Will I be able to downgrade CaptalOne Savor to SavorOne to avoid the annual fee?

[Anonymous]

I want to get the sign up bonus, but it's not worth it if I have to pay that $95 yearly fee after the first year. 

Also, I currently have a Quicksilver card.  Fine print says bonus is not available to current account holders. Does my Quicksilver card make me an account holder?

[FireMedic1]

The new SUB card isnt old enough for anyone to try yet at downgrading. No reports yet. the fine print is for current Savor holders not QS.

[Anonymous]

And that's why banks are getting more stricts about applications and singup bonus, because people try to take advantage of the singup bonus and dip. Cards with a waived annual fee weren't meant to turn points, haha! Anyways, Capital One is getting very strict about applications/ customer relations specially with the new Venture card with the 75k signup offer. If you look across the forum, you will see that a lot of people with good credit scores are getting turned down. All the banks are moving towards that and getting more strict restringing singup bonus like Amex's "once in a lifetime" rule where the rule says... Well, it's self-explanatory.

Sorry but how can't it be worth $95 of annual fee when you're receiving a singup bonus of $500? That should cover the annual fee for 5 years! 

If they will let you product change to a non-annual fee card that it will depend on the situation. I kinda want to say that they will but be prepared to burn your relationship (blacklist) with Capital One for future cards/ singnup bonus, haha! Banks don't like to lose money so when they "give" you $500 and they ask you to pay a $95 annual fee to use the card and get "points" and you dip, that's a no-go for obvious mathematical reasons, haha! Specially because you will redeem the points that you make when trying to hit the minimum spend, right? So techinially they "give" you more than $500 for a $95 fee for the first year. Points and miles is a game because THEY let us play it, if you try to "out-smart" them, they will get back at you, I mean, you are not the first one to try to do that, haha!

I mean, in the end of the day you do whatever you want to do but I would not get a card with the intetion of downgrading before even paying the first annual fee. If you downgrade after paying the annual fee your chances of being "OK" with Capital One are higher, also they may even refund you the AF but that's a maybe.

Sorry, can't answer your second question.

[UpperNwGuy]

Seems like there is a lot of bonus chasing around this forum lately......

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I want to get the sign up bonus, but it's not worth it if I have to pay that $95 yearly fee after the first year. 

Also, I currently have a Quicksilver card.  Fine print says bonus is not available to current account holders. Does my Quicksilver card make me an account holder?

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Just pay the fee. It may be possible to downgrade and not pay, but this is the type of behavior that banks are not liking at all and shutting people down for. Even if they don't shut you down, you could end up not in their good graces. Even paying the fee, you still get a large bonus.

As noted above banks are getting more strict for a reason.

As for the second question, I don't think it matters but I can't say for sure.

[MrDisco99]

The banks are working solely in their own self interest, so you should as well.  They make the rules. As long as you're within them, I don't see a problem.  If there's no rule saying you have to keep the card for more than a year, then don't do it if it doesn't make sense for you.  It's your money.

I've gotten plenty of cards with AFs in the last couple years or so and I only pay the fee on cards that I expect will give me positive value the following year.  The rest were downgraded or cancelled.  Nobody's blacklisted me yet.

With your specific example, I would absolutely downgrade or cancel that card rather than pay a fee.  There are cards that return 4% on restaurants for no fee.  Why should I pay $95 for that one?  I'd enjoy the benefits for the first year, but once the anniversary rolls around, call and ask if the fee can be waived or if there's any kind of retention offer.  If not, then ask to downgrade.  If not, then cancel.  I don't owe them loyalty, and I certainly don't owe them money if I'm not getting positive value in return.


And yeah, as long as banks keep giving away easy bonuses, people are going to chase them.  Why leave actual money sitting on the table?


EDIT TO ADD: All that being said, absolutely don't try to downgrade within the first year.  Keep the card for a year.  There's no reason not to anyway.  You'll get positive value from it, especially if the first year fee was waived and you got a fat bonus.  Enjoy that first year for all it's worth.  But once that anniversary rolls around, that's when the fee is going to hit and you need to reckon and decide if it's worth paying to keep it.  That's when you need to do what works for you, regardless of whether the banks will like you for it.

[SBR249]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I want to get the sign up bonus, but it's not worth it if I have to pay that $95 yearly fee after the first year. 

Also, I currently have a Quicksilver card.  Fine print says bonus is not available to current account holders. Does my Quicksilver card make me an account holder?

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Without looking into the fine print specifically, in general SUB restrictions on current account holders typically apply only to people who currently hold that particular card. I've never heard of an SUB that excludes people who hold any CC from that lender. 

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I want to get the sign up bonus, but it's not worth it if I have to pay that $95 yearly fee after the first year. 

Also, I currently have a Quicksilver card.  Fine print says bonus is not available to current account holders. Does my Quicksilver card make me an account holder?

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To give you a direct answer to your questions, at this time Capital One hasn't been enforcing the "bonus not available to current account holders", but this can change at any time. 

The same goes for a downgrade... it's usually not a problem (I had no problem downgrading my Venture before the AF came due) but like many things credit nothing is guaranteed.  If a downgrade isn't available you can simply cancel if you don't want to keep the account.

While a 'blacklist' is always possible, I've never read of Capital One having an issue with someone closing a card after taking a bonus, even in the first year.  Of course they can always change their policy (just like they've recently tightened up the approval algorithm) but there's no way for us to know if that's going to happen or not.

[Ragelog]

I will let you know when I do this later in the year I will either downgrade it to the SavorOne or close the account. Annual Fees are a waste unless you are getting things recurringly that make them worth it. The Savor doesn't have any recurring bonuses to justify the fee and I don't eat out enough for the 1% difference to add up to anything close to covering the fee.

[Anonymous]

I’m giving this a shot later in the year as well; I’ll post something when I do. If they don’t waive the fee or downgrade I’ll just close. I can’t recall when the SUB started but I didn’t apply until late September so I believe others will have data points before I do.