US airways MC upgrade to World MC.

[crosbyk1]

Today I login to my us airways card and it has a option to activate my new card. It made me questions why would I have to do this with a card that I have been charging on for months. So I call customer service and they said my card was upgraded to world and was sent out yesterday. Why would they do this? Is it a good thing?

[haulingthescoreup]

They do it because they get a bigger cut from the merchant sales for MC World and Visa Signature cards.

It can be problematic for personal credit if they no longer report the CL plus you allow balances on any cards to report. If they don't report the CL but they do report the highest previous balance, your util will be calculated on that highest balance figure. Also, the highest balance will replace the CL in this card's contribution to your total CL, so you could get hit on both individual and revolving util. If it reports neither CL nor highest balance, it will be completely ignored for util, which is fine for this card, but it will reduce your total CL, again possibly affecting your total revolving util if you allow balances to report on other cards.

The "advantages" to the consumer is that you can go over your CL, as long as you pay back the overage by the next statement, and there are some consumer goodies that come along, including purchase protection, sometimes "concierge" services, etc. You'll have to see what they have for this particular card.

Some people have been able to demand a return to their non-World/ -Sig cards; some are stuck with the new versions.

[vanillabean]

I dealt with this problematic side of my new Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card in the just closed statement cycle by pumping it up with goods such as property taxes and annual insurances and then partially paying it down in time to a comfortable hit. This means that forever after I can charge a monthly $600 on the card equivalent to a util of 9%.

We also charged a trip to Hawaii on the card during the same statement cycle. As the first companion ticket kicks in soon after getting the card, we saved several hundred dollars net for something we wanted to do anyway. I can't wait to try that tasty big island spam and rice with egg.

[crosbyk1]

So I should max out my card let it report then pay it off. Then it won't be like loosing my 7.5k CL.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@crosbyk1 wrote:

So I should max out my card let it report then pay it off. Then it won't be like loosing my 7.5k CL.

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You shouldn't even have to let it report. American Express is the only bank I know that reports the highest statement balance for "highest balance."

Every other bank I know of reports your highest-ever balance, the highest figure it hit within a cycle, even if you go ahead and pay it down or off before the next statement.