Should you maintain a discontinued bank card, contemplate your self fortunate — it is a uncommon merchandise you would possibly even brag about.
Issuers incessantly discontinue bank cards for a number of causes. There are occasions when an airline or lodge group switches relationships from one financial institution to a different or consolidates its bank card portfolio with one or the opposite.
For instance, beginning in 2026, Citi will become the sole issuer of AAdvantage cobranded bank cards, with Barclays discontinuing its relationship that goes again greater than a decade.
Typically, issuers merely discontinue a card or launch a brand new product to exchange it.
Learn our information to grasp what occurs when a card is discontinued and what to contemplate if you happen to want to hold such a card open.
What occurs when a bank card is discontinued?
Based mostly on the scenario, just a few issues happen when a bank card is discontinued.
You may hold utilizing it
That is when a discontinued card retains working for current cardholders. For instance, Citi has allowed current cardholders of the Citi Prestige® Card to maintain their accounts open and proceed utilizing their playing cards (because the card was closed to new candidates in mid-2021).
That is the best-case state of affairs — you retain a invaluable card with out being compelled to cancel it. Bear in mind, an issuer could make modifications at any level.
The data for the Citi Status Card has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
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You would possibly be capable to convert it
You would change a discontinued card to a different one with the identical issuer, however there are limitations as to which playing cards you are allowed to vary to.
Normally, it’s a must to change to a card inside the similar “household” of playing cards. So, a card incomes an issuer’s transferable rewards foreign money will not be transformed to an airline cobranded card from the identical issuer.
For instance, current cardholders of the discontinued Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard® can change their card to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees), as each playing cards are inside the household of cobranded AAdvantage playing cards.
The data for the Citi AAdvantage Gold card has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
You is perhaps switched to a brand new card
If a financial institution discontinues and replaces a card with a more recent model, then the issuer will mechanically transition your card to the brand new one.
For instance, with Barclays not issuing AAdvantage playing cards from 2026 on, its playing cards will ultimately be transferred to Citi when it turns into the brand new issuer of playing cards just like the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®.
One other more moderen instance is the Citi Rewards+® Card. It closed to new candidates, however just a few weeks later, Citi launched the Citi Strata℠ Card as its substitute. Regardless of some cardholders having fun with the advantages of the Citi Rewards+, just like the rounding up of factors to the closest tenth level, all cardholders can be mechanically transformed to the Citi Strata Card, which lacks this perk. On this case, the compelled conversion of the Citi Rewards+ could be seen as a adverse improvement for a lot of.
One other instance is the outdated fan-favorite Starwood Most popular Visitor Luxurious Card from American Categorical. Its cardholders have been all transformed to the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card after Marriott and SPG’s merger in 2018.
The data for the Citi Rewards+, Citi Strata Card and Starwood Most popular Visitor Luxurious playing cards has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
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Think about these elements when deciding whether or not to maintain a card open
In case you have a bank card that not accepts new purposes, you are in all probability questioning whether or not it pays to maintain it open. Listed here are the main elements to contemplate.
The impression in your credit score rating
Your credit score is calculated based mostly on 5 main parts:
Closing a credit card can have an effect on a number of of those parts, together with credit score historical past, which accounts for 15% of your credit score rating, and your credit score utilization ratio, which accounts for 30% of your credit score rating. Whenever you shut a discontinued card, you lower the common age of all of your credit score accounts, particularly if the cardboard you are closing is older than just a few years, negatively affecting your credit score rating.
Moreover, closing a bank card will increase your credit score utilization ratio. Credit score utilization is the quantity you owe versus your whole line of credit score. Since you should have much less whole credit score throughout all of your accounts after canceling a card, assuming your spending stays the identical, your utilization ratio will rise and, thus, deliver down your credit score rating.
In the end, earlier than continuing, you should contemplate whether or not a card cancellation will considerably decrease your credit score rating.
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Is the annual price value it?
A serious consideration for any bank card is the annual price. Ask your self if the annual price on a discontinued card is worth it and if you happen to’re capable of hold utilizing its advantages.
Nevertheless, if a bank card is discontinued and changed with a more recent model with advantages that modify or the annual price will increase, then it is value contemplating whether or not the annual price is a justified price.
Associated: The complete guide to credit card annual fees
Conversion to a different card
On a just lately discontinued card, look out for the issuer’s plans on what it is going to do subsequent. If the issuer plans to modify your card to a more recent model, consider the advantages of the cardboard it intends to present you and examine them to your current card.
The Citi Status® Card has been discontinued for almost 4 years, with a substitute nonetheless pending. So, it is smart for many current Status cardholders to maintain the cardboard open to proceed maximizing its advantages and incomes charges relatively than outright closing their account.
Should you’re being compelled to vary into the newer model of the cardboard you at present maintain, it could be value it to cancel your card as a substitute. Transformed playing cards are usually ineligible for welcome bonuses. When changing a card, you may be forgoing a welcome bonus value 1000’s of factors or miles.
Maintain the brand new card’s welcome bonus eligibility restrictions in thoughts. These might embody limiting the bonus to earlier cardholders who acquired a bonus a set variety of months or years in the past.
Associated: A complete guide to Amex’s one-bonus-per-lifetime restrictions
Unused advantages
If the discontinued card comes with a time-sensitive perk, resembling an annual free night certificate, examine the positive print in your advantages information. You’ll want to use any advantages that require your card to be lively and in good standing earlier than canceling.
Likewise, if you happen to earned such a profit with a discontinued card that has been transformed, you’ll seemingly nonetheless be capable to make the most of it inside a set time interval after it has been discontinued. However remember to use it quickly, or be ready to lose it.
Advantages not out there by means of different playing cards
A high motive to maintain a discontinued card open is to make the most of perks not out there on different playing cards or the cardboard’s newer model. For instance, the Citi Status comes with a fourth-night-free perk, the place Citi pays for the fourth evening of your keep at virtually any lodge booked by means of the Citi travel portal (restricted to 2 makes use of per 12 months).
One other perk of the Status not discovered on its lower-annual-fee counterpart, the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (see rates and fees), is the as much as $250 annual journey credit score that is good towards any buy coding as journey.
These two advantages alone would justify protecting the Citi Status Card open.
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Backside line
In case you have a discontinued card, weigh whether or not it is value protecting or canceling. Think about how closing it might have an effect on your credit score rating and whether or not the advantages outweigh the annual price.
If the issuer is changing the cardboard to a brand new model, consider whether or not the brand new card aligns together with your spending habits and reward targets.
And if the cardboard is not being changed, it could be value protecting, particularly if it presents a robust incomes price or distinctive advantages not out there elsewhere.
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