As you probably already know Marriott/SPG have signed a new deal with both Chase & American Express and both card issuers will continue to issue cards when SPG/Marriott’s loyalty programs finally merge in 2019. A lot of readers have been e-mailing me asking me what the best strategy is in terms of signing up for cards/cancelling cards. When the announcement was made they stated the following:
- Marriott expects to introduce new, co-brand products starting in 2018 with enhanced member benefits – super-premium consumer and small business co-branded products from American Express and mass consumer and premium consumer co-branded products from JPMorgan Chase. Additional details on the future products will be shared in 2018. In the meantime, both companies will retain their existing portfolio of accounts and continue to offer their current products.
As you can see the important points are that American Express will issue a super-premium consumer card and a small business card. Chase will issue a mass consumer and premium consumer co-branded card. I asked a source at Chase and they said an internal announcement was made that:
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We will continue to offer all of the products currently issued including:
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Marriott rewards premier card
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Marriott rewards premier business card
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The ritz carlton rewards card
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This contradicts a reddit comment stating the Ritz-Carlton card would be discontinued and converted to a CSR. View From The Wing states that Marriott told him that “both companies will continue to offer their current products and even after the new products are introduced, members may continue to use them.”
What I Think Will Happen/What You Should Do
American Express:
- They will continue to issue new Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card cards. This means there is no rush to sign up for this card, especially given American Express’ once per lifetime rule.
- They will stop accepting new applications for the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express (personal card). Existing cardholders will be able to continue their card. If you’ve never had this card before, it might make sense to sign up for it. That being said the current bonus is only 25,000 points and it has offered up to 35,000 points before.
- They will offer a new super-premium Marriott/SPG card. I expect this to be similar to the new Hilton Aspire card. Yay, another card we can get the bonus on.
Chase:
- They will continue to issue both the Ritz-Carlton Card & Marriott Rewards Premier card (plus the no annual fee version). I’m not 100% sold on the Ritz-Carlton sticking around, especially after they stopped matching to three nights. I’m somewhat worried they consider the Premier card to be a premium card and when they refer to the mass consumer card they are talking about the no annual fee version or some new lower annual fee product.
- They will stop issuing the Marriott Premier Business & no annual fee card. This card is not subject to the Chase 5/24 rule, fingers crossed we see a nice bonus on this card before it disappears.
I hope this helps answer some questions readers have. These are my thoughts, you should always make your own informed decisions on what you think will happen and plan accordingly. Let me know your own thoughts in the comments.
Amex just sent me a bonus offer on my SPG card: $100 statement credit after $3000 in purchases by June end.
Not sure if it’s worth it since with $3000 spend in 3 months I can get about $500 by applying for a new card.
What do you mean “Marriott Premier Business & no annual fee card” is this two cards? Is there a no annual fee marriott credit card I am missing?
Any guesses on if the existing amex spg personal will continue to give nights towards status after the new program is announced or will the card likely lose its benefits?
I generally try and pair new cards with upcoming spend at that brand.
I will be attending a conference at a Marriott hotel in July. Will probably be 5 nights so that is a decent chunk of the min spend requirement at the higher earning rate.
From what I read above it seems like my best bet is to get the SPG Personal card in May/June (if it is still available), since that is the one going away. The bonuses seem comparable and the SPG fee is waived the first year.
Thoughts on this plan?
I currently have Amex SPG personal, and I’m debating whether to apply for the current Chase Marriott Premier. My concern is that the current Premier card will be converted to the new Chase Marriott premium card (no sign-up for me). On the other hand, I’m also concerned that Amex SPG may be converted to the new Chase Marriott premium card (also, no sign-up). In that case, it would be better for me to get the current Marriott card, because I won’t be able to get the sign-up bonus anyway. What do you guys think?
The Chase statements in the article are not necessarily contradictory, in that none of them give a time frame. “We will continue to offer” for how long? 2018 or beyond??? Ritz will be convert to a CSR when? 2018, 2019, or 2020? Ie, one statement might have been about 2018 only, and another statement may have been about 2019 and beyond. So without having asked your Chase contact what they will do BOTH in 2018 AND in 2019, answers without time frames from Chase are not that useful. (Of course, it’s not clear whether their plans are even finalized yet.)
The (separate) Ritz program is going away. The (separate) SPG program is going away. So any cards with those program names have to either go away or get renamed after the 3 programs merge into 1 program with a single name.
The “position” in the card lineup that the Ritz card currently occupies, that sounds kinda like the “super premium” card for the new program that Amex, not Chase, will issue.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure that SPG business -> Marriott business is the same thing as Hilton Surpass -> Hilton Ascend. In the Hilton case, the program isn’t changing at all, the card is just getting refreshed. (And anyhow, Ascend still hasn’t come out for new applications yet, and so we still have no datapoints yet whether it’s considered a “new” card for signup purposes or not.) So it depends how exactly they handle the Marriott business card as to whether it will count as “new” or not for people who had the SPG biz card before.
For one thing, the new Marriott program will likely have very different card earnings (per dollar) than the SPG card has had. So it may need to be considered a totally new card because it’ll earn so differently, have such different benefits (lounge status at Sheraton only makes no sense after the merger), etc.
It’s further complicated because Amex has in the past changed card products for the same program in a way that the old product did not count against the new product for signup bonus purposes. But the last time was several years ago, and just because Amex did it that way once before doesn’t prove they’ll do it that way in the future..
“They will stop issuing the Marriott Premier Business & no annual fee card. This card is not subject to the Chase 5/24 rule, fingers crossed we see a nice bonus on this card before it disappears.”
Like many who are way over 5/24, I had the Marriott Business on my list to get. But, with the recent run of Chase shutdowns, particularly those triggered by a new application, I think that even if this card is seeing it’s last days, it might not be worth the application.
Agree with Jim. Just recently dropped below 5/24 but already have the most desirable Chase cards (IMHO) so I’m going to chill with Chase for that very reason. Most of our spend goes on our Freedom, Reserve, Unlimited, and SPG Biz cards. We are careful to use our Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG cards a bit here and there to be safe and might risk the Chase relationship if another “Reserve” like offer happens in the future. Thanks for the best blog ever, DOC and associates!
You’re not alone. I’m very happy with my personal Chase credit card situation and don’t want to screw that up. Also, they’ve extended 90% of my stated income to me in CLs and I don’t want to drop that as it’s helping stabilize the credit card utilization part of my credit score…
Same here, I am happy with the Chase cards I have, don’t want to risk a shutdown to apply for another.
Do you think Chase will have a higher signup bonus for the Marriott business card before stopping issuing new accounts?
I think it’s likely, but that is gut feeling more than anything.
Why would they increase the bonus on a card they wil discontinue? How does that strategy help them? And do you think will the card auto convert to the AMEX version?
Sometimes card issuers will do this when they are selling the backbook to another card issuer, it’s actually quite common. They also sometimes use it as a means to push cardholders onto another card. No idea if it will auto convert or not, my guess would be that American Express will buy the backbook.
Any sense of when the SPG personal disappear?
No idea sorry
Got confused about one point. Are there any no annual-fee card for the Marriott personal & business cards?
Yes there is, not sure if you can apply for them directly anymore.