Citi is surveying existing Citi® Diamond Preferred® card members to gauge interest in a new card feature. (This was sent to me – I don’t have the card.)
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“Super Snooze” a Charge
It is very rare that a completely new, never-tried credit card feature debuts. That’s pretty much because most of the possible credit card features have already been thought of, used, hashed, and re-hashed a dozen times over. But every once in a while, somebody comes up with a thing that’s maybe a little different.
Super Snooze is one of those new / different ideas – on the Diamond Preferred card.
I heard your enthusiasm just drop six levels. The Diamond Preferred is a card that does not offer rewards. It is basically good for a 0% intro APR, and, well, if you keep it long enough, maybe you’ll get another 0% APR offer again later. Or, of course, you could product change it to the Double Cash, or some other Citi card you may need after your 0% period is up (Double Cash being a good choice since it lacks a signup bonus anyway).
Nevertheless, the Super Snooze makes this card a little bit interesting again.
What is Super Snooze?
Super Snooze will let you pay for a large purchase now – any amount up to your available credit limit – but “hide” it for either three or six months.
You have made the purchase, but you have not made the purchase at the same time, a heavy-duty philosophical feat. You will not have to pay interest, or even make payments, on your purchase during the snoozed period. In fact, if they implement it exactly as they explained it, it won’t even show up on your card statement as money you owe during that period.
The benefit is obvious. You could replace your roof or make any other repair to your house or cover a veterinary emergency or whatever – and then give yourself three or six months to figure out how to pay for it. (And, of course, you could balance transfer to a 0% card later when it comes due, to give yourself even more time, if need be.)
The catch – yes, of course there is one (or two, actually) – is that you first have to “earn” a Super Snooze to use.
Citi is considering requiring you to spend money on the card first in order to bank a Super Snooze, but they aren’t sure how much. One idea was to have you spend $300 per month for two or three months consecutively; another was to spend $2,000 within one calendar quarter; a third was to spend $3,000, no time limit, and you’d earn the super snooze when you spend that amount.
As an alternative, Citi is also considering asking you to pay $20 in order to purchase a Super Snooze. The end result could be either or both.
But the big catch is that the Diamond Preferred earns no rewards. If you have a purchase big enough to make a Super Snooze worth doing, then you’re giving up an awful lot of points in order to get that cash now but not owe it until later.
And, if you have to “earn” a Super Snooze before using it, then the money you have to spend on the card to earn it is also money you will not earn rewards on. So, the cost in lost rewards points is fairly high.
That said, there may actually come a time in your life when losing out on rewards is better than the only other alternative of not being able to pay for something. If you have ever financed something, then you have already made the same choice to give up rewards in favor of getting something you need now when you don’t have a better way to pay for it right now.
Is Super Snooze functionally different from a 0% financing offer for three or six months?
The answer is yes. This is more than just 0% financing. It throws in no payments for those three or six months on top. But that isn’t entirely novel, either. There are mattress stores and used car salesmen who will offer you no payments for some amount of time, as well.
What Super Snooze offers is a method of getting no payments and 0% financing whenever you need it, for any purchase you like, regardless of what the purchase is or who the selling merchant is, and without a new hard pull on your credit report followed by a new account.
The downside is that you have to “earn” a Super-Snooze first. This obviously makes the Super Snooze a lot less versatile. If you aren’t anticipating needing a Super Snooze, then you probably don’t want to put spend on a card that doesn’t earn rewards to set up a “just in case” safety net.
That really doesn’t make good sense, no matter how you look at it.
This is why the option to purchase one Super Snooze for $20 could become valuable at some random point, most likely when you least expect it. Sure, it costs you $20, but you don’t have to apply for credit in a pinch.
In these times of COVID, having a Super Snooze available might be an attractive source of security for many people. You could potentially lose your job, then watch your savings dry up and your credit score fall a bit, and yet still be able to access a Super Snooze to tide you over in an emergency.
There’s no doubt that this feature would be a lot better if it were paired with a rewards-earning card – even a card that earns poor rewards of just 1 point per dollar. In fact, 1 point per dollar plus working toward a Super Snooze might be a fairly attractive proposition to some folks who will absolutely hate it at 0 points per dollar.
But it’s an interesting and innovative feature that could potentially pull you out of a jam some day.
And even if it is not for you? Give it credit. It’s different and innovative. We could use more of that…
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
