June 4th is a sad day for Citibank

[Chris679]

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@galahad15 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
RIP

Hope Sallie Mae lasts as long as that did

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J/c, how long was 5% version of the Forward available in total, also accounting for those who were grandfathered before the earlier nerf to 2%, and the June 3rd cutoff date for the 5% rewards?  Honestly just curious to know how many years the 5% version actually ran for (for datapoint purposes)...

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I opened mine April 20, 2010 and I think it was pretty new at that time.  It was my every day card until Cap One came out with QS late in 2013.  After that it was just the 5x categories but man has this card been a money maker.  I just looked at my TY order history: $2650 in gift cards since I got this card. 

Citi, I ain't mad at cha

[Chris679]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

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@galahad15 wrote:

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@icyhot wrote:
What the heck??? So it's basically a Thank You Preferred card with the guaranteed APR reduction. That sucks. I wonder if they'll allow PCs

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Very fascinating...sorry, not to go OT, but if Citi ever hypothetically offered the option in the future of a PC to the devalued version of the Forward, I just might be possibly interested, if only for the APR reduction feature alone...

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Unlikely. The Forward isn't coming back for applications (as it seems), it's just being changed for existing users. So doubt PCs would be an option.

Anyway, the guaranteed APR reduction, IIRC, was more of a gimmick than anything substantial. There's a maximum drop of 2% unless that has changed. You can get more than that with Citi by just asking and seeing if you're eligible, so it doesn't seem like a real standout feature.

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Still 2% reduction and like you said it is not anything to write home about.  The lowest rate I can get from Citi is 13.49% on both Forward and DC and I use both of them heavily.  This means my rate on the Forward card is 11.49% and they won't go any lower.  Meanwhile I was able to get lower rates with Sallie Mae and BCE even though I use them way less.  Forward is useless now but we all knew this day would come, it was a great run. 

[jsucool76]

Very sad indeed. With 2x you're still earning 3.2% back if you pair with prestige though. Not terrible. It's not 8% like it was, but it's something.

If I end up getting this letter it will definitely make me reconsider renewing my prestige card.

[noobody]

Why it's sad for citi? They stopped bleeding.
Bad for forward card holder for sure, good thing do not last forever, speaking of first batch of cash+ holder

[lokobo]

Such things were not meant to last

[kdm31091]

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@jsucool76 wrote:
Very sad indeed. With 2x you're still earning 3.2% back if you pair with prestige though. Not terrible. It's not 8% like it was, but it's something.

If I end up getting this letter it will definitely make me reconsider renewing my prestige card.

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3.2% is nice, but it makes the Prestige/Forward combo a much harder sell, IMO. You're getting 3.2% back (on dining/books/etc) if you pay for a Prestige or Premier, then redeem through Citi or transfer the points. The store Amazon card gives 5%, and so does Sallie Mae and US Bank Cash+ with Bookstores selected, so 3.2% "books" doesn't seem special. 8% was special and standout, but 3.2% is kind of ordinary. As you said though, better than nothing, but makes the Prestige harder to justify for a lot of people I imagine.

[Anonymous]

Citi Bank sent me a notice (March 25, 2016) that my Citi Forward Visa Signature Card was having the rewards program changed starting June 4, 2016. The new rewards program would be: 2 Thank You Points per $1 spent on restaurants, music, movies and books with Points earned after June 4, 2016 will not expire. Points earned through June 3, 2016, will expire in 5 years. Contacted Citi Cards and they confirmed the new Citi Forward Visa rewards program was the same program Citi is using for the Citi Thank You Preferred Master Card with a fixed credit limit. Closed the account today as I had cleaned out the Thank You Points and have accounts that earn more for my spending/utilization pattern.

[Anonymous]

Starting Jun 4th 2016
Citi forward will only earn 2 Thank You Points for Restaurant Amazon etc.
Not eligible to convert out...

[FinStar]

The very same topic is already being dicussed here on this recent thread:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/June-4th-is-a-sad-day-for-Citibank/td-p/4512041

[Anonymous]

I came here to post about this exact thing. I just called wanting to convert to the Double Cash and apparently because it's a discontinued card you can't convert from it? What kind of crap is that? Is there any way around it?