Amex starwood preferred guest to Amex blue cash

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have a amex SPG for past six years.Earned several thousand SPG points  using it. But recently got a better card(penfed) and stopped using my SPG amex.

I am still paying $65 annual fee for my SPG amex that i think money spent not on a wise way. Can i switch this card to Amex blue cash without losing old account start date? can i retain my points earned using this card? Where do i begin?. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

You can do a product change to the blue cash and keep your same account number and account history. Your points are already in your SPG account so you would not lose them, although i think they expire after a certain period of time if you have no activity but a stay should keep them active. Its a very simple process to do the change just call up customer service.

[Anonymous]

oh 

I called the number back on my SPG, asked for product change to blue cash, transferred to new accounts, gone through regular applying process, got the new card approval with 15k limit(SPG is 21K). 

Is it the normal process for a product change? Looks like to me new card application process.

CR told me I have to call them again to cancel my SPG after i receive the blue cash. Also got a hard pull from amex.

Any inputs?  

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Yes, you applied for a new account.  That is not a product change.

[Anonymous]

But i clearly informed the CR that i want to do a product  change. Even when i called to check the status i informed them this is product change.

What are the advantage/ disadvantage in this situation?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

But i clearly informed the CR that i want to do a product  change. Even when i called to check the status i informed them this is product change.

What are the advantage/ disadvantage in this situation?

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Advantages:  1)  You've added a large amount to your available credit, thus lowering your util if you carried balances on any of your cards

                      2)  Your AAoA may possibly increase since your new card will show to be opened the same year as your other card

Disadvantages: 1) 2 annual fees if you decide to keep both

Edited:  Blue Cash doesn't have an annual fee, right?  So the disadvantage would be you still have to pay AF on the first card if you decide to keep it.  If you don't keep it,    you lower your available credit to $5,000 less than you had to start with, which may or may not be a big deal depending on your situation.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done PC with AMEX successfully?  If so, could you help me understand my mistake?

I read here many people are talking about PC casually, and making an impression it is easy/normal. 

But I am surprised AMEX cr couldn’t/didn’t understand my request.

I am not familiar with PC; I have never done it before.

[Credito-Discredito]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Has anyone done PC with AMEX successfully?  If so, could you help me understand my mistake?

I read here many people are talking about PC casually, and making an impression it is easy/normal. 

But I am surprised AMEX cr couldn’t/didn’t understand my request.

I am not familiar with PC; I have never done it before.

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Amex CSR did not understand your request right or just played dumb and applied you for a new account instead of making a product change. You should start conversation slowly and with words "I DO NOT WANT TO APPLY FOR A NEW ACCOUNT. I WILL REPEAT IT AGAIN. I DO NOT WANT TO APPLY FOR A NEW ACCOUNT. I JUST WANT YOU TO REPLACE MY EXISTING CARD WITH BLUE CASH CARD. COULD YOU PLEASE REPEAT WHAT I JUST SAID? THANK YOU."

And if that CSR could not repeat what you said, you should tell him/her:"Could you please put me on the phone with someone who has a brain".

[hemi961]

You asked what your mistake was and I'm not saying that you made one but I'll share my limited PC experience with you.. Each card is only eligible to be pc'd into certain other cards. I had the Costco Card and wanted to change it to one of the Hilton cards but it could only be changed into a Blue so I chose the Blue Cash. Less than a month later they introduced the Blue Cash Preferred and the Blue Cash Everyday cards, so I asked if I could PC into the Preferred one. She Checked and in less than a minute it was done.

My advice is to ask what your card is eligible to pc into rather than asking for a specific product. It is possible that the SPG cannot be changed to the card you requested and that the only way to get the one you wanted was to app for it.. Just a guess on my part and they should have told you it was a new app.

[aftermath]

Yeah, what happened was you got an inexperienced (stupid) CSR.

What's done is done so no use worrying about it.

It was actually a GOOD mistake.

You just added $15k more available credit, and also since Amex backdates all new cards, you will not be dinged for a new account or loss of AAoA.

Since you said you want to get away from the AF and cancel the SPG card, and the Blue Cash is a no-AF card, allocate your available credit from your SPG to your Blue Cash before you close it out. 

If you just close your SPG without doing this, you just lost $21k in available credit.

If they wont allocate it, just keep them both open and try again later.  I think I read somewhere that the new account that the credit line is being transferred to has to be open for atleast a year before they allow this.