Actually it lowers your credit with that cc company giving less room for new cards.

It's better to apply for a new card with a bonus and call and have them close an old one and put it's credit line on the new one.

If you're just closing one card it's also better to ask them to put it's credit line onto another existing card you have with them already.

Credit lines with each company build slowly and if you cancel to zero you have to start over with that company if you go back to them.

IMHO, nope. The "new laws" which I assume refers to the new consumer protection laws and regulations on the federal level, don't appear to effect this.

Don't believe everything you read in American Bankers' Association inspired press releases and stories.

If you have a source for this, please post it here. @:-)

PS As others have noted in this thread it is FT SOP to close cards and get new signing bonuses on a new card. Kinda makes me feel like a pro-baseball player getting that signing bonus!

I've been on the phone the past 2 days with Citi trying to change my bronze back to a regular full-featured AA card. Five different people including supervisors have told me that under the new federal laws they may not convert a no-fee card into a fee card.

And Citi has stopped allowing people to open new AA cards if they held a prior AA card. "The jig is up". (Chase and AmEx allow you to open a new one but usually don't let you have the same bonus twice).

Chase allowed my wife to move some of her balance from her free Chase Freedom Card to the Continental Card after she was dinged for having too many new cards (two, in this case). So at the very least you can move over some of the CL if you can't convert to a fee card.

Again, IMHO, nope.

1. Don't take purported legal advice from Citi bank low echelon workers (or even high echelon ones )--Citi's interests are not the same as yours. Very often, claims that the law requires something is just saying: "We don't want to do it." Or: "Go away and leave us alone."

2. As to not being able to get an AA card after having had one before--a myth, plain and simple.

I've had a LOT of AA cards and recently got some more that were good for a couple of hundred thousand miles.

Some even say that it is easier than ever before to get bonus credit card miles because the available bonuses are getting bigger. ^

In any event, thanks for providing your experiences and thoughts.

And remember, as that great consumer advocate, Barry Goldwater, said: "Don't let the .......s grind you down!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimi_non_carborundum

+1. Every single time I call Citi to waive the fee or cancel the card, they instantly cancel it. YMMV.

I'm curious about how this works to transfer the credit line to another card. Is this only with the individual bank/company? On the credit report it should still show as two separate accounts, right?