books = 5% back at Amazon?
Here’s an interesting question. Who sells the most books? Amazon.com. With the Citi mtvU card for college students, the 5% back on books worked on all purchases at Amazon, even if it wasn’t 100% books. Can anyone verify if this is also true for the CitiForward card?
Other features
You also get 100 points for each month you paid on time and don’t exceed your credit limit, as well as a highly touted 0.25% interest rate reduction each time you do this 3 times in a row. The APR on this card is only average to begin with (max reduction 2%), and I don’t carry a balance anyhow, so I’m not really concerned with this. The 100 points per month works out to about an additional $12 per year in perks, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.
I’ll keep this in the wallet for the 5x rewards at restaurants and bookstores, while waiting for the Amazon answer. May need to make a small test purchase…
