dangw20

It appears that it is most likely that when your Forward card converts to Preferred on January 3 it will be considered a new account for sign up bonus purposes and you will need to wait 24 months before opening a Preferred/Premier/Prestige card for the bonus. If you cancel before January 3 you may avoid starting the 24 month clock but even that is not for certain.

defjukie

Since the Forward is a Visa, and they will be issuing a Mastercard, there will definitely be a new number associated with the account. From what I've read around the various sites/blogs, a new number is highly likely to be considered a new account. Which would reset the 24 month clock for bonuses on TY branded cards...

I might call them before the switch is made and try to PC to the Double Cash to try and avoid this.

mia

Closing a Forward card cannot disqualify a Premier or Prestige bonus unless the offer terms are re-written. How many reports are there of a customer service agent offering this explanation?

sdsearch

Replace "cannot" with "should not" and then I'll agree with you.

dangw20's post that your replied to contained a link to a report of someone being denied for what you said "cannot" be grounds for denial.

Plus, I was "denied" a signup bonus on a business AA card either because I'd applied for a personal AA card within the past 2 years, and that shouldn't happen either. It took several phone calls (which I gave up on), and then two SMs before I finally found somebody who understood that my denial contradicted the terms of the offer, and reversed the denial. (And there was at least a second person in the Citi AA thread to whom much the same thing happened.)

So obviously there's multiple precedents of Citi getting their 24-month terms wrong in practice. It has taken the right kind of persistent arguing to fix it in the Citi AA personal vs business confusion cases, and in that case of Forward (which Citi claimed to count against terms which only listed Preferred, Premier, and Prestige), I don't know if that person did the right kind of persistent arguing long enough yet (it took me several weeks to get my business AA card bonus denial reversed) and thus i don't know yet if persistent arguing will get an admission of incorrect denial from Citi in that case too.

DiMAn0684

I've earned over 50k points on my Forward card YTD (Got extra 2 pts per dollar offer from retention early this year) and had no plans for using those pts within the next few month. Sounds like I'll be stuck between the rock (quickly using / transferring points, and hoping the 24 mo clock)

hur88

Does anyone here know what the implications are for Citi Forward Extended Warranty benefits and such?

Citi explicitly states in its Guide to Benefits that coverage is cancelled "if your account is suspended, or if for any reason your account has been closed."

Is this considered an account closure because of the switch to Mastercard and new account number?

I don't want to lose Extended Warranty coverage on items I just bought with my Forward card.

MaxVO

Consider that to be an insurance contract that was purchased at the same time as your merchandise. Just like with buying car insurance -- what happens to your payment method after the purchase will not affect insurance.

mikesyr18

You're moving from one TYP card to another, I don't see the need for transferring points to a partner before you're ready to.
Citi doesn't need to wipe out your entire TY Points balance because you aren't going to a different currency.

No, it's a World Elite MasterCard.

path2

If I understand it properly, you can’t get a Citi sign up bonus on a new card if you’ve opened or closed a card within that brand (e.g Citi ThankYou points) within the past 24 months.
I was considering applying for the Citi Thankyou Premier Card (50K ty points sign up bonus) in the spring - as it will have been 24 months since I last closed (or opened) a Citi TY card.

I currently have the old Citi Forward Thankyou Visa - I have had it for a number of years (7+). It is a nofee - and over the years I would throw the odd charge on it to keep it active.
Citi is phasing this card out and has sent me a letter indicating that they will be converting it to a Citi Thankyou Preferred MC (no fee) - and will be sending me a replacement in January.

I am concerned about how this conversion (to a nofee Citi TY) will impact my eligibility to apply for the Citi Thankyou Premier Card (50K ty points sign up bonus).
Is this action considered a CLOSE (of the Citi Forward Thankyou Visa) and OPEN (of the Citi Thankyou Preferred MC) of a Thankyou card brand - thus making me ineligible for this offer?

Thanks in advance

MaxVO

You're not alone -- read the 23 posts before yours.
So far, I'd summarize them as follows:
The part of this conversion that results in the appearance of new Preferred card will likely reset the 24-mo waiting period.
The closure of your Forward card (voluntary or involuntary) may not affect the other cards in the TY-family, but that remains to be confirmed by personal experiences.

cotr

Would it be possible to product change the Citi Preferred to a Double Cash after the conversion?

MaxVO

It should be possible, as the converted card is not a new account. That product change will reset the TY-family clock again though.

bbmatt

i just called to close and they said my thank you points from my forward card will expire within 60 days of close. they said they know the difference between thankyou points accumulated from the forward vs. prestige cards. This makes it really hard to close it, unless i want to preemptively transfer my points to singapore or the new lifemiles...

UGH. ... citi

they also said that they are unable to change it to anything other card else since the process has already started. I don't plan on churning citi cards, but i have 2 forward cards (1 converted MTVU card) and i dont want these to be under the chase 5/24 rule.

defjukie

The conversion will not make these 2 cards count as new cards. They will be converted and retain all the history from the old (forward) accounts. Chase (or any other bank) will not be able to see this conversion on your credit report.
The only purposes for which these might be considered "new" is for Citi's internal 24 month rule where you have to wait 24 months after closing/opening a TY-branded card before you can earn another bonus on a new TY card.

defjukie

I'm assuming this will be possible, and it is the one upside to this whole mess since they weren't letting Forward be PCed to anything else.
However, I really wish they would just let me do the conversion NOW instead of letting this forced conversion reset the 24 month TY clock. Citi gonna Citi.