In case you didn’t know, Citi Hilton card will be converted to American Express Hilton cards at the end of January in 2018. Some Citi cardholders have been calling to cancel their cards because they don’t want this product change to occur for a number of reasons:
- They haven’t received the sign up bonus on the American Express cards before and want to keep this option open
- They are already at or near the 4/5 American Express credit card limit
Some readers have been offered 5,000 Hilton points to keep the card open (1, 2, 3). Obviously there is no guarantee you’ll get such an offer (in fact it seems to be about a 50/50 chance) but it’s worth keeping in mind. The reason why Citi doesn’t want cardholders to cancel is American Express is purchasing the portfolio for them. This transaction is extremely valuable to Citi, in fact they expect to gain $150 million from the sale (this values the portfolio at over $1.2 billion). If you want to try and increase your chances of getting an offer make sure you call in rather than sending a secured message.
