Whenever there’s a post about Citi credit card bonuses, people inevitably ask in the comments:
If I downgrade my Citi Prestige or Premier card to a Preferred card, does that reset my 24 month bonus clock?
Short answer: More likely is that you’ll be fine and it won’t reset your clock, but that’s not at all guaranteed.
The official word is that it depends on whether you get a new account number or not. Trouble is, you won’t necessarily know if you will or won’t get a new number at time of product change. (You can ask the rep, but I wouldn’t rely on that as foolproof.) Truth be told, even if you do get a new account number, we’ve heard of at least one report indicating that you’ll get the bonus anyway. This is especially true with product changes within the same family.
We’ve addressed this issue many times before, but since this specific scenario of Prestige/Premier to Preferred/Rewards+ comes up most often, I decided to write up a more concise post since some people get bogged down when reading details and are left confused, this hopefully makes it easier.
The scenario of Prestige > Preferred comes up for just about anyone who signs up primarily for the sake of the signup bonus: you get the Prestige bonus, keep the card for one year, then you want to downgrade at the end of the year so as not to reset your 24 month clock. Same question comes up with other cards, but most common is the ThankYou Prestige/Premier to Preferred/Rewards+ question. Again, according to the official word, if they give you a new card number, your clock gets reset.
Check out these Related Posts for More Information:
- Citi 24-Month Churning Rule Explained in Detail
- Language Change in the Citi 24-Month Rule and Implications (24 months becomes 27 months & more)
- How Does Downgrading/Product Changing A Citi Card Affect Your 24 Month Eligibility? (Hint: We Have No Idea)
- Did Product-Changing your Citi Card Result in a New Card Number?
Has anyone tried downgrading Prestige to custom cash?
Datapoint – 11-21-19 Downgraded from Prestige to Rewards+, Same account number, rep said it wouldn’t reset. Will check to see if 10% rebate works on previously earned prestige points as reported elsewhere
Two questions: 1) Does downgrading my Citi Preferred to Rewards+ make me lose my unredeemed Thank you rewards points?; 2) When I downgrade, can I qualify for current sign-up bonuses for the Rewards+ card? Thanks!
I believe your points remain intact. You won’t get a signup bonus when you downgrade.
Slightly different here. What happens to the points earned from my thank you premier card if I want to close or do product change to the thank you rewards card? I want to avoid $95 fee. But don’t want my points forfeited or be expired after certain months. Thanks
I believe when product changing within the family, points remain intact as before.
Converted prestige to ATT, got new acc number. Opened premier at 22 month mark, completely forgot about having prestige. Got denies bonus. Protested and was denied initially after a 3 weeks investigation. went up the manager rank in retention dept, threat to close all my citi acc and citi investment acc. 60k deposited after 2 weeks.
Was that 22 months after the conversion from Prestige to ATT? Or 22 months after the initial credit card application for the Prestige?
I’m in a similar boat and trying to figure out when to apply for a new card.
On the Premier, definitely call in for a fee waiver. I got an offer of $95 back for $1k month spend in each of the next 3 months.
3k of spend to get $95? Wouldn’t it be easier to just cancel the card to avoid the fee?
Let’s just say Premier is a good MS card.
I’m clearly missing something because mine has been gathering dust since I got the bonus.
Same topic:
I opened a Citi AA in January 2015. I converted the card to a DC in December 2017.
When I apply for another AA card, will Citi look at 2015 or 2017 as the open/closed date?
I’m a bit confused on this one.
Just want to make sure I get the bonus.
Ive heard different things – but if the credit card number has changed when downgraded, it is more than likely that the 2017 date will be looked at.
It’s the same idea as the question in the post. If your card number did not change, you should be good to go.
I was told by a Citi CSR that seemed very knowledgeable that a PC should not reset the clock because the account has not been opened or closed but rather changed. She said the applications department sometimes mistakes a PC as an opening or closing, but we should call in to contest that mistake.
Just my two cents worth.
Right, it certainly should not be considered opening or closing. Interesting that a Citi rep conceded that. Our discussion is whether the system counts it as such.
Funny, I had literally the same conversation with a Citi rep yesterday who said the opposite. I opened a Prestige 06/2016, did a PC to preferred in 06/2017, and was told I wasn’t eligible until 06/2019 since they consider opening the Preferred a new account.
As usual, everything with Citi is YMMV.
Reps cannot check whether you are eligible for a bonus on a card you didn’t yet apply for. They’re just telling you their interpretation of the language, that’s all. I It means nothing more than someone else on the web telling you their interpretation of the language, in either case it’s just an interpretation.
Datapoints of actual applications are what matter.
Unfortunately just because a rep said it doesn’t mean the company will adhere to it.