Don’t cancel, downgrade: How to do it with Chase cards
It’s easy to justify paying hundreds of dollars in credit card annual fees when you can use card benefits like travel credits, dining credits, shopping credits and airport lounge access. But it’s harder to justify paying those fees if you carry multiple credit cards with similar benefits or are simply trying to cut down on expenses.
If you’re not getting enough value from a credit card to offset its annual fee, you can downgrade it to a different product with a lower or no annual fee. You could also cancel the credit card, but that can have unintended consequences, like a drop in your credit score later down the road. More often than not, you’re better off downgrading or product changing your card rather than canceling it outright.
Though every card issuer handles product changes in its own way, in this guide, we’ll show you how to downgrade a Chase credit card.
Related: Here’s how to calculate your 5/24 standing
Contact customer service
Requesting a card downgrade is fairly straightforward: Call the customer service phone number on the back of your card and speak to a Chase agent. Chase also lets you contact them via a secure message portal on its site, but reports suggest that product change requests be made over the phone.
If you’re lucky, you might even get a pro-rated refund of your annual fee when you downgrade to a card with a lower annual fee (especially if you do so within 30 days of the annual fee posting to your statement).
Since you’re maintaining an existing account — as opposed to opening a new one — Chase will not perform a credit check.
When you downgrade your card, you will retain your existing account number, balance and payment due date. You’ll receive a new card with the new product’s name within a few days, but since the card number will be the same, you can continue to use your old card under the terms and benefits of the new one before and even after you’re issued a new card.
Related: Does canceling a credit card hurt your credit?
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Protect your rewards
Since you’re not closing your card account, you won’t lose your points. However, if you downgrade a Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees) or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) to a Chase Freedom Flex® (see rates and fees) or Chase Freedom Unlimited® (see rates and fees), you will lose the ability to transfer those points to hotel and airline partners (unless you have another fully transferable Ultimate Rewards-earning card like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (see rates and fees)).
If you don’t have another transferable Ultimate Rewards-earning card, you may want to consider transferring your points to a hotel or airline partner before the downgrade. Make sure you transfer your points to a partner you book with often, since point transfers are final once processed.
Alternatively, it’s possible to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to someone else in your household if they have an eligible card. However, you need to call to request this, as Chase doesn’t allow you to do so online.
Related: How to book travel (and save points) with Chase Travel
What Chase cards can I downgrade to?
Most rewards credit cards are part of card families, and product changes can typically only be done within that family. This means you likely won’t be able to downgrade from a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve to a United℠ Explorer Card (see rates and fees) or other cobranded card, even though they are both issued by Chase.
Instead, you would need to downgrade the Sapphire Reserve to either the Sapphire Preferred or another Ultimate Rewards-earning card like the Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Sometimes, you may even be able to request a product change to a card that’s no longer available to new applicants. For instance, Chase still lets those with a Marriott-branded personal credit card switch to the Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card, even though it was closed to new applicants in 2018.
The information for the Ritz-Carlton Credit Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
There are a few more restrictions to be aware of:
- You must have had your card for at least 12 months before you can downgrade it
- You cannot switch between personal and business cards, even if they are within the same family
Finally, opportunities to downgrade are not always consistent, and what’s offered to one person may not be offered to another.
Related: The power of the Chase Trifecta
Should I downgrade my credit card?
Downgrading your card allows you to maintain your credit line and your average age of credit, so it doesn’t have the same negative effect on your credit score as canceling a card might. Plus, it’s better to have a good track record of maintaining accounts rather than opening and closing many accounts.
You generally won’t be able to earn a welcome offer on a Chase card if you currently have that card in your wallet or if you earned a welcome bonus on that card in the last 48 months.
For example, with Chase’s Southwest cobranded credit cards, you’re generally not allowed to hold two of them at the same time, so you wouldn’t be able to apply for another Southwest card and earn a welcome bonus if you already have one in your wallet. The main exception to this rule is personal and business cards — you can have them both in your wallet.
Another major restriction on Chase cards is the issuer’s 5/24 rule. In order to be approved for a Chase card, you cannot have opened five or more personal credit cards across all banks in the last 24 months. If you are not allowed to apply for another card, you could request a product change to a different card if its benefits are more appealing to you.
One big disadvantage of downgrading a Chase card is that you typically can’t get a welcome bonus for the card you’re downgrading to. However, depending on your situation, the pros may outweigh the cons. And in some cases, you may be able to reapply for the card you’re giving up and earn another welcome bonus down the line.
Bottom line
Canceling a card isn’t always a good idea because of the hit to your credit score, so downgrading is a great alternative. Like other issuers, Chase typically doesn’t advertise product-change options, so not many cardholders know this technique exists. However, it’s fairly easy to do. Just note that you won’t earn a welcome bonus when you downgrade your card.
Related: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve: Should you go mid-tier or premium?
