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Citi is incredibly flexible in allowing credit card product changes.
Why Product Change a Citi Credit Card?
- You want a card that has little or no sign-up bonus, though its points earning or benefits make you want one in your wallet.
- You want a card not currently open to new applications, such as Citi Dividend or AT&T Access More.
You can change most any current Citi personal card to a wide range of cards. I have 2 AT&T Access More cards and 7 Dividend cards.
Citi Credit Card Product Change Rules:
- The card must have been open for 12 months prior to conversion.
- You won’t get any sign-up bonuses.
- Conversions are scheduled for an effective date 51 days from when you request the conversion. During that period you can reverse the conversion.
- The actual change may be as quick as same-day, particularly within product family (e.g. AT&T cards).
- Once you see the new card in your account or receive the new card, the new card’s terms are effective for any future purchases, regardless of the official 51-day date.
- You’ll get charged/refunded prorated annual fees based on the 51-day date.
- Officially, the conversion will not reset the ’24-month rule’ clock for getting a new sign-up bonus on a card in the same product family IF the card number stays the same. Listen to the disclosures in your conversion call to find out if your number will change or not.
- Converting from a ThankYou point-earning card to non-ThankYou point-earning card will trigger a 60-day clock to use those points, and they’ll be the first out of your account next time you redeem ThankYou points.
- To convert to the Costco card, you must have a current Costco membership and make sure the agent attaches your Costco membership number to the conversion. My first attempt failed because my number was not attached and Citi had to restart the 51-day clock.
- You cannot product change a business card (see comments section below for report by reader Adam).
How to Product Change Your Citi Credit Card:
Call the number on the back of your card and ask to product change.
Some tips:
- If you have a Citi Prestige card, call that number regardless of what card you plan to product change. The agents in Kentucky and South Dakota are superb.
- If you are told no, HUCA (‘hang up, call again’).
- If you are told no again, say you want to cancel the account so you’ll be transferred to the retention department which is more familiar with product change.
On January 31, 2018 I called the Citi Prestige line and product changed an AT&T Access to AT&T Access More and AA Platinum to Dividend.
Citi Credit Card Product Change Options:
(as of February 2018)
- Citi® Double Cash Card
- Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card
- Citi® CashReturns® (an old 1% cash back card)
- Citi® Dividend
- Citi® Dividend World Elite (same cashback program as regular Dividend)
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World EliteTM Mastercard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Bronze Mastercard
- Citi Prestige® Card
- Citi ThankYou® Premier Card
- Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card
- EXPEDIA®+ VOYAGER CARD From Citi
- EXPEDIA®+ CARD From Citi
- AT&T Access More Card From Citi
- AT&T Access Card From Citi
- AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards (5x on AT&T purchases)
- Costco Anywhere Visa® Card By Citi
What’s missing?
- Citi Simplicity® Card (I guess you can get out of one, just not into one. Update: I’ve received two reports that you can’t get out of one.)
- Sears MasterCard®
Have at it!
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Any chance you could update this? A bit out of date but a great reference.
@Sideshowbob233 – I will see about it.
Hi Stefan, I’m planning to product change a Premier to a Dividend. Is that still possible? Also, I have another Premier card. Do I still have to use the points I have accumulated within 60 days on the one I am product changing? They won’t stay in my Premier Thank You account? I understand that if I move points from my AT&T Access More card to Premier, that the clock starts ticking. Thank you.
@P T – Dividend should still be possible. You often need to say you are canceling to get to a retention specialist who knows how to do it. When you close or convert you need to use that card’s ThankYou points within 60 days, unless converting to another ThankYou points card (like Premier to AT&T the points would be fine). A day or two after that action, that card’s points become the first ones used for any redemptions, even in pooled accounts. There isn’t points transfers between cards, only pooling.
Thanks Stefan. So do you think that the DoubleCash will be considered a TY card if there is the ability to convert rewards to TY points?
@P T – I don’t think so. Rewards+ is.
Thanks. Product changed to that from AA card.
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Citi does not allow product changes for business cards. I spoke with 5 CSRs today (3/9/19) and was told that I could not product change my CitiBusiness AA Platinum card to any other card (like the CitiBusiness ThankYou Card). Personal cards allow for product changes, business cards do not.
@Adam – thank for you that important info.
Anyone had any luck getting out of the simplicity card? I have been trying to convert it to something useful for about 3 years now (I’ve had the card over 4 years) and I get a resounding NO every time. This articles suggests you may be able to get out of one, but I sure can’t figure out how! They always say the card is too “special” to change out of…What I can’t figure out is why it is so special, the only special thing about the card is you don’t get any rewards or benefits from it.
@TC111 – I did hear a similar report from a person at a conference recently, so I’ll update the article that it may not be possible to get out of Simplicity.
With one attempt so far, I wasn’t able to get out of Simplicity either. They say they don’t do product changes on that card. They did offer 5% back on all purchases (max $100 back) for 3 months, so I made use of that. Maybe they will offer such a promotion from time to time if I keep asking for a product change.
Hmm, might be a way to get the higher annual benefit for Price or Return Protection on a Prestige Card. Change to Prestige, get the $500 per item and then change back. I might do this right now for something I want to buy for $500 but want return protection.
I just called citi, asking to convert a citi dividend card to the aadvantage platinum select card. I was told it was ineligible to convert to that card but was eligible to convert to some others, even the aadvantage executive world elite. (which I did not as I do not want the $450 fee). heard of this? saying I should consider calling back?
@ScubaSteve – yes, always worth a few attempts. It is always possible things change, though I’ve not heard of conversion to that card being blocked. If several calls do not help, you can try converting to the AA Bronze, and from there upgrading to the Platinum Select.
Can I product change a card to Citi Prestige, use the 4th night benefit, then revert back to the previous card based on the “effective date 51 days” rule and get a prorated return on the $450 annual fee?
@Koob – I think it would work if the timing all gets right, the product change can be effectively as fast as immediately if you change from a ThankYou Point family card, if that happens, you book and stay and get the credit by the next statement and drop back down, or backup, after the fee hits you still have time to try to downgrade back down.
Any chance of a credit limit increase with a product change?
@Koob – would be a hard inquiry. I’ve not heard of Citi proactively rasing credit limits on any cards, certainly has not happened to me.
I converted one of my Citi card to another a year ago and I did get a credit limit increase soon after that without requesting it. I guess they will do a quick review on your account once you request a product change.
@Rick – first I have heard of this. Thank you for sharing. I guess in my case I have so many cards with them, each time I apply for a new one they ask me to reallocate credit as I am at their limit for me, so it wouldn’t trigger such a process for me on conversions. I recently lowered a bunch of my Citi credit limits to help with approvals.
Thanks for replying. This article is really helpful. Just curious, do you know the reason why it’s not allowed to convert current cards to Sears card?
@Rick – it seems to be managed separately from other Citi cards. Citi is unusual in allowing such flexibility to move among their different co-brand products. This is more the normal we see with other issuers. Maybe something contractual, may due to systems. The other don’t have their own card management website, either.
What shows as the opening date on credit reports for the new card? Does it keep the original date as the card you’re converting from? (Thinking in 5/24 terms for my next Chase application.)
Not a new account for 5/24. Keeps the original date.
Thank you for the quick reply! That’s the answer I was hoping for!
I called to cancel a Citi card a week ago and the automated menu did it. No human, no offers. “Press 5 (or whatever number it was) to cancel”, then when I did it, “Your card has been cancelled.” I was surprised – first time that’s ever happened for me. I can see that would be great for someone whose mind has been made up and just wants to get the job done; not as much so for someone who was actually interested in hearing a retention offer. (I was in both groups – expecting to cancel, but open to… Read more »
I almost lost one on Amex with the same thing.