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Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
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Is now the time to downgrade your premium credit cards?
Summer Hull has been covering (and using) travel tips, rewards credit cards and loyalty programs for over a decade. She has flown close to a million miles, often on points and miles and with her family in tow.
November 24, 2020 • 11 min read
The cards we feature here are from partners who compensate us when you are approved through our site, and this may impact how or where these products appear. We don't cover all available credit cards, but our analysis, reviews, and opinions are entirely from our editorial team. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
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Quick summary
Downgrading a credit card means switching to a lower-fee or no-fee version within the same card family, allowing you to retain your account history and number.
This can help reduce costs if you’re not using premium travel benefits, while still maintaining your credit profile and any existing automatic payments.
You typically cannot receive a new cardholder bonus when downgrading, and options are usually limited to products within the same card family.
Before downgrading, review current perks and consider how changes may affect your ability to transfer or redeem points.
What to consider
You must have held your card for at least one year before downgrading, due to regulatory requirements.
Downgrade options are not always consistent and may require contacting the issuer directly to confirm availability.
Downgrading can impact how you use or transfer points, especially if the new product has different redemption rules or partner access.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed guide to managing points during a downgrade, including strategies to preserve transfer options and maximize value.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
It's been a long, weird, hard year. Many of us aren't traveling as we were, some household budgets have constricted, and how we spend our time and money is often different than it was even a year ago.
Credit cards with annual fees ranging from $95 to $550 per year can make lots of sense when you are able to fully maximize the built-in credits, use the travel benefits and enjoy the lounge access and other perks. And while some cards have risen to the ever-changing equation to offer replacement benefits, at some point you have to take an honest look on whether you should truly renew all of your premium credit cards. For example, it's tough (though not impossible) to truly max-out airline fee credits while sitting on your couch.
There's no time like the present to do some end-of-year cleaning of your wallet, so let's walk through what it means to downgrade a credit card and whether that choice makes sense for your situation.
Many rewards credit cards are actually part of rewards card "families," enabling you to downgrade from a higher-fee card to one with a lower or no annual fee. Let's take Hilton as a good example.
In that rewards card family, there's the granddaddy of them all -- The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, which costs $450 per year (see rates and fees) and provides high-tier perks such as Hilton Diamond elite status, $250 in Hilton resort statement credits, up to $250 in annual airline fee credits and more.
The mid-tier Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card is offering a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95 annual fee (see rates & fees). It confers automatic Hilton Gold status, 10 complimentary Priority Pass airport lounge visits a year (enrollment required) and a weekend award night certificate when you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases.
There's also a no-annual-fee cobranded Hilton credit card, the Hilton Honors American Express Card, which has a nice, round $0 annual fee (see rates and fees). Naturally, the no-annual-fee version has fewer perks. It only has automatic Hilton Honors Silver status and earns fewer points per dollar than the higher-fee Hilton cards.
Now, let's say that you have a $450-per-year (see rates and fees) Hilton Aspire card (which is normally one of my favorites), but now you realize that you aren't going to get much value out of Hilton Diamond status or travel credits for a while. If your annual fee is coming due, perhaps you'd rather drop down to a Hilton card with no annual fee to keep your account and save that fee for another part of your budget. That would be an example of downgrading a credit card. Enrollment required for select benefits.
The information for the Hilton Aspire Amex card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
That fancy stay at the Conrad Bora Bora has to wait for now. (Photo by Summer Hull/The Points Guy)
Why you might want to downgrade your credit card
An obvious reason to downgrade or product change to a different credit card is to save money on the annual fee when it comes times to renew.
If you downgrade your card to a different product instead of just closing it, you'll retain your same account number and account history. Via a downgrade, you can quickly reduce your annual fees without totally losing your account and its history.
This can matter for a number of reasons. First, it's just easier in some cases to keep an account open, maintaining any auto-bill payments, etc. You may also want a good track record of maintaining accounts with the bank instead of a history of opening and closing a bunch of accounts.
First, if you close an account and thus lose that available credit, your debt-to-credit ratio can increase. This is really only especially relevant for those who carry balances on their cards, but it can be an issue. Second, the average age of your credit accounts matters, so closing older accounts isn't always the best move. However, closed accounts still stay on your credit report for 10 years, so the near-term impact to closing one isn't as clear cut as you may think.
A downside of downgrading a card instead of closing out the higher-annual-fee card and simply applying for a lower-fee card is that you typically won't get the sign-up bonus for the lower-tier card simply by downgrading.
Due to the Credit CARD Act of 2009, you need to have had your card for a year in order to upgrade or downgrade to a higher or lower-fee card.
Once you are beyond that one-year mark, many cards can be downgraded to other products, although issuers typically don't advertise the options anywhere -- you have to call and ask. You can also try chatting online with the bank while logged into your account if you don't want to call. Know that opportunities to downgrade are not always 100% consistent, and what was offered to one person isn't always the same for another person's account.
That said, we've certainly heard of people downgrading from one Hilton card to another, such as in the first example. Here are examples of other downgrades we've heard of and the associated annual fees:
Chase Sapphire Reserve® ($550) to Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95) or Chase Freedom Flex ($0)
United Club℠ Infinite Card ($525) to United Explorer Card ($95, waived the first year)
Citi Prestige® Card ($495) to Citi Premier® Card ($95) or Citi Rewards+® Card ($0)
The Platinum Card® from American Express ($695, see rates and fees) to American Express® Green Card ($150, see rates and fees)
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® ($450) to Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® ($99, waived for the first 12 months) or American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp℠ Card ($0)
The information for the Citi Prestige and the Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
While downgrades can potentially happen within card families, you can't just pick any card you want to switch to at random. For example, you likely won't be able to downgrade from a Chase Sapphire Reserve to a United Explorer Card, even though they are both Chase-issued credit cards. Most product changes will be within the same card family.
You may be given an incentive to keep your account as-is
When you call the number on the back of your card and explain why you are interested in exploring your account options with lower fees, you may be given incentives to keep your account as-is. You could always ask if there are any promotions available to keep your current card before committing to a change.
This opportunity varies dramatically from account to account, but if you are ready to change your account because your current usage of the perks doesn't warrant the annual fee, it never hurts to see if there is any wiggle room with bonus points or statement credits to keep things the same for another year.
Some cards are giving some automatic thank-you bonuses at renewal, such as multiple American Express-issued small business credit cards that are awarding $50 - $200 in renewal statement credits.
Before deciding to cancel or downgrade a premium credit card, make sure you understand the current perks. Many cards have added new ways to spend credits, earn bonus points and even redeem points.
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders has added multiple benefits including the ability to use the card's annual travel $300 credit toward travel, gas and groceries through the end of 2021. You can also redeem Ultimate Rewards points earned on that card at a rate of 1.5 cents each toward restaurant and grocery purchases.
Some temporary benefits that are beginning to stretch into 2021 may tip the scales toward keeping a credit card you may otherwise want to cancel.
Note that this should not impact you in the same way if your card earns miles or points that go straight into a loyalty account, such as American Airlines AAdvantage miles, Delta SkyMiles, Hilton Honors points, United miles etc. You don't lose those points just because you close a credit card -- just be sure to not let them expire.
If you downgrade a Chase Sapphire Reserve card to a Chase Freedom Unlimited card, you will lose the ability to transfer those points to hotel and airline partners. If you want to use the points at a fixed value for travel, their value goes from 1.5 cents each with the Sapphire Reserve to 1 cent each with the Freedom Unlimited.
You may be OK with that for now. If not, you could transfer the points out to a hotel or airline partner before the downgrade or instead downgrade to a Sapphire Preferred, which at least keeps the transfer functionality going. Or, there is a way to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to a household member, if you're not ready to transfer them to a specific airline or hotel program.
While the nuances of how each program manages points with each card product will vary, don't forget about your points when making a decision to change cards. There are still ways to strategically keep your points safe in most programs, but it may require some thought and planning.
It's hard to justify a premium travel rewards credit card while you aren't traveling -- especially if you simultaneously find yourself cutting back on expenses. The good news about a card downgrade is that you can potentially upgrade your card account again to a more premium product in the future. This current state of life isn't forever, and what's in your wallet can evolve just as life does.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, please click here For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card, please click here For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Card from American Express, please click here For rates and fees of The Platinum Card from American Express, please click here For rates and fees of the American Express Green Card, please click here
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
