topic Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier in Credit Cards

No one really addressed the details on Citi's 24 month rule?

csryang — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 17:09:45 GMT

No bloggers have addressed it to this detail so I thought I should ask for more data points.

To clarify my question and situation a bit. Let me give an example here

June 6/5/2015 – old citi premier opened.
July 7/2/2017 – new citi premier approved and opened.

July 7/3/2017 - hypothetical closing date for old premier (1st situation)

September 9/1/2017 - hypothetical tentative bonus posting date from new premier.

September 9/2/2017 - second hypothetical closing date for old premier (2nd situation)

My thought was-
6/5/2015 (old premier open date) is more than 24 months away from 7/2/2017 (new premier open date) – I should get bonus if they count 24 months from when I signed up for new premier to get its bonus. Therefore, closing old premier on 7/3/2017 WILL NOT invalidate bonus posting from new premier on 9/1/2017.

However, if they count 24 months from when I am supposed to receive bonus from my new premier card 9/1/2017 (like if they look at my eligibility right when the bonus posts), then my 1st hypothetical closing date of old premier on 7/3/2017 WILL INVALIDATE receiving the bonus on 9/1/2017 (less than 24 months apart). If this is the case, I should not have closed my old premier on 7/3/2017, a day after being approved for new premier. I should have waited for new premier’s bonus to post on 9/1/2017 before closing old premier– so maybe on 9/2/2017.

In short-

When does Citi's system determine the bonus eligibility and start to count back 24 months? Does that happen on initial card application date, 7/2/2017 new premier open date like above situation? or On the day when they are about to award bonus, 9/1/2017 the above hypothetical tentative bonus posting date from new premier?

Citi’s language is just vague and could go either way I guess...?!
“Bonus ThankYou points are not available if you have had ThankYou Preferred, ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige cards opened or closed in the past 24 months”

What do you guys think and do you see or have any similar data points?

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

MrDisco99 — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 12:27:49 GMT

I'm pretty sure the bonus is set when you open the account. I doubt they would nullify the bonus after that. However, I have no empirical evidence to support this.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

csryang — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 20:49:18 GMT

@MrDisco99 wrote:
I'm pretty sure the bonus is set when you open the account. I doubt they would nullify the bonus after that. However, I have no empirical evidence to support this.

I really hope so. None of the blogs addressed this... Maybe I am just extra picky/careful about this thing.

So far my research on the web showed me that Citi's 24 month may only count the months not the dates. So if the last card was opened in June 2015. Next app date should be in July 2017 just in case. All bloggers seem to suggest that closing old card soon after getting new card is fine.

I would really love to see some data points here though.... Please come on... anyone?

If I dont hear from anyone, I will probably play safe and finish spend in 1 month, getting bonus, and then deal with my old card. It will probably delay my 24 month clock by 1-2 months but oh well...

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

noobody — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 07:34:20 GMT

also, the points you earned from your old premier would NOT last forever once you close the account.

Please put that into consideration.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

csryang — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 16:42:26 GMT

@noobody wrote:
also, the points you earned from your old premier would NOT last forever once you close the account.

Please put that into consideration.

Thank you for the reminder! I already know that my points earned from old premier WILL EXPIRE in about 60 days from closing old premier.

I actually do not plan to close but plan to product change. I know it will still disappear though but I really want a double cash or costco card so that's the only thing I can do.

I edited my 1st post to make it clearer about my situation.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

MrDisco99 — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 22:14:30 GMT

So wait... if you have two Premier cards and you cancel one, you lose the points on that card? It's not a single points pool and you can't transfer them to the other account?

Also, as for PCing the Premier, I'm pretty sure the DC is an option but the Costco is not due to being a co-branded card.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 22:15:40 GMT

Not same exact situation but I had a Thank you Preferred that was open for 24 months 04/2015, I converted that card to a Double Cash (so technically closed) and then about a month later 5/2017 I got the Thank you Premier, the bonus posted my last statement so I think they just mean that you can't have opened a card in the family in the past 24 months.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

csryang — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 01:34:32 GMT

@MrDisco99 wrote:
So wait... if you have two Premier cards and you cancel one, you lose the points on that card? It's not a single points pool and you can't transfer them to the other account?

Also, as for PCing the Premier, I'm pretty sure the DC is an option but the Costco is not due to being a co-branded card.

I guess you learn something new from this thread even though those topics are not related LOL!! It's fun that way until you get to my stage where not that many people know the answer to my question anymore and I have to research it myself.

Yes, if you cancle any thank you point earning cards or downgrade one into a cash back card, your TY points that used to earned from that particular card will disappear in 60 days. Even when you transfer the points to another TY earning account, you will still lose those points. However, there are data points showing that those points will expire in 90 days instead of 60 days. To be safe, just use up those points!! I just dont understand why Citi doesnt do like Chase's UR and Amex MR systems where you could keep the points as long as you have one point earning card.

Regarding PC in Citi cards-

This is where Citi shines!! You can PC any card to any card without any hard pull!! The only condition is that you have to have the card for at least 1 year before any product changing. I just confirmed this with their agent, except conversion to Hilton since they are ending relationship.

My personal data points as well: I have PC'd Citi AA (co-brand) to Citi Dividend (main brand) and just PC'd Citi ATT Access (co-brand) to Citi Costco (co-brand). They also gave me an option of Citi ATT Access (co-brand) to Citi DC (main brand). A thread or two below mine, someone just posted about PCing Citi Premier (main brand) to PC DC (main brand). This is one of the reasons why people want to have many Citi cards which many bloggers do not advertise much. They are always good with retention offer too.

@Anonymous wrote:
Not same exact situation but I had a Thank you Preferred that was open for 24 months 04/2015, I converted that card to a Double Cash (so technically closed) and then about a month later 5/2017 I got the Thank you Premier, the bonus posted my last statement so I think they just mean that you can't have opened a card in the family in the past 24 months.

Wow what a valuable data point. Maybe the TY Premier application you got in 5/2017 did not contain the 24 month language and therefore you were able to bypass it? Was it a targeted offer? I wish people share more about their Citi 24 month related application/bonus experience.

I think they still meant "opened and closed" in the past 24 months. Many bloggers have assumed that "product changing" is treated as "closing" the original account.

In your case, I think it probably supports the theory that "product changing" is not treated as "closing." And that's why you got the bonus from another Premier.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

csryang — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 20:48:57 GMT

any more data points?

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 22:45:01 GMT

@csryang wrote:
any more data points?

@csryang

I know this is a week old but wanted to provide this info. Applied and approved for Citi AA Executive on 7/15/15. Applied for Citi AA Platinum (already have one) for the 60K miles/$3K spend on 7/12/17 as there were reports that the offer was going away any day. Approved on 7/14/17 over the phone. My existing AA card's limit was $19,500 and they moved $14,500 to the new card and gave me a limit of $24,500 and left $5K on old card. Was very happy with that because I was very concerned that I was at or close to the maximum credit that they would extend me. So the extra $10K was better than I hopes as that moves my overall limits with them to over $90K. More to your point though, the CSR could not tell me whether I was going to receive the bonus and that I would have to wait until I received the welcome letter with the PIN in order to find out. Got that mailer today and was elated to see that the bonus offer was included and that I wasn't going to have to fight with the EO over their 24 month language.

Hope this helps

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

csryang — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:05:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@csryang wrote:
any more data points?
@csryang

I know this is a week old but wanted to provide this info. Applied and approved for Citi AA Executive on 7/15/15. Applied for Citi AA Platinum (already have one) for the 60K miles/$3K spend on 7/12/17 as there were reports that the offer was going away any day. Approved on 7/14/17 over the phone. My existing AA card's limit was $19,500 and they moved $14,500 to the new card and gave me a limit of $24,500 and left $5K on old card. Was very happy with that because I was very concerned that I was at or close to the maximum credit that they would extend me. So the extra $10K was better than I hopes as that moves my overall limits with them to over $90K. More to your point though, the CSR could not tell me whether I was going to receive the bonus and that I would have to wait until I received the welcome letter with the PIN in order to find out. Got that mailer today and was elated to see that the bonus offer was included and that I wasn't going to have to fight with the EO over their 24 month language.

Hope this helps

Hi Irish, thanks for bringing my thread alive! I was gonna play it safe in my own situation and just gave up gathering more data points.

One clarification I need from you - Did your new application on 7/12/2017 include Citi's famous 24 month restriction?

In your situation, I am not sure if the welcome letter stating the bonus really helps prove anything. They could always use the fine print or the wording on your new application to deny your points later. It's my cautious nature so take it as a grain of salt. According to most bloggers, you might not get the bonus if your new AA application on 7/12/2017 has 24 month language since you got AA Executive on 7/15/2015. This is especially true if Citi's computer system counts back 24 months from your most recent approval/application to the previous one.

However, if Citi's computer system counts back 24 months from a future date when you are going to be awarded the bonus, then you might still be able to the bonus since you obviously wont meet the spend and being awarded the bonus until at least 1-2 months from now, which by then, you will be out of the 24 month restriction.

Regardless, I am very interested to see your data point in the future! Please let us know if you get awarded the sign up bonus AA miles!!

I really hope Citi has a clear-cut way to tell us if we will get the bonus. I think they are just inviting more confusion and complaints.

Re: Citi's 24 month rule? just got another Premier

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:31:41 GMT

@csryang wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@csryang wrote:
any more data points?
@csryang

I know this is a week old but wanted to provide this info. Applied and approved for Citi AA Executive on 7/15/15. Applied for Citi AA Platinum (already have one) for the 60K miles/$3K spend on 7/12/17 as there were reports that the offer was going away any day. Approved on 7/14/17 over the phone. My existing AA card's limit was $19,500 and they moved $14,500 to the new card and gave me a limit of $24,500 and left $5K on old card. Was very happy with that because I was very concerned that I was at or close to the maximum credit that they would extend me. So the extra $10K was better than I hopes as that moves my overall limits with them to over $90K. More to your point though, the CSR could not tell me whether I was going to receive the bonus and that I would have to wait until I received the welcome letter with the PIN in order to find out. Got that mailer today and was elated to see that the bonus offer was included and that I wasn't going to have to fight with the EO over their 24 month language.

Hope this helps
Hi Irish, thanks for bringing my thread alive! I was gonna play it safe in my own situation and just gave up gathering more data points.

One clarification I need from you - Did your new application on 7/12/2017 include Citi's famous 24 month restriction? - Yes it had the 24 month restriction

In your situation, I am not sure if the welcome letter stating the bonus really helps prove anything. They could always use the fine print or the wording on your new application to deny your points later. It's my cautious nature so take it as a grain of salt. According to most bloggers, you might not get the bonus if your new AA application on 7/12/2017 has 24 month language since you got AA Executive on 7/15/2015. This is especially true if Citi's computer system counts back 24 months from your most recent approval/application to the previous one. - Nah, the language in the welcome letter is the key. I asked about my situation on FT and it was made very clear (by people that churn the cards all the time) that unlike the past where the bonus checker appeared on your Citi account which showed that you were getting the bonus, the welcome letter spelling out the offer is Citi's way of telling you that you will receive the bonus. I'm not worried at all.

However, if Citi's computer system counts back 24 months from a future date when you are going to be awarded the bonus, then you might still be able to the bonus since you obviously wont meet the spend and being awarded the bonus until at least 1-2 months from now, which by then, you will be out of the 24 month restriction. - I'll have the spend done in a week or so

Regardless, I am very interested to see your data point in the future! Please let us know if you get awarded the sign up bonus AA miles!! - I will

I really hope Citi has a clear-cut way to tell us if we will get the bonus. - They do which is the welcome letter. I think they are just inviting more confusion and complaints.