Citibank upgrading fee free Gold to fee free Platinum

[sparoy]

Why doesn't he accept AMEX? Medical Doctors get a pretty good merchant rate for taking AMEX (approx 1.5% I think).

I think I'll get Amex to invite him to become a merchant.
If I have to pay a surcharge, then it's better on Amex rather than Visa.

 

[pongie]

He got charged in his statements and somehow he found out it's due to platinum cards, so the surcharge is added manually every time a platinum card is presented, and yes I should try that 'sticker' trick next time

Sticker trick won't work since the transaction will still get processed with the extra fess (card number tells you what type of card and which bank it's from). What will happen ie either he'll chase you up afterward or he'll up the credit card fees for all cards to be safe.

 

[SIA1A]

As an interim measure, to avoid the additional merchant fees, a Citibank cardholder could simply continue to use the old Gold card until it expires. Citi did not cancel these cards when it issued the Platinum upgrades.

My Citi Gold card expires later next year and still works fine. The points all land on my Platinum statement.

 

[pauly7]

Sticker trick won't work since the transaction will still get processed with the extra fess (card number tells you what type of card and which bank it's from). .

Technically it does work actually - a mate has put his Avis wizard sticker on the front because he ran into the same problem. The surcharge doesn't show up until later - i.e. the sale amount doesn't increase automatically at the terminal when it recognises the card (YET!)

But you do have a point, if you are continually going back to the same person then they will work it out and chase it up with you.

 

[hedge]

Your BPay will work with your old card number. In fact, Citi does not cancel your old card - if it has an expiry date of, say, 11/09 it will remain valid until Nov 09 and work perfectly for over-the-counter and phone/interned purchases. You will find that it still appears on Citi's internet site too - though not with other accounts that you may have at Citi. I'm not sure if it continues to work with BPay. However (no surprise) the card won't be re-issued at the time it expires.

And yes, the card number for Platinum is quite different to your Gold card number.

Say I have a gold card and citibusiness gold, does that mean I have access to both rewards programs or just the one?

 

[pongie]

you'll have access to both but remember you'll also have two separate poitns balance for each card. I have three and citibank treats them all differently (silver, gold and platinum)

 

[serfty]

Note: In relation to the specific topic of this thread,any who accepted the upgrade offer would have ended up with:

• Two working CC's (Silver & Gold/Platinum) and numbers
• One transaction account with one credit limit
• One Rewards program

 

[oz_mark]

you'll have access to both but remember you'll also have two separate poitns balance for each card. I have three and citibank treats them all differently (silver, gold and platinum)

Were these from three separate card applications, or one that has been upgrade over time? If the latter, normal practise is to have one Reward account.

 

[pongie]

Yes three separate applications. The previous poster was asking for citibank hold and citibusiness gold so wouldn't that be separate applications as well?

 

[oz_mark]

Yes three separate applications. The previous poster was asking for citibank hold and citibusiness gold so wouldn't that be separate applications as well?

Correct: If you have multiple applications you seem to end up with multiple reward accounts, if it was via the upgrade (or even downgrade) the accounts will have one account.