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Your Credit Card Benefits Just Got Cut. What Do You Do?
Illustration: Sarah MacReading / Wirecutter


One of the most popular travel rewards credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, just dropped some news: The perks are going up a little bit, and the annual fee is going up a lot.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve’s $450 annual fee just increased to $550 for new cardholders (the higher annual fee kicks in for existing users whenever their renewal date rolls around, starting in April 2020). The fee change is paired with a handful of new perks, like DoorDash credits and a Lyft Pink membership.

Other banks besides Chase are truncating or cutting beloved credit card benefits, and many are also raising their cards’ annual fees. In 2019, American Express hiked the fees on certain Delta-branded credit cards and placed new limits on Centurion Lounge access. Citi also ended its Price Rewind feature.

Credit card issuers are raking in revenue at a rapid clip, and higher annual fees are likely a big contributor: Annual fee revenue was about $600 million in the first quarter of 2015, but by the first quarter of 2018, it had nearly doubled to a whopping $1 billion, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s 2019 Consumer Credit Market report (PDF).

If the Reserve—or any other card—recently broke your heart, and you’re ready to break up with it, you’ve got options.

First, the bad news: Your bank can legally change or cut the benefits it offered when you first signed up.

Banks have the legal right to stop offering you benefits like statement credits and lounge access, even if they provided them to you when you originally signed up. They also have the right to change the rates and fees from what you agreed to in the first place (though limitations may apply).

And although banks have to give you notice about changes to your rates and fees, they’re not legally required to give you advance notice of changes to your rewards. Some banks do anyway: For example, Amex gave cardholders about three months’ notice when it decided to stop offering the Priority Pass restaurant credit.

The good news: For significant changes (such as adjustments to rates and fees, or how your interest is calculated), your card issuer is required to give you 45 days’ notice, according to the CFPB, a government agency that helps protect people from unfair business practices.

Credit card companies face limits on how drastically they can change their terms, so you don’t need to worry about a sudden and astronomical increase to your late fees, for example. (The government regulates many aspects related to credit card fees, including a rule that banks can’t charge you more than $28 for your first late payment.)

In short, federal regulations exist to protect you from predatory practices, but not so much from changes to your Centurion Lounge access or your frequent flyer miles.

But even when it feels like your card issuer is taking away the small things that bring you joy, you’re not exactly powerless.

What can you do if you don’t like the changes to your credit card’s rewards?

First, decide whether your card is still worth keeping in its current incarnation, particularly if it has an annual fee. If you decide to break up with your credit card, you have three main options.

Downgrade your card

In some cases, you may be able to downgrade your card to a similar, no annual fee version offered by the same bank. (For example, because the $450 Chase Sapphire Reserve will now cost you $550, you might want to change it to the $0 annual fee Chase Freedom Unlimited.) With most banks, you can call customer service to make this request.

Pros of downgrading your card: Whether you don’t want to cancel your card and lose your line of credit, or you just don’t want to forgo the points or miles you’ve accrued, downgrading to another card from the same bank might mean you can keep your existing rewards, as well as your line of credit.

Typically, downgrading (or upgrading) your card keeps your card number and account history the same, and it usually won’t result in another inquiry on your credit report. But it does mean you get an updated CVV (a three- or four-digit anti-fraud security code) and expiration date.

Cons of downgrading your card: Banks aren’t legally required to offer you the option to downgrade, so there’s no guarantee that you can do this. If that’s the case, you’re better off just cancelling your card. Also, in some situations, downgrading could cause your points to lose some of their value. For example, if you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve, your points are worth 50% more when you redeem them for travel in the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, which means one point is actually worth 1.5¢. But if you downgrade to the Chase Freedom Unlimited, you lose the ability to spend your points via Chase Ultimate Rewards, so each point is worth just 1¢.

Call your bank and ask for a retention offer

In some cases, when you call your bank to cancel your card, it will present you with a retention offer. Retention offers vary depending on the card (and on you as a cardholder), but your bank may be able to adjust its terms and conditions to encourage you to hang on to your card. Those terms could include anything from waived or reduced annual fees to bonus points when you meet a minimum spending threshold.

Online reports of successful retention offers abound. One American Express Platinum cardholder, for example, was offered 20,000 Membership Rewards points (worth about $400, according to The Points Guy’s valuations) if they spent $3,000 with their card in the next three months. Another Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select cardholder was offered 7,500 bonus miles (worth about $105) for spending $1,000 in three months. You’re not guaranteed a similar offer (or any offer at all), but it could be worth asking if you’re not already committed to cancelling.

Cancel your card

Pros of cancelling your credit card: If your card’s terms and conditions just aren’t worth it anymore, it might make sense for you to cancel it, especially if you pay an annual fee.

To cancel your card, you can typically call your card issuer’s customer service number. Remember, though, to pay off your balance after: The credit card company can still charge you interest on the amount you owe, even when your account is closed.

Cons of cancelling your credit card: Closing your account could negatively impact your credit score because it lowers the overall amount of credit you have available to you. (Assuming your spending remains the same, your credit utilization ratio—one of the major components of your score—increases when you cancel a card.) Depending on how long you had the card, cancelling it could shorten the length of your credit history, which also affects your score.

Pro tip: You may be able to cancel your card and not pay another year of annual fees, even if your next year as a cardholder has already begun. For example, if you’re a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder, you can get your annual fee refunded when you notify Chase that you want to close your account within 30 days (or one billing cycle) after you receive the statement in which your annual fee was billed.

Fewer cards, fewer headaches

That said, you may want to use your credit card’s newly reduced benefits as an excuse to cut down on the number of cards in your wallet. Holding tons of credit cards might not be worth the organizational headache. And when you split your spending among more than one card—such as hotel, cash back, and airline credit cards—you may never earn enough rewards to book your dream vacation to Maui.

“People think they need a Chase card, and an Amex card, and a United card,” said David Feldman, an independent analyst of credit cards and rewards programs. “Then they have 50 cards but only 1,000 points in each account, and it’s not enough to pay for anything.”

Instead, consider sticking to one or two cards with which you can accrue meaningful rewards. This could help you earn enough points on your travel credit card so that you can book a flight or hotel room entirely with rewards, for instance, or spend enough with your Southwest Rapid Rewards card to qualify for a Companion Pass so that you and a buddy can travel the world.

Sally French is a staff writer at Wirecutter, covering personal finance. Previously she spent five years writing for MarketWatch, where she reported on everything from comparing meal kit costs to detailing her own personal experience buying a home in San Francisco. Her personal finance stories have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other publications. You can find her on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.