In the event you maintain a discontinued bank card, contemplate your self fortunate — it is a uncommon merchandise you would possibly even brag about.
Issuers regularly 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 turn into the only real 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 switch it.
Learn our information to know what occurs when a card is discontinued and what to contemplate when you want to hold such a card open.
What occurs when a bank card is discontinued?
Based mostly on the state of affairs, just a few issues happen when a bank card is discontinued.
You possibly can hold utilizing it
That is when a discontinued card retains working for present cardholders. For instance, Citi has allowed present cardholders of the Citi Status® Card to maintain their accounts open and proceed utilizing their playing cards (for the reason that card was closed to new candidates in mid-2021).
That is the best-case situation — you retain a priceless card with out being pressured to cancel it. Keep in mind, an issuer could make adjustments 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 offered by the cardboard issuer.
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You would possibly have the ability to convert it
You might 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 alter to.
Normally, it’s important to change to a card inside the identical “household” of playing cards. So, a card incomes an issuer’s transferable rewards foreign money is probably not transformed to an airline cobranded card from the identical issuer.
For instance, present cardholders of the discontinued Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard® can change their card to the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Choose® World Elite Mastercard® (see charges and charges), 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 offered by the cardboard issuer.
You may be 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 now not issuing AAdvantage playing cards from 2026 on, its playing cards will finally be transferred to Citi when it turns into the brand new issuer of playing cards just like the AAdvantage® Aviator® Crimson World Elite Mastercard®.
One other newer 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 might be mechanically transformed to the Citi Strata Card, which lacks this perk. On this case, the pressured conversion of the Citi Rewards+ could be seen as a destructive growth for a lot of.
One other instance is the outdated fan-favorite Starwood Most well-liked Visitor Luxurious Card from American Categorical. Its cardholders have been all transformed to the Marriott Bonvoy Good® American Categorical® Card after Marriott and SPG’s merger in 2018.
The data for the Citi Rewards+, Citi Strata Card and Starwood Most well-liked Visitor Luxurious playing cards has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or offered by the cardboard issuer.
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Contemplate these elements when deciding whether or not to maintain a card open
When you’ve got a bank card that now not accepts new functions, you are in all probability questioning whether or not it pays to maintain it open. Listed below are the foremost elements to contemplate.
The influence in your credit score rating
Your credit score rating is calculated primarily based on 5 main elements:
Closing a bank card can have an effect on a number of of those elements, 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. While 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’ll 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 could 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 value it and when you’re in a position to hold utilizing its advantages.
Nevertheless, if a bank card is discontinued and changed with a more recent model with advantages that adjust or the annual price will increase, then it is value contemplating whether or not the annual price is a justified price.
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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 change your card to a more recent model, consider the advantages of the cardboard it intends to present you and examine them to your present card.
The Citi Status® Card has been discontinued for almost 4 years, with a substitute nonetheless pending. So, it is sensible for many present Status cardholders to maintain the cardboard open to proceed maximizing its advantages and incomes charges slightly than outright closing their account.
In the event you’re being pressured to alter into the newer model of the cardboard you at present maintain, it might be value it to cancel your card as a substitute. Transformed playing cards are usually ineligible for welcome bonuses. When changing a card, you could possibly be forgoing a welcome bonus value 1000’s of factors or miles.
Preserve the brand new card’s welcome bonus eligibility restrictions in thoughts. These may embody limiting the bonus to earlier cardholders who acquired a bonus a set variety of months or years in the past.
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Unused advantages
If the discontinued card comes with a time-sensitive perk, resembling an annual free evening certificates, test the high-quality print in your advantages information. Make sure to use any advantages that require your card to be lively and in good standing earlier than canceling.
Likewise, when you earned such a profit with a discontinued card that has been transformed, you’ll possible nonetheless have the ability to reap the benefits of it inside a set time interval after it has been discontinued. However make sure you use it quickly, or be ready to lose it.
Advantages not accessible by way of different playing cards
A prime motive to maintain a discontinued card open is to reap the benefits of perks not accessible 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 can pay for the fourth evening of your keep at virtually any lodge booked by way of the Citi journey 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 charges and charges), 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 holding the Citi Status Card open.
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Backside line
When you’ve got a discontinued card, weigh whether or not it is value holding or canceling. Contemplate how closing it may 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 along with your spending habits and reward targets.
And if the cardboard is not being changed, it might be value holding, particularly if it affords a robust incomes price or distinctive advantages not accessible elsewhere.
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