Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky,

In July I cancelled my Citi Premier card because I was reducing the total number of cards I have, and since I had already merged my accounts, I assumed that all the points would be tied to the merged account, so there was no point in having multiple cards anymore.

Unfortunately, I have now learned that you only have 60 days to use points from cancelled cards, even if you have merged accounts. Obviously, I learned this when the points disappeared during the course of September. It goes without saying that this is very disappointing, because I’ve had a great experience up until this point with the Thankyou points product, and because I lost 46k points.

I called Citi customer service, and they initially offered to reinstate 15k points. I asked to speak to a manager because it wasn’t clear prior to my cancelling that the points would expire. The manager came on the line, reneged on the offer to reinstate any points at all, and told me I was sent a letter after my account had been closed that explained the points would expire.

I really feel like I was misled in the cancellation process – obviously if if was clear in advance that the points would expire I would not have closed the account. Even though they did send a letter after I had closed the account, to me this doesn’t help things because the fair thing to do would be to warn me in advance – essentially, I feel like they tricked me. Lastly, it’s absurd that they offered 15k and then reneged.

Do you have any advice about what I can do, or is this just a way citi goes about to reducing their points liability, and i’m just out of luck? I know a lot of these programs have very good customer service online, so thought I would ask for your advice.

thanks for your help!

Will

Hi Will, that’s an unfortunate situation. Unfortunately unless you were specifically told that the points would not be forfeit under Citi’s normal policy you would be out of the terms of the program and Citi would be justified in taking them away. If you have been a good client of Citi in the past you might consider writing a letter to senior management and requesting a one time exception but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope.

Does anyone know if poitns are subject to same 60 day expiration for a product change, like going from the Prestige to Premier?

Yes, if you cancel one of the cards it triggers the 60 day rule. Me, I transferred my points out BEFORE I canceled the card. I don’t trust any of these companies with these large bonus points they give.

[QUOTE=”Will Hartwell, post: 21932″]Hi Lucky,

In July I cancelled my Citi Premier card because I was reducing the total number of cards I have, and since I had already merged my accounts, I assumed that all the points would be tied to the merged account, so there was no point in having multiple cards anymore.

Unfortunately, I have now learned that you only have 60 days to use points from cancelled cards, even if you have merged accounts. Obviously, I learned this when the points disappeared during the course of September. It goes without saying that this is very disappointing, because I’ve had a great experience up until this point with the Thankyou points product, and because I lost 46k points.

I called Citi customer service, and they initially offered to reinstate 15k points. I asked to speak to a manager because it wasn’t clear prior to my cancelling that the points would expire. The manager came on the line, reneged on the offer to reinstate any points at all, and told me I was sent a letter after my account had been closed that explained the points would expire.

I really feel like I was misled in the cancellation process – obviously if if was clear in advance that the points would expire I would not have closed the account. Even though they did send a letter after I had closed the account, to me this doesn’t help things because the fair thing to do would be to warn me in advance – essentially, I feel like they tricked me. Lastly, it’s absurd that they offered 15k and then reneged.

Do you have any advice about what I can do, or is this just a way citi goes about to reducing their points liability, and i’m just out of luck? I know a lot of these programs have very good customer service online, so thought I would ask for your advice.

thanks for your help!

Will[/QUOTE]

Will, I feel your pain, but it is common knowledge the points expire in 60 days. I know it can be confusing because you think you merged the accounts, but when you look at your statement they are all in individual accounts. Even if you have Award Wallet, they show them spit when having 2 or more accounts. The only thing I can suggest is go to the Flyertalk blog on Citi and see if you can find someone who has gotten them reinstated. You’re not the first to have this happen.

[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-thankyou-rewards-739/[/URL]

[USER=9]@Mark[/USER] s, you can actually set it up so that points from both cards go to the same TY account but Citi still tracks the provenance of every point so they still expire if the underlying card goes away so your larger point remains true. Good idea about FT.

From what I’ve read if you product change your card you can keep your points.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 21970, member: 29″]Does anyone know if poitns are subject to same 60 day expiration for a product change, like going from the Prestige to Premier?[/QUOTE]

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] I understand about the single TY account. Apparently my explanation of having “merged the account” was not clear enough.

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] said a product change from premier to prestige. If he did that, or was just posing the question, first of all you don’t get the bonus on the new card, which means you are going from AF of $95 to $450 for the other perks. That aside it seems unlikely anyone would trade up, more like trade down. In these cases your points do not expire. But if he got the prestige and cancelled the premier he has 60 days to use the premier points. If he kept both then of course nothing happens.

If this is not the way it is please straighten me out.

Agreed. I think the most likely scenario for changes is going from the Premier/Prestige to the Preferred as long as you still have an active premium card that can still transfer to FF programs.

Yeah I’m considering downgrading from the Prestige to the Premier next year and I;d like to not have my points expire