Citi Might Have Just Tightened Its Product Change Rules — Here’s Why That Matters

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There often comes a time in points and miles when you have to decide what to do with a credit card you no longer need — and one option is to product change or “downgrade” that card. This can make a lot of sense, especially when the card charges an annual fee that you can no longer justify. It's not a bad strategy to swap it for a no-annual-fee version or a card that better matches your spending habits.

Each bank has its own rules about which cards you can product change to and from. Citi has long been known for having the most flexible policy of them all — but is that starting to change? Recent data points suggest it might be.

Overview of Citi’s Product Change Rules

Historically, Citi has had generous product change rules. In short, here are the key points to know:

• Your account must be open for at least 12 months to be eligible for a product change.
• You cannot product change a business card to a personal card, or vice versa.
• You cannot product change between Citi business cards — these rules apply only to personal cards.

Historically, if those conditions were met, you could product change almost any Citi personal card to another. For example, you could switch a Citi^® / AAdvantage^® Platinum Select^® World Elite Mastercard^® you no longer need to a Citi Double Cash^® Card, giving you the ability to earn ThankYou^® Points. Or, if you're a Costco member, you could change a Citi Strata Premier^® Card to the Costco Anywhere Visa^® Card by Citi.

This flexibility has made Citi an integral part of many long-term credit card strategies.

This stands in contrast to banks like Chase, which only allow product changes within certain families — like Ultimate Rewards-earning cards (e.g., Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card to Chase Freedom Unlimited^®). You couldn’t, for instance, switch a Freedom Unlimited to a Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Plus Credit Card.

Credit: Rupixen / Unsplash

Could Citi Be Tightening Its Product Change Rules?

As first flagged by an AwardWallet reader and supported by other recent data points, Citi appears to be tightening its product change policy. Specifically, it looks like Citi is now only allowing American Airlines cards to be changed to other AA cards — or, interestingly, to the Citi Costco Visa.

Reports suggest it's no longer possible to product change AA cards into ThankYou Points-earning cards — and vice versa. If this turns out to be a permanent change, it's a huge blow. The ability to move between card families made it easy to shed an annual fee or start earning ThankYou Points — all without needing to apply for a new card.

That flexibility also meant avoiding using a 5/24 slot on a card with a weak welcome offer, while still obtaining a card that offers considerable value.

Related: Citi Credit Card Offer History: Best-Ever Offers and When You Should Apply

Final Thoughts

We’ll continue monitoring this disappointing development, but there's still a lot that's unknown about Citi's product change rule changes. If you’ve tried to make this product change recently — and Citi pushed back (or didn't push back) — let us know in the comments.