Fun with Citi Price Rewind

A policy that isn't worth the paper it's printed on

Today's lesson is exploiting Citi's Price Rewind policy, which is a gold mine that you never knew you had.  Most credit cards advertise a price protection policy, which promises that if you purchase an item on your card and find it at a lower price later on, they'll reimburse you for the difference.  Sound good?  Yes, too good.  Most cards never pay out on this policy, because you need to jump through a couple of hoops, including mailing in a copy of the advertisement where you found the lower price.  What?  Yes, finding a newspaper with the advertisement, cutting it out, and mailing it in.  What if the lower price is on Amazon?  Tough luck, no Internet price matching.  What if the price is lower but there is no printed advertisement?  Tough luck, you need the printed ad.

As advertised, Citi Price Rewind is virtually useless.  There is a Price Rewind website where you can  enter details of your purchase, and the system is supposed to automagically alert you when their hard-at-work, omniscient machines scour the Internet to find a better price for you.  I tried this, and lo and behold, it didn't work--I made a purchase from Amazon.com, and even when Amazon (and other retailers) lowered their price, no benefit was triggered even though all conditions were met.

Light bulb!  Sticking it to the man

I discovered that you don't need to rely on the Price Rewind website.  Instead, what you can do is fill out a blank form and fax it in to them.  THEY WILL MATCH INTERNET PRICES!  FROM ANY RETAILER!

Allow that to sink in...

Has your mind recovered from the racing through the possibilities?

Yes, you can buy from anywhere and get it price matched.  I am batting 100% so far in my price match requests.  The only restrictions being 1) a maximum of $300 per item and 2) $1200 per year per card.  Found a great price from a retailer you've never heard of?  Perfect -- order from your trusted store.

Even more possibilities

The truly wily among you will realize that there are even more possibilities:

• Category bonuses: What if I have a certain credit card from Citi that earns 5X ThankYou points at an online retailer that sells virtually everything?  Not only will I get the lowest price, I will also earn 5X points if I buy from my favorite retailer and then get it price matched!  Another example is the Citi Dividend card, which is paying 5% back at Best Buy this quarter.
• Double price match (DON'T DO THIS!): This is not something I have done nor is it ethical.  In theory, if you find a retailer like Best Buy or Staples that has a post-purchase price match policy, you can get it matched twice.  If the price difference is 50%, you would get it for free!