Keep, retain, product-change, or close after year one

What this is

After a while, you notice some cards were opened for the welcome bonus. Year one often pencils out. Year-two annual fee is when you ask whether the card still earns its keep.

Four exits. Keep, ask for retention, product-change, close. Work them in that order, then finish the close checklist if you still cut the card. Banks differ. Live bank answers and the account agreement win.

Before you start

• This is a general list, not a close-button tutorial for one card.
• After the fee posts, many issuers refund it if you close inside about 30 days. Their policy wins.
• Credit scores move with utilization, age, and new accounts. Closing is not an automatic crash and not a zero event.
• Opening space under an Amex cap, or freeing spend for another welcome offer, is a valid reason.

Steps

1. Price the year-two perks you will actually use

Add only the credits you will use. Compare that to the fee.

• A hotel cobrand that gives a Cat 1-4 free night for about $95 is easy to keep if you will sleep there.
• A premium coupon book (hotel, dining, streaming) should not be counted at face value. Count what you would buy anyway.
• If the total is clearly above the fee, or you will pay for the convenience, keep is fine. If it only ties, add time cost and the welcome bonus you skip by holding the slot.

2. Ask for retention

Banks sometimes pay you to stay.

| Type | Example (illustration) | |------|------| | Fee waiver | Next year’s annual fee waived | | Spend for points | About $3k in about 3 months for about 30k points | | Limited bonus earn | Higher earn on a slice of spend for a window |

Amex and Citi can often do this in chat. Offers vary. None are promised.

Before you take a spend-for-points retain, check that those dollars will not block a larger new-card minimum. Using $3k for 30k is a bad trade if it costs you 100k somewhere else.

3. See if you can product-change

You do not have to keep or close. A third path is a cheaper or no-fee card in the same family.

• Whether you can change, and to which card, depends on issuer and product. Some Amex airline business cards only move inside that airline’s business line.
• Hotel example. IHG Premier can drop to Traveler (no fee, some perks stay). The Premier free night goes away.
• Rare cases jump currencies. Citi has sometimes moved an AA miles card onto ThankYou.
• Plus. The limit stays, which helps utilization, and you pay less or nothing.
• Cost. Some issuers then block the welcome bonus on the card you wanted. Read that rule first.

A common community move is to shift the limit onto another card at the same bank, then close. That can take two calls. Whether it works, and when the limit lands, is the bank’s answer.

4. Watch Amex card caps

Amex splits credit cards and Pay Over Time (often called charge cards). Common public caps are about 5 credit cards and about 10 Pay Over Time. If you are full, you may close a weak year-two card to make room for a better one.

5. Close checklist

If you still close, finish these first.

Use perks, especially calendar-year ones

• Anniversary-year credits (some travel credits reset on open date). Use the current cycle.
• Calendar-year credits (some airline credits). These die on 31 December even if the card is open. Use them before you close, or accept the loss.

Move autopay and logins

Utilities, phones, stores, and Apple Pay or Google Pay tokens. Update them before the number dies.

Points and authorized users

• Know whether points survive a close, convert, or vanish.
• Remove authorized users or they lose the metal and any perks tied to it.

Then close

Chat or phone. Ask whether the annual fee reverses if it already posted. Get a confirmation number.

Carddoger take

Year two is a math problem plus a slot problem. Price real use, ask for retain, try a product-change, then close if it still fails. Do the perk and autopay list before you cut. The bank’s current script is the process.