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.
After years of arguing with Citi and even escalating things to the ‘executive office’ level, they FINALLY have 1+ product change options for the Simplicity card through their retention department. I was able to product change to the DoubleCash card…while keeping my account number…and history/age. Or so they said at least on a recorded line. If so, it’s a very positive change. I originally wanted the Dividend card, but they said no, so I went with my 2nd pick, the DoubleCash card.
PC’d ATT Access More to DP pretty much instantly over the phone. Easy Deals not yet active though.
PCed a DC to the DP with no trouble. The change was pretty much instantly reflected on my online account and mobile wallets. Same card number.
I want to PC to Dividend from Citi advantage. How long you have to wait before you can PC?
Diamond Preferred seems to come with more benefits than Simplicity. Curious why you would prefer the Simplicity? Little sister is looking to get one of the two to transfer a balance (0% for 21 months on both)
It seems like the Preferred is Simply better.
BTW, if the 21 months is not a must, the Chase Slate has no balance transfer fee (vs 3%)and is for 15 months.
well first of all, those two cards ARE in fact useless to 99% of people on this blog because there is nothing good related to travel. lets make sure to be clear here.
BUT there are some who do value the other non-travel benefits like 0% APR or maybe the Extended Warranty.
anyone whos serious about PPDG will not be interested in Citi Easy Deals: $100 Giftcards For $90.
but i see that the comments are more focused around PCing to the dividend. that has always been the smarter choice so its a little surprising many dont have one yet. the key is that dividend categories suck. just google it or look for a doc post on it. every quarter he writes on it and u can decide urself.
PPDG has limits though so extra capacity is always good. CED also includes things like Amazon.
true. you can argue any extra capacity if good, but there are capacities for CED too. matter of fact ever since you blogged about it, crap has been changing all the time. I 100% blame it all on you. jk. i bet people abused it. Citi pulled PPDG limits. sigh…
so first time Amazon GC was LIMIT 1. Next time there were no limits. i was shocked. then there were limits like 2 or 5. That was mostly PER BRAND.
now, guess what?
“You have already reached the purchase limit for this item.You may only purchase 5 of this/these item(s) every 30 days.”
I cant buy any more now. thanks doc. haha.
Haha 5 per brand per 30 days is still pretty good
I find it very hard to believe that only 1% of DoC’s readers don’t travel much.
I was considering it, but the Dividend is pretty wonderful. Although, I don’t want to game the system that much with the Dividend…
What do you mean? You are only allowed up to $300 in total CB per year.
DP:
When i saw those Citi gift card deals a few days ago, I called Citi to product change from Double Cash to Simplicity (i have two DC cards) but after waiting 20m on hold she came back and said that i can’t convert it to Sinplicity then i tried different cards (AA Platinum and TY Premier) to convert to Simplicity but she came back and said Simplicity can only be applied straight up and can’t be converted, Anyway eventually i converted a double cash to “Dividend” (in fact all my Citi cards were available to convert to Dividend).
I just realized that i should have asked for the Diamond and not for the Dividend, i mixed up those two in the process 🙄
Great DP. I think the Dividend is much more valuable than the Diamond, even with these gift card deals. Citi usually gives you a month or two to change any product change.
Thanks for the DP, I wonder if you can PC to the Diamond.
I have a Citi Prestige opened in June 2016. Dont want to pay the annual Fees for this year and hoping my clock for TYP does not reset. Am looking to downgrade my Citi Prestige now. I don’t have any other Citi Card. I am inclined towards Citi Double Cash Card for its 2% Cashback. Citi Dividend could have been great, but the 5% categories it had in the last year are not of my interest.
Question is, which card I should downgrade to?
PS: My Spouse got Citi Prestige 75k TYP, hence We still have all its benefits.
Answer will be different for everybody based on your goals.
I plan on changing one of the AA cards to Citi Dividend. I value $6K spend at 5% cashback > chasing the Citi Easy Deals, factoring in the ease of use & regularity for the Dividend rewards.
I have to wait for the AA card to be 1 years old though, wish they let you PC before the year is up.
I have Citi Dividend card and I must say that it has one of the worst 5% rotating categories. Most of the times its not useful. I always go with discover and chase freedom for 5% CB.
The categories usually are worthless but the benefit is that if you strike gold with one of the categories you can max out the $6000 in 1 quarter. If a drug store or grocery store pops up its an easy $300.
I can’t imagine spending $2000 a month on Groceries or Drug Stores. I will still pass the Dividend card. unless they have at least 2 quarters of good categories.
You don’t buy groceries or toothpaste from a drug store, you buy VGCs.
What kind of categories does the Dividend normally have? I really like the fact that you can use all $6K in one category so as long as there is one category/year for me to MS on, it’d be fine for me.
Most people use it at drug stores. It was in the 2nd quarter this year.
Yes, I’ll do the same. I seem to have an AA card hitting the one-year mark every couple months. Thanks Citi! Now if I could only use my big stash of AA miles.
is it confirmed that you cannot product change during the 1st year? i have AA card from earlier in the year when there was the no 24 months language link. but would love to reset the clock sooner rather than later.
Can you have multiple Dividends? so you have let’s say 2 x $6000 spend
thanks
Yes.