Update: Product changing to simplicity doesn’t seem possible. Hopefully Diamond Preferred is.
Citi offers two cards that have been previously thought to be basically worthless:
- Citi Simplicity
- Citi Diamond Preferred
Citi has just updated the card design on the Simplicity card. Now don’t worry I’m not suggesting you should get the card because it has a new design, but I do think the new design means they will be putting more emphasis on this card in the future. This falls into line with what we’ve been experiencing recently. Citi has something called Citi Easy Deals and recently they have had some great gift card sales, the problem is only the above two cards get access to these sales. That means it might make sense to downgrade one of your Citi cards to the Simplicity/Diamond Preferred to get access to these deals. Both cards seem the same, but I’d probably go for the simplicity purely due to the new design.
Some things to consider:
- Citi also offers the Citi Dividend card and this lets you earn 5% cash back on $6,000 annually (rotating categories similar to Discover it/Chase Freedom but the upside is you can spend the full $6,000 in a single quarter).
- We still don’t really understand how product changes/downgrades affect your bonus eligibility under the 24 month rule. I personally wouldn’t risk resetting the clock, instead trying for a product change after you’ve recently opened/closed a new account in the same family you’re product changing from would make sense. E.g if you’ve just applied for the Citi Prestige card and have an old Premier card open then it might make sense to product change to this card.
Am I the only one considering something like this? Let me know in the comments below.
