topic Re: What to do w old AA Citi Amex card? in Credit Cards

What to do w old AA Citi Amex card?

marmaladepie — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 06:02:04 GMT

Just got hit for $50 AF again on an old American Airlines Citi Amex card. It’ll be the 4th year paying the AF without really using the card.
Don’t use this card anymore but it’s one of the longer standing accounts. Reps have told me in the past no cards avail to upgrade or downgrade bc product not longer exists and nor does citi/amex relationship. Kinda just stuck. Since it’s an amex, card number begins w 3 and any changes to other Citi cards would change to 4 for visa or 5 for mastercard thus changing the account number and history.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation and what did you do?

Re: What to do w old AA Citi Amex card?

wasCB14 — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 07:11:39 GMT

Citi may not allow you to PC that particular card, but changing the card network or card number does not necessarily mean losing all your history. I PCed an AA MC to a Costco Visa in early 2017, and it reports with the original AA open date. Citi simply removed the AA account entirely and put the Costco card in its place with equivalent history. When I PCed Prestige to Double Cash, the card number changed even though both were MCs, but Citi just reports it as one card.

I hear Synchrony will sometimes report any changes as a wholly new account.

For a few months in late 2017, Citi did report my AA and Costco cards as two separate open accounts, but they fixed it on their own. It didn't really affect me, as I'd be free of 5/24 by the time of my next intended Chase app.

It might be worth communicating with them by chat or calling again. With Citi, it's a coin flip as to whether you get a helpful and knowledgeable rep or someone totally incompetent.

Maybe you really can't PC it due to the expired Citi/Amex relationship. Maybe the Citi/Amex contract stipulated no PCs. But I doubt it's for the reason they gave of the card number changing.

Re: What to do w old AA Citi Amex card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 14:52:19 GMT

@marmaladepie wrote:
Just got hit for $50 AF again on an old American Airlines Citi Amex card. It’ll be the 4th year paying the AF without really using the card.
Don’t use this card anymore but it’s one of the longer standing accounts. Reps have told me in the past no cards avail to upgrade or downgrade bc product not longer exists and nor does citi/amex relationship. Kinda just stuck. Since it’s an amex, card number begins w 3 and any changes to other Citi cards would change to 4 for visa or 5 for mastercard thus changing the account number and history.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation and what did you do?

I had the product where you had a Citi Amex AA AND a Citi Visa AA on the same account (i.e. you had two cards with obviously different numbers, but feeding off the same credit line). Can't remember whether it was $50 or $95, and when I didn't use it, I just closed it.

IMO, $50 a year while not huge is still real money and more than exceeds the value to the credit score. So if you can't PC, see if you can transfer CL and close.