You Can Now Downgrade
To say that Citi have had issues with taking over the Costco card portfolio from American Express would be under statement. Things are on the improve though and as a sign of this Citi are now letting some cardholders complete a product change to the new personal & business Costco cards, up until this date it wasn’t possible to complete this product change (thanks to puys on /r/churning). We have no idea how Citi is deciding who can and can’t product change to these cards, it seems that currently the only way you can find out is by calling and requesting a product change. Here are the basics of each card:
Personal
- No annual fee (you do need Costco membership though)
- 4% on the first $7,000 of gas, 1% thereafter (includes Costco gas stations but excludes superstores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and warehouse club)
- 3% on travel and at US restaurants
- 2% on Costco purchases
- 1% cash back on all other purchases
Business
- No annual fee (you do need Costco membership though)
- 4% on the first $7,000 of gas, 1% thereafter (includes Costco gas stations but excludes superstores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and warehouse club)
- 3% on travel and at US restaurants
- 2% on Costco purchases
- 1% on all other purchases
Should You Product Change?
I’m still not entirely clear on how a product change affects the new Citi sign up bonus rules. That rule basically states you’re not eligible for a sign up bonus if you’ve opened or closed a card within that family/brand within the last 24 months. My limited understanding is that doing a product change won’t be considered the closing of that card (you keep your credit history after all), but I’m not certain about that.
For example if you’d held the Citi Prestige for 23 months and haven’t opened or closed the ThankYou Preferred, ThankYou Premier within the last 24 months you’d be eligible for a new bonus on any of those cards in one months time. But if doing a product change of the Citi Prestige is considered closing the card then you’d need to wait another full 24 months.
The other thing to consider is the the other options you could downgrade to. In our list of the best downgrade options, I recommend two Citi cards:
- Citi Dividend: No annual fee and earns 5% cash back in rotating categories. Rather than having a quarterly limit on how much cash back you receive, it’s annual. The annual limit is $6,000 in spend or $300 in cash back. This makes it a more attractive option than the Freedom/it cards as if you get a quarterly category you like you can take full advantage of it.
- Citi doublecash card: No annual fee and earns 1% cash back when you make a purchase and another 1% cash back when you pay your statement. Card doesn’t usually come with a sign up bonus making it a perfect downgrade target.
