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MMMondayMemo: What is a product change?
Each Monday, ok Tuesday this week, Miles has decided to drop a tip, hint, tutorial, trick that maybe you’ve missed or haven’t heard before. If you’re an expert in this field, some of these may be things you already know, but there are a lot of beginners out there who are just getting their feet wet. This week the Monkey Miles Monday Memo focuses on understanding a product change and how that can be advantageous. MMMondayMemo: What is a product change?
So…What is a product change?
A product change is when you’ve had one credit card and you convert it into another. I recently utilized a product change with my Barclay Aviator Red by converting it into a Barclay Aviator. The new card loses all of the benefits of the original card and now assumes the new features from that point forward.
Why would you want to product change?
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Save on annual fee ( Convert a high fee card to a fee-free card)
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Preserve your depth of credit which helps keep a low Credit Utilization
- Low credit utilization equates to a higher score.
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Lengthen your account history.
- By Product Changing you’re keeping your accounts open longer. Longer average history equates to a higher score
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Specifically with Citi it would keep you under the One Open/Close every 24 month policy
- Citi limits a sign up bonus now to once every 24 months per family of card. That 24 month clock starts from the time you open or close an account. By product changing your card you aren’t technically opening or closing and thus allowing the clock to continue ticking.
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With Chase you can product change to allow a new sign up
- Example: You’ve carried a Chase Sapphire Preferred for 24 months. Technically you’re now allowed to get the sign up bonus again, but you can’t carry two of the same card. You can product change that Sapphire Preferred into a Freedom, thus emptying your wallet of the conflict and allowing you to get a new card sign up again.
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With Amex I have a strategy
- You can only get a new card sign up once in your lifetime, BUT they have been throwing upgrades all over the place. My thinking is if I were to sign up for a Amex Green or Product Change my Amex Plat to a Green I may get targeted to upgrade to a Gold. Since I’ve already received a sign up bonus for the Amex Business Gold I could only get points by upgrading to the card so I may try this in a year or so when the new annual fee hits.
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Derek at Accountyourpoints.com wrote about using a Bank of America product change for free money. Who doesn’t like free money?
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.