Sears Card Upgrade Offer

[CribDuchess]

Today in the mail I received a letter from Sears/Citi regarding my Sears card.  The letter states that my Sears card is being upgraded to a Sears Mastercard and that the new card will be mailed to me by 6/3/14.  The letter also states that I can decline the upgrade by calling them by 4/7/14.

They included an FAQ with the letter and it states that I will be getting a new account number.  So I'm guessing this may result in a new account opening on my credit reports?  The FAQ also says that I will retain my "Date Became Member" from my original Sears card account, and that this new card will take the place of my Sears card reporting on the credit bureaus.  So maybe it won't result in a new tradeline?  I'm a bit confused.

The credit limit on this Sears card is ever so small - just $430.  Why would they bother upgrading it?  I just logged into my online account and was going to try to get a credit limit increase, but when I clicked the link to request a credit limit increase, it said that service was no longer available for this account.  Tried to click some other links and they weren't functioning either.  Weird.

It's always nice to get an offer for an upgrade, but this isn't going to make me want to use the card.  Got the card exactly 20 years ago (Feb 1994), along with a SearsCharge Plus account and used it to buy a new refrigerator for our new home.  After we paid off the fridge, we closed the Charge Plus account.  Kept the regular Sears card but have rarely used it over the years.

[Creditaddict]

I'd let the upgrade happen... Might come with new CL!!

[gdale6]

Whoa, a 20 yr old account, I would put some use on it at least once every 90 days you don't want to lose this one. Accept the upgrade as they are going to keep the same opening date as your original Sears card. If they close your original account and leave it on file you are going to end up with 2 accounts with a 20 year age on them, great for (AAoA), the closed acct will stay around for up to 10 years post close. Good luck

[CribDuchess]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

I'd let the upgrade happen... Might come with new CL!!

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Great minds think alike!  I am leaning towards letting the upgrade happen in the hopes of getting a CLI.  I guess I will use the search function and see what others' experiences have been with this.

[CribDuchess]

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@gdale6 wrote:

Whoa, a 20 yr old account, I would put some use on it at least once every 90 days you don't want to lose this one. Accept the upgrade as they are going to keep the same opening date as your original Sears card. If they close your original account and leave it on file you are going to end up with 2 accounts with a 20 year age on them, great for (AAoA), the closed acct will stay around for up to 10 years post close. Good luck

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That is good advice - thank you.     When I logged into my online account, I noticed that the last statement I had was in Sept 2012 where I had made a small purchase with the card at K-Mart.  At least it will be easier to put a random charge on it once it becomes a mastercard since I can then use it pretty much anywhere.

Yeah, if they happen to have both cards reporting with 20-years since open, that will be almost as good as my four Amex cards reporting open since 1989. 

[timber]

Once you complete the upgrade, I would definitely go for CLI. It was a SP for me this past week and I went from $8700 to $15K. It wasn't instant, but received a secure message within a couple hours notifying me of the approval for the increase.

[CribDuchess]

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@timber wrote:

Once you complete the upgrade, I would definitely go for CLI. It was a SP for me this past week and I went from $8700 to $15K. It wasn't instant, but received a secure message within a couple hours notifying me of the approval for the increase.

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That's awesome - congratulations!  I'll be starting from $430, so I'm guessing I'll be lucky to hit the 4-digit mark.  LOL