Citi cardholders should already be familiar with how Citi refunds annual fees (if downgraded or canceled within 30 days of Annual fee posting), but it seems that Citi is changing quite a substantial part of their annual fee policy and the way downgrades are handled as well as annual fee refunds. Some have reported receiving a prorated refund after requesting a downgrade.
Citi’s change has made is downgrading a card with an annual fee virtually even more difficult ore even impossible if you want the full refund, as the card must be opened for 12 months before requesting a downgrade/product change.
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Citi Annual Fee & Card Downgrade Summary:
- Must have the card for 12 months prior to a product change
- If product change is accepted before 12 months, card will be subject to auto generated future date, which in turn results in a pro-rated AF refund. YMMV.
- Downgraded to a no annual fee card may receive pro-rated refund (ex: Downgrading Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World EliteTMMasterCard® to a ThankYou® Preferred Card)
- Pro-rated refund usually ranges from $10-$16 off your entire refund; varies per card.
- Usually 10 month prorated refund instead of full refund
Citi Annual Fee Solutions:
- Talk to a representative first and give them one chance to fix it on their own. If they couldn’t:
- File a complaint with the CFPB (process takes a long time, may or may not be worth it depending on how much your pro-rated refund was)
- File the complaint via SM
Citi Transferring Costco to Amex:
It’s quite reasonable that the new Costco credit card transfer from American Express are causing product changes to happen slower than usual and business will return to normal (hopefully). Something to be wary about is when the annual fee is due, so keeping a consistent record will always help in these terms. You will have a far better advantage with Citi when getting full refund or product change sooner and more easily. Now, let’s just hope that Citi won’t switch to doing away with only pro-rated annual fee refunds.
Editor’s Note: You can check out our further review and apply for the new Costco Credit Card from Citi now.
Author’s Verdict:
CitiBank has made it quite difficult to achieve a full annual fee refund when transferring or downgrading to another Citi card, unless the card could be opened for a span of 12 months. This is a significant change from Citi’s old refund policy that dictates that if you close or downgrade your account prior to 30 days of posting, you’ll be allowed a full refund. Now reports have been saying that there are ways to get around this partial and disappointing annual fee refund and we completely agree!
There’s always a way around it; firstly, before talking to a representative concerning a full refund, I recommend that your account balance is paid off and that you call before the statement closes. I recommend talking to a representative first before taking actions concerning filing a complaint with the CFPB. Again, the way Citi is handling things currently is most likely because Costco Card is transferring from American Express. Don’t forget to also check out our full list of Citi Card Promotions as well as other Credit Card Promotions today!
