Citi starts a new reward program, and one of my credit cards (Citi Dividend) is eligible. It’s called Citi Smart Savings. It’s like Amex Offer. You will earn a certain amount of statement credit when you use the card at a merchant specified by each offer. For starters, there are five offers available for my credit card.

Except for Starbucks, the offers are identical to my BankAmeri Deals and PayPal Prepaid Payback Rewards. I believe Sears’ offer is great for most people because they sell Visa gift cards. $200 Visa gift cards are sold with $6.95 purchase fee. When you buy two VGCs, you can make a profit, $35.00-$6.95*2=$21.10!

A type of reward is statement credit, not cash back or Dividend Dollars. So, it doesn’t count towards the $300-cashback-annual limit.

Like other rewards programs, you need to add the offer you want before using the cards. I already bought VGCs. Just like Amex Offer, a confirmation email was sent right after the transaction.

Starbucks offer appears great, but it only offers $4 max. To redeem this offer, I set up Auto-Reload as terms stated. For this offer, it took a little while, but I received a confirmation email as well. I think I can cancel Auto-Reload now, but I will leave it for a week just in case.

I hope more and more offers will be available soon.