My wife and I have signed up for many cards in the past year to gather points/miles for our Europe trip next summer (among other things), and some of the annual fees are coming due this month. I'd like to avoid paying too many of these, but am not sure what exactly our strategy should be in terms of keeping cards for various spend purposes/bonuses or additional benefits. Was hoping to get some advice from the general crew. Here's a list of cards we currently have, what we tend to use them for, and when the AF is due. Planning to downgrade most of my wife's cards as we really don't use them, but currently my dilemma is what to do with my own cards, which premium Chase card(s) I should keep (if any) and pay the annual fee on so I can transfer points to partners, etc. For instance, my CSP is my primary spend card and I know it also has no foreign transaction fees, so should I keep that and just downgrade/cancel everything else? Or should I downgrade that card now so I don't have to pay the annual fee and then evaluate what to do with the Ink Plus card next June? What happens to my UR points if I downgrade every card and then I need to transfer points? Should I just wait and see and then maybe open a new Ink or Sapphire Preferred card at a later date when I do need to transfer points? Also, is it worth keeping any SPG cards long-term to use for general spend, seeing as how it's ridiculously difficult to build up any significant amount of Starwood points without signup bonuses? I'm curious about what strategies people use. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! -A

My Cards:
1. Chase Sapphire Preferred (primary general spend, dining) - October 2014
2. Chase Ink Plus (gas, cell bill, cable, Amazon GCs from Staples) - June 2015
3. Chase IHG (new card, planning to keep for the annual free night benefit)
4. Chase Freedom (category bonuses, no annual fee of course)

5. Citi ThankYou Premier (not currently using, but CitiGold so no annual fee)

6. American Express Platinum (Costco, general spend, airline reimbursement, rental/medical coverage, AmexSync deals, MR redemptions/transfers, SPG Gold status, National/Avis/Hertz priority status, lounge access)

7. Amex SPG Personal (picked up for signup bonus and some spend for next summer's trip) June 2015
8. Amex SPG Business (same as personal card) Sept 2015

Wife's Cards:
1. Chase Sapphire Preferred (not currently used, plan to downgrade) Dec 2014
2. Chase Ink Plus (not currently used, plan to downgrade) April 2015
3. Chase United Explorer (free checked bag, priority boarding, lounge access benefits) Dec 2014
4. Chase IHG (new card, planning to keep for annual free night benefit)
5. Chase Freedom (category bonuses, no annual fee)
6. Amex SPG Personal (same as my SPG cards) Sept 2015
7. Amex SPG Business (same as my SPG cards) June 2015

First, why downgrade instead of cancelling? Unless you've had the cards for a long time (which it seems you haven't, since you said you applied for the in last year), there's no big benefit to downgrading. With that many cards at Chase, if you donwgrade, you likely won't be able to apply for too many more Chase cards in the future, because they'll say "you have too many of our cards already". If you cancel, you leave yourself more possiblities in the future.

The one case where you might want to downgrade is if otherwise you'd be get rid of every card you have with a given bank. Then you might want to downgrade one card just so you have a contnuous history with that bank going forward, and cancel any other cards with the same bank that you don't need.

Second, if you keep the Chase Freedom you won't lose your UR points, but if you don't keep one of the annual fee cards, you will lose the ability to transfer (until at some point in the future you once get an annual fee card).

You can never get another SPG bonus on a personal card again, but you may be able to get another SPG bonus on a business card after a couple years. So if you are going to cancel any of the SPG cards, I'd say cancel the business card first, and keep the personal one unless you don't want to keep any SPG cards.

The United Exploer card's benefits will go away if you cancel (or downgrade) the card. But if your wife is the only who has it, then I think the benefits of boarding and bag may only apply if your wife books the flights and has the first name on the reservation. Except: The "lounge access" is simply two lounge passes a year, and I think those lounge passes (since they are not tied to the card once you have them) are still good even if you cancel the card (as long as their expiration date hasn't passed).

But you have the Amex Platinum, and its airline reimbursement won't work if your wife's United Explorer card is used to book! (That's the problem with several of the Amex Platinum benefits, they require that use that card to purchase travel, so you cannot at the same time use another card which gives you more "immediate" benefits on that travel.)

My thoughts on downgrading instead of canceling were that a) I could still use some of the benefits of the card (for instance, 2 points per $1 on dining with CSP), and b) would hurt my credit score less because I wouldn't be eliminating entire credit lines (therefore reducing my total overall credit available). Is it really so bad to have to call Chase and get them to "move" credit from an existing card to a new one?

I guess my real concern is whether I really need to keep any "premium" Chase cards to be able to transfer points at a moment's notice, or whether I should just cancel/downgrade to avoid the annual fees, and just apply for new cards later on when I actually may need to transfer points out.

I'm not sure if you understand downgrading. Downgrading means simply having your card switch to another card that doesn't the annual fee, but that already exists. A Chase Sapphire Preferred coudl be downgrade to a Chase Sapphire, but the Chase Sapphire (non-Preferrred) doesn't have the same exact earning structure as the Preferred as far as I know.

So can't keep using the benefit of the card you downgraded, because downgrading means you get a different card with different (and generally lower) benefits.

And yes, you can only transfer to airlines/hotels if/while you have a "premium" type of UR card. Any one "premium" UR card "unlocks" the ability to transfer your UR Points. While you don't have a "premium" URcard, the ability to transfer UR is "locked out".

A bank doesn't just have limit on how much credit they will issue. They also have a limit of how many actual cards they will issue. Even if you reduce your credit limits to $2,000 each (I don't know if they'd allow them that low on, for example, the business cards, but just assume so for argument's sake for a moment) does not mean the bank will let you have 15 different cards, even though it might let you have two cards of $15,000 credit limit each (which is the same amount of total credit).

So downgrading is not a long-term solution. You can't keep applying for cards and keep downgrading them. You may be able to downgrade the first few cards you get, but it's not something you can keep in the long run, because you'll just have too many useless card which prevent you from easily getting any new cards after that.

Also, the bank may not allow you to have two cards of exactly the same type, but there may be very few choices of what you downgrade to. (For example, it could be -- again this just for example purposes -- that Chase Sapphire Plus can only be downgraded to Chase Sapphire (non-Preferred) or Chase Freedom, but not if you already have those. So once you downgrade one Chase Shapphire Preferred to Chase Sapphire (non-Prefrred), and you already have a Chase Freedom, you may have used up what you downgrade to!)

I don't know if my example specifics are correct, but I do know that the concept they illlustrate does happen.

Meanwhile, how it affects your credit score depends on your overall credit history. For many of us who have long credit history before we started churning, there's no signficant credit score hit to cancelling about at the same rate as we apply.

one thought would be to call some of those and inquire about retention bonuses or promos. The worst they can say is no ... my experience has been that some will offer bonuses that offset the annual fees (and sometimes the annual fee itself can be waived), but you have to ask.

Fair points there, although I do understand downgrading, just didn't elaborate on which benefits I would continue using. For example, downgrading Sapphire Preferred to Sapphire still gives me 2 points/dollar on dining, which is a large spend category for us. Downgrading Ink Plus to Ink Cash would still allow me to get 5 points/dollar on my utilities and office supply store purchases, just with a lower max spend per year. If at some point in the future I want to apply for a new Chase card and I have too many open, I can always cancel them at that point.

I guess most people who "churn" credit cards don't tend to worry about whether they have a "premium" card available to transfer points at any given time, since they typically always do. I wasn't planning on keeping cards and paying the annual fees though unless it truly makes sense for me to do that, hence my solicitation of advice on the particular cards my wife and I currently have open.

Be very, very careful about canceling Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards Points (Sapphiire and INK) because, unless you transfer the points associated with each account BEFORE closing the account you will lose all those points.

You can transfer points from a card you are closing to another Chase UR earning card that remains open to preserve them. Or, transfer them to airline miles, etc.

As to the which cards to cancel, my personal view is it is just about always a mistake to pay an annual fee. So, when a fee shows up, card is cancelled. Exception, very attractive retention offers--not many are attractive enough to offset the fee.

I'd rather close accounts churn cards to get additional bonuses.

Well, I do pay the AF on my Amex Platinum (for the MANY benefits it gives me), and we are planning on paying the AF on the two IHG cards so we can take advantage of the 2 free night certificates each year (WELL worth it IMO for $98). I do see your point about the Chase cards though, and I was thinking along the same lines.

Good luck with that. Many are finding that Chase will not downgrade the Ink Plus.

Keep the IHG cards, we just booked 2 nights in Boston next summer using our free certs, price was about $1200

Definitely keep all your no fee cards. If it were me, I would cancel both CSPs, keep one Ink, cancel the other. Cancel Amex plat, doubt you're getting $450 worth of perks. Cancel both SPG business cards and one SPG personal. Chase united is up to you, depends on how much you value the benefits you mentioned.

This would get you down to $100/Ink, $70/SPG, $50/IHG, $95/United. Everyday spend on SPG, freedom, or Ink.

I'm not a big churner of cards but I believe you can still churn the SPG business every year. Chase cards are 24 months, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

As mentioned above, be sure to transfer points before closing accounts!

Since your question specifically concerns credit cards, your post has been moved to the dedicated Credit Card Programs forum where it will likely be merged into a related thread.

Good luck.

~Moderator, Information Desk

I wouldn't cancel Chase cards without consolidating the limits. You always reallocate later if you apply and they deny you for too much credit.

Thanks guys.