Whenever there’s a post about Citi credit card bonuses, people inevitably ask in the comments:
If I downgrade my Citi Prestige or Premier card to a Preferred card, does that reset my 24 month bonus clock?
Short answer: More likely is that you’ll be fine and it won’t reset your clock, but that’s not at all guaranteed.
The official word is that it depends on whether you get a new account number or not. Trouble is, you won’t necessarily know if you will or won’t get a new number at time of product change. (You can ask the rep, but I wouldn’t rely on that as foolproof.) Truth be told, even if you do get a new account number, we’ve heard of at least one report indicating that you’ll get the bonus anyway. This is especially true with product changes within the same family.
We’ve addressed this issue many times before, but since this specific scenario of Prestige/Premier to Preferred/Rewards+ comes up most often, I decided to write up a more concise post since some people get bogged down when reading details and are left confused, this hopefully makes it easier.
The scenario of Prestige > Preferred comes up for just about anyone who signs up primarily for the sake of the signup bonus: you get the Prestige bonus, keep the card for one year, then you want to downgrade at the end of the year so as not to reset your 24 month clock. Same question comes up with other cards, but most common is the ThankYou Prestige/Premier to Preferred/Rewards+ question. Again, according to the official word, if they give you a new card number, your clock gets reset.
Check out these Related Posts for More Information:
- Citi 24-Month Churning Rule Explained in Detail
- Language Change in the Citi 24-Month Rule and Implications (24 months becomes 27 months & more)
- How Does Downgrading/Product Changing A Citi Card Affect Your 24 Month Eligibility? (Hint: We Have No Idea)
- Did Product-Changing your Citi Card Result in a New Card Number?
