topic Citi card upgrade in Credit Cards

Citi card upgrade

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 20:39:08 GMT

I currently have a Citi ThankYou Preferred card that I would like to product change for a Double cash card. My question is, would this start a new account and thus lower my aaoa or will it still be the same account just a different product not messing with the aaoa?

Re: Citi card upgrade

kerplunk — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:11:57 GMT

If it’s a true product change, then no, it won’t affect that. Just confirm with the customer service rep before you do it.

Re: Citi card upgrade

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 14:02:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I currently have a Citi ThankYou Preferred card that I would like to product change for a Double cash card. My question is, would this start a new account and thus lower my aaoa or will it still be the same account just a different product not messing with the aaoa?

Funny, I just received an email from them offering to change my Thankyou Preferred to Double Cash. They said the APR and credit limit will stay the same but they will change the account number (my card's BIN is 546616; I assume the Double Cash, despite being World Elite, will have the old school 542418 BIN). Not today, Satan. That card is on my list of cards to close.

As far as your question, with Citibank, the PC is between you and Citi; the account will continue to report as opened when the account was actually opened and all other information will transfer over. There will not be a new account/trade line. Your account number will most likely just change.

Re: Citi card upgrade

kerplunk — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 14:47:09 GMT

@Anonymous
Funny, I just received an email from them offering to change my Thankyou Preferred to Double Cash. They said the APR and credit limit will stay the same but they will change the account number (my card's BIN is 546616; I assume the Double Cash, despite being World Elite, will have the old school 542418 BIN). Not today, Satan. That card is on my list of cards to close.

Hi CO_NATIVE,

Can you elaborate more on your issue with the BIN? Why is this a bad thing?

Re: Citi card upgrade

Loquat — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 15:17:10 GMT

I've done a PC with Citi...actually it was the Double Cash to Thank You Premier. Got notifications from the monitoring services I use and the only thing they change is listing my new Thank You Premier as a Flex Spending Card. My Double Cash was a World Mastercard and when they issued my Thank You Premier it was issued as a World Elite. Account info all stayed in tack. Account number didn't change, only the expiration date and the CVV number.

Re: Citi card upgrade

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 20:18:52 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
I've done a PC with Citi...actually it was the Double Cash to Thank You Premier. Got notifications from the monitoring services I use and the only thing they change is listing my new Thank You Premier as a Flex Spending Card. My Double Cash was a World Mastercard and when they issued my Thank You Premier it was issued as a World Elite. Account info all stayed in tack. Account number didn't change, only the expiration date and the CVV number.

Going back a few years ... CIti used to change the Bin Number to reflect the World Master Card or World Elite MasterCard such as to 5466-16XX- and for Visa Signature from 4128- to 4127- or some similar type number change. Times and systems have been modified so how much changing they do today may be none or ? How do I know ... it happened to me on several cards

Re: Citi card upgrade

wasCB14 — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 15:51:28 GMT

In 2016 I got an AA Platinum. In 2017 I PCed it to a Costco card.

My TU and EQ report correctly, but my EX shows both cards: a 2016 account still open and a 2017 account open.

Re: Citi card upgrade

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 17:00:44 GMT

@kerplunk wrote:
@Anonymous
Funny, I just received an email from them offering to change my Thankyou Preferred to Double Cash. They said the APR and credit limit will stay the same but they will change the account number (my card's BIN is 546616; I assume the Double Cash, despite being World Elite, will have the old school 542418 BIN). Not today, Satan. That card is on my list of cards to close.
Hi CO_NATIVE,

Can you elaborate more on your issue with the BIN? Why is this a bad thing?

Its not a bad thing per se. 542418 BIN is one of Citibanks oldest BIN's and was used on standard and Platinum level MasterCards. Historically, Citi uses 546618 for World and Some World Elite cards (5524 is usually reserved for AA Elite and TY Prestige). As Dinosaur stated, back in the day when an upgrade to Gold and later World/World Elite/Visa Signature was done, a BIN change usually took place to signal the higher end card (this was primarily done so that when your new, upgraded card was used, the bank made sure they got a higher swipe fee for the higher level card). Therefore, having a 546616 BIN and then going back to a 542418 BIN feels like a downgrade. To 99% of most people they wouldn't even notice, but it would bother me. To each their own. In recent years, a lot of banks, including Citi and Chase, do what is called BIN mixing...meaning an upgrade no longer necessarily means that the account number has to change at all and they get paid by the merchant the appropriate fee for the level of card used. For whatever reason, Citi likes to use 542418 for Double Cash.

I am not Rainman (and if you do not know what I am referencing then my God do I feel old) but numbers/patterns speak to me. When Colorado used to issue certain letters in a license plate to determine what county the plates were issued in; when Discover issued account numbers geographically or when the Social Security Administration issued your SSN geographically etc I really enjoyed identifying that, testing it and verifying that info. Now days it seems like more and more things are random and it kind of bothers me.