I logged in to my Citi online account through the mobile app and went into the Citi Premier account, then I noticed an alert so I clicked into it. It states Citi will convert the account from Visa to MasterCard.
The card was open in 2015 using the online pre-qualification tool and I got a Visa Signature card. As we have already seen Citi has gradually shifted their credit cards from Visa to MasterCard, but they've been keeping already opened accounts as is.
I never received any communication from Citi about this until I logged in to the mobile app today. Despite it says login with computer and see more detailed information, I did login with my computer and can't find this alert. I'm wondering if anyone else has similar situation or experience with Citi.
I still remember when I applied for my first credit card (1993).. A Citibank Visa Classic. I had the option to choose if I wanted the card to be Visa or Mastercard... What ever happened to those days? I know there's the oddity here and there (Citi's Costco Visa now, as also Chase IHG MC, etc.) but is everyone essentially proprietary towards one network or the other with their core cards?
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Citibank inked a deal with MasterCard similar to what Chase did with Visa-meaning going forward Citibank will issue its own proprietary cards and many cobrand cards only as MasterCard. This also includes converting previous Visa cards to MasterCard. It seems Citibank has been going about this now for over a year.
My Diamond Preferred card used to be a Visa until earlier this year when they changed it to a MasterCard. I was pretty upset because that was my first Visa card but at the end of the day its the same thing and the same junk from a garbage bank.
So you are not alone...soon the only Citbank Visa will be Costco (excluding retail cards like Best Buy Visa). If I recall correctly, all I received was an email and online alert as well. When the MasterCard came in the post, the card carrier included a flier about the change from Visa to MasterCard.
I figured Citi has some sort of deal with MasterCard and more or less expect them to convert my account, actually.
When was your Diamond Preferred open(just realized 1998 acc. your signature), and on which month of this year was it converted, if you would like to tell? They only display the alert from mobile app and do not tell me when they will do the conversion on my account. Not even showing any alert on the online account when logged in using web browser.
Personally speaking I am somehow in favor of it if they convert mine to a MasterCard so I can get the new design without embossed numbers which usually fade over time. I still have Chase cards that are Visa. The only problem I see right now is I will no longer be able to use the converted card for Uber's Visa Local Offers.
My Visa expired in April, so all of the conversion began in March. Soon you should be able to see "We've sent out a new card to the address on file within 7-10 business days." When that note appears, you should see your old card # and the new card # on your Online Account management screen (it looks like you have two of the same card). Once you activate the MasterCard, your Online Account management will ask you if you wish to delete the old account number off your profile-I kept mine for old time's sake but they eventually purged it off 
Yeah, the same thing happened with Chase (although Chase was a lot more forward about it and had better communication). My old Chase Manhattan Platinum MasterCard got changed to a Chase Slate Visa (its now listed as the Freedom Unlimited in my signature although I changed it back to Freedom recently). Off topic. Anyway, there were some other threads recently about Capital One switching people's networks around too (but it doesn't seem that Capital One has an exclusive contract with either Visa or MasterCard).
Someone further up mentioned the networks offering incentives for financial institutions to exclusively offer one network is true. At the bank I used to work at, the contract with Visa was expiring and we were being courted by Amex, MasterCard and even Discover. In the end Visa came back and offered a sweetened deal with the bank to keep Visa and in the agreement was a clause that the bank would agree to only offer Visa.
And because I'm a nerd, I want to mention that Citibank was one of the founding banks of MasterCharge An Interbank Card-today's MasterCard. So in a way it seems only natural that they would offer MasterCard.
@Anonymous wrote:
My Visa expired in April, so all of the conversion began in March. Soon you should be able to see "We've sent out a new card to the address on file within 7-10 business days." When that note appears, you should see your old card # and the new card # on your Online Account management screen (it looks like you have two of the same card). Once you activate the MasterCard, your Online Account management will ask you if you wish to delete the old account number off your profile-I kept mine for old time's sake but they eventually purged it off
Thank you! My Premier card will expire in about 3 months so I would imagine the conversion takes place around that time, probably about a month before.
Actually I still have my Citi Forward showing (which has been changed to a ThankYou Preferred MasterCard early this year) and didn't unlink it. Guess I will see when it gets purged, lol.
