After AMEX and BofA rolled out various offers, Citi responded with its own program: Citi Smart Savings. So far, not all Citi credit cards have access to it, but I believe this extra savings option will likely show up on more of our cards this year.
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Updates
- [Updated 2016.4.15] Starbucks 10% cash back is now available, capped at $3, which means spend $30 and get $3 back. If you reload a Starbucks card online and combine it with Microsoft's recent Earn By Miscrosoft program (10% cash back on Starbucks online purchases), then spending $30 gets you $3 + $3 + your credit card rewards. If multiple cards have this offer, it is basically like buying Starbucks gift cards at better than 20% off.
What Is Citi Smart Savings?
Like AMEX OFFER and BofA DEALS, Citi Smart Savings is an extra perk offered on credit cards. After you add an offer in your account, simply pay with the corresponding Citi credit card to trigger it. These offers usually provide an extra 5%-15% cash back. If you can use them, it is basically free savings, because the offer cash back is separate from both your card's regular rewards and any shopping portal cash back. Useful examples include Sears 10% cash back, Starbucks 20% cash back, and Office Max/Depot 10% cash back.
Cards that may be eligible for Citi Smart Savings include:
- Various credit cards issued by Citi (including co-branded cards)
If you have a Citi card but do not see Citi Smart Savings in your account, that means your card is not part of the test group. Right now, only two of my older Citi cards have Smart Savings.
How to Find and Add Smart Savings
For some reason, Citi hides this money-saving feature pretty deep in the site, so it takes some effort to find every time. In general, there are two ways to access Smart Savings.
Offers on the account homepage
- After logging in to your Citi online banking account, scroll to the bottom of the homepage and you should see “view more offers.”
- After entering, choose the credit card you want to view. Smart Savings is still in the testing phase, and not every card has it, so check each card one by one.
- Then look under “Available” to see the Smart Savings offers currently available to you:
- Click “Add Offer” to activate it. You can see all added offers in the “added” list.
Dig through the links
Sometimes the homepage mysteriously does not show the “more offer” option, which is pretty frustrating. In that case, click “Card Benefit,” then look for “Offers For You” in the quick links section (bottom left), or find “OFFERS FOR YOU” in the sticky bottom menu (bottom right).
Once inside, just follow the same steps as in section 2.1 to view and add offers.
Key Features of Citi Smart Savings
Anyone who just read BofA Deals will probably feel that the Smart Savings interface looks very familiar. My guess is that both services were outsourced to the same company. As a result, their features are quite similar.
Types of Smart Savings offers
Smart Savings offers generally come in a few formats, for example:
- Earn xx% cash back at merchant xxx until you reach $xx (there may be a distinction between online and in-store)
- Earn xx% cash back at merchant xxx, one-time use only, up to $xx (there may be a distinction between online and in-store)
Offers with only a cap and no limit on the number of uses are easier to maximize. For one-time-use deals, be careful not to use them once and then spend again by mistake. Some deals are specifically marked “online only” or “in store only,” so pay close attention. After adding an offer, it is a good idea to read the spending requirements, rebate cap, eligible merchants, and other details carefully. In general, after you make a purchase, you will quickly see the offer move from “available” to “processing.”
Other Smart Savings features
- Each Citi card has its own corresponding Smart Savings offers, whether or not the cards are in the same account
- After an offer changes to “processing,” it usually pays out in about a month, regardless of your statement cycle
- The cash back posts directly to your credit card account as a statement credit
- To receive the cash back, you only need to use the corresponding Citi credit card at final checkout
- Offers can vary significantly from person to person, and there does not seem to be any clear pattern yet
- Authorized user cards do not have their own separate offers
How to Maximize Citi Smart Savings
At the moment, Smart Savings does not have many especially exciting or highly profitable offers, but here are some of the more useful deals I have seen so far:
- Starbucks 20% cash back, up to $4
- Hilton hotel booking 10% cash back, up to $50
- Auto Zone 5% cash back
- Sears 10% cash back, up to $35
- Office Max/Depot 10% cash back, up to $10
The first few are quite good if you already have spending in those categories. After all, the extra 10%/20% cash back is separate from both your card's regular rewards and shopping portal cash back. For people experienced with gift card techniques, both Sears and Office Max/Depot sell a large number of third-party gift cards in store, such as Amazon, Visa gift cards, eBay, and more. Buying gift cards at these merchants can also trigger the offer, which is basically like buying gift cards at a 10% discount. Looking at the rebate amount below, you can probably guess what I bought.
For a similar method, see:
If you want to shop online and use Citi Smart Savings at the same time, remember not to click through to the merchant from the Citi website. Instead, go through your preferred shopping portal and simply pay with the corresponding Citi card at checkout.
Summary
The main reason Citi Smart Saving is relatively obscure is that there are still not many deals, the merchants are not always very mainstream, the program is still fairly new, and not everyone has access to it. Still, if you can find a few useful merchant deals, it is worth playing around with. Check your account and see what deals you have—you may find one you can use right away.