Originally Posted by
Biggie Fries
...I am presuming here that there is not an implied fifth 6 months, since the downgrade to Green will not trigger another bonus that needs at-least-12-month protection.
The 12-months holding period came as the result of accepting an upgrade
bonus. Downgrades are never incentivized, thus don't have any time commitments. In fact, you may well receive new upgrade offers shortly after a downgrade. If you can take advantage of the Gold's 4X feature, you may prefer an upgrade to Gold rather than cancelling the card.