Filed under weird but true, there are situations where it makes sense to sign up for a credit card that you don’t want in order to get the card you do want. Typically the process requires signing up for a similar card and later calling to product change to the card you really want.
Why in the world would you do this? Below you’ll find reasons and examples…
Card no longer available
When credit cards are discontinued, card issuers sometimes continue to make them available via product changes. In these cases, you can sign up for a similar card now, and later product change to the card you really want. Here are some examples:
Chase Ritz Carlton Rewards Visa Infinite
This discontinued card isn’t for everyone since it comes with a hefty $450 annual fee. That said, it comes with a number of super high-end perks:
- $300 in annual airline fee reimbursements.
- Free Night Award each year upon renewal can be used to book any Marriott portfolio hotel that costs up to 50K points
- Automatic Marriott Gold status
- Earn Marriott Platinum status with $75K spend per account year
- 3 Ritz club level upgrades for rooms booked at the standard rate
- $100 hotel credit for each 2 night or longer paid stay at Ritz or St. Regis properties
- Priority Pass Select airport lounge access with unlimited free guests
- Free authorized users (who also get Priority Pass)
- Global Entry fee reimbursement
This is probably the best card available for setting up yourself and your whole family with Priority Pass lounge access. Yes, the annual fee is steep, but $300 in airline fee reimbursements plus the annual free night certificate can justify the annual fee before even considering the value of the card’s other features.
How to get it: Sign up for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card, wait until the second year annual fee comes due, then call to request a product change to the Ritz card. You may need a high credit limit ($10K or more) to be eligible.
Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card
The main reason to consider this $95 per year card is that it offers a Marriott free night certificate each year good for any hotel that costs up to 35,000 points. This card is no longer available to new applicants.
How to get it: Sign up for the $450 Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card, wait until the second year annual fee comes due, then call to request a product change to the $95 card.
Better signup bonus
Sometimes you can get a better signup bonus by signing up for a different card and then later product changing to the card you really want. Here are some examples:
Chase United Gateway Card
The fee-free United Gateway Card usually has a lackluster welcome bonus, but it is available as a product change from the $95 United Explorer MileagePlus Card.
This United Gateway card is special because it offers some of the best features of the $95 version for free. Once you get this fee-free version, I recommend holding onto it forever. It just might come in handy thanks to these features:
- Improved economy saver award availability: As a cardholder, you’ll find more United economy saver awards (on United flights only).
- Last seat standard economy award availability: Standard awards are the higher priced awards that United makes available on their own flights. While I don’t usually recommend booking these, they can be a lifesaver under specific situations. For a personal example, see: Delta delay… United last seat availability to the rescue.
- 25% bonus on miles earned through the MileagePlus X App. The MileagePlus X App offers bonus miles for retail purchases. As a cardholder, you’ll get a 25% bonus. For example, if the app offers 4 miles per dollar at Macy’s, you’ll earn a total of 5 miles per dollar.
- The United MileagePlus Shopping portal sometimes offers better rewards for United cardholders.
Here is the current welcome bonus for the United Explorer Card:
| Card Offer |
|---|
 ⓘ $791 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates Up to 65k miles ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer Limited Time Offer: 60K miles after $3K spend in 3 months. Plus, earn an extra 5,000 miles after you add an authorized user to your account in the first 3 months your account is open.$0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $150 Alternate Offer: There is currently an in-flight offer for up to 75K. This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Recent better offer: 80K Miles after $3K in spend (expired 5/8/25) FM Mini Review: Decent perks such as free 1st checked bag and 2 annual club visits makes this a keeper for some. |
 ⓘ $1048 1st Yr Value Estimate$200 TravelBank cash valued at $170 Click to learn about first year value estimates 100K Miles + 3,000 PQPs ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 100K miles and 3,000 PQPs after $4K spend in the first 3 months. $350 Annual Fee This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Recent better offer: None. |
How to get it: Wait for a great offer for the United Explorer MileagePlus Card (e.g. wait for a 60K offer) and sign up. Next, wait until the 2nd year annual fee comes due, then call to product change to the United Gateway Card.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve card in my opinion is the single best travel rewards card on the market. It offers excellent category bonuses (3X travel & dining), valuable rewards, and excellent travel protections. With the Sapphire Reserve card, Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be cashed out at 1.5 cents each via Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature. or used to purchase travel at a rate of 1.5 cents per point, or transferred to airline and hotel partners for even more potential value. When you purchase travel with this card, you’re automatically protected in many ways (see: Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance). At $795 per year, this card is far from cheap, but it offers $300 per year in automatic travel rebates which go a long way towards minimizing your net cost.
Sometimes, the new cardmember offer is stronger on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. When it is, you might be better off first signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card which has a slightly higher standard offer (60K points after $4K spend in 3 months).
How to get the better bonus: Sign up for the $95 Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, wait until the second year annual fee comes due, then call to request a product change to the Sapphire Reserve card.
Citi Double Cash
Citi’s fee-free Double Cash card was always worth considering since it offers 2% cash back on all spend. Now, however, it’s even more exciting: Cash rewards can now be converted to ThankYou Rewards points and used for much more value when paired with a Citi Premier or Citi Prestige card. See our Citi Double Cash Complete Guide to learn more.
The Double Cash card usually doesn’t have a signup bonus. So, a good alternative is to sign up for another consumer Citibank Mastercard that offers a nice signup bonus. Then, later, you can product change to the Double Cash card. Here are the current signup offers for several Citi cards worth considering:
Card Offer
How to get the better bonus: Sign up for one of the above cards, wait until the second year annual fee comes due, then call to request a product change to the Double Cash card. Note that in many cases Citi has rules that prevent you from obtaining a signup bonus for a card that is in the same product family as a card that you closed or earned the signup bonus within the past 24 months (48 months for the AA cards). When you product change from another card to the Citi Double Cash, you will most likely be assigned a new card number. As a result, Citi will count this as having closed the previous account and you’ll therefore have to wait longer to get a card within the same product family.
You are ineligible for the signup bonus
There are plenty of reasons that you may be ineligible for a signup bonus for a card you want. Amex presents the most obvious example thanks to their lifetime rules, but there are similar situations to be found due to various bank’s 24 month or 48 month rules against getting a signup bonus again…
American Express Cards
American Express has a tough “lifetime rule” on most of their welcome bonus offers. You are eligible for the welcome offer only if you’ve never had the same card before. One way around this is to sign up for a card in the same product family that you are eligible for. For example, suppose you want the Hilton Surpass card, but you’ve had it before. You could instead sign up for the Hilton Aspire or the fee-free Hilton card and then later product change to the Hilton Surpass. Amex will generally allow product changes within product families: change from one Hilton card to another, or from one Delta card to another, or from one Membership Rewards card to another. Limitations: you cannot product change from a consumer card to a business card or vice versa. You also cannot product change from a credit card to a charge card or vice versa.
How to get a new welcome bonus with an Amex card you’ve had before: Sign up for a card you’ve never had before which is in the same product family as the one you want. Wait until the second year annual fee comes due, then call to request a product change to the card you want.
Conclusion
Above are a number of situations where it can make sense to sign up for a card other than the one you really want. I presented a number of examples that occurred to me in the course of writing this post, but I don’t at all consider it to be a complete list. So, here’s a challenge to readers: who can come up with the best example that I didn’t present above? Please comment below.
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What about the Bonvoy Bold card? Couldn’t you hold this card for 12 months, and then product change to the Ritz card?
Is it possible to upgrade to the Ritz card just before 1 year so that a 50k night posts instead of a 35k night?
Do you mean the first year? Doubtful that you’ll be able to upgrade until a year has passed since opening the card because the provisions in the CARD act about not increasing fees during a consumer’s first year. And actually, as I recall, you may reset your anniversary date when you make that upgrade and thus won’t get a certificate until your anniversary comes around again. If I’m right about that, you would want to wait until after you get your 35k cert and then upgrade as soon as possible in order to not miss out on getting a certificate and reset your anniversary year to about the same date next year.
Yes, I meant the end of the first year. The moment the 35k cert posts, we (P2) will upgrade. Thanks Nick!
[…] to how you might be able to get a card that’s no longer open to new applicants. It turns out it may be as simple as signing up for a different card in the same family. For example, you can no longer apply for the American Express Bonvoy card; but if you apply for […]
Excellent and helpful article! Let us know when you think up more swaps!
Can you really PC from an AA card to a non-AA card? I was originally told it had to stay in the AA family.
Thanks! Yes, you can PC away from AA
I would add the US Bank Cash+ card to this list. Its $150 (sometimes $200) signup offer is not worth a hard pull in my opinion, but its ongoing 5% back on 2 categories you choose quarterly (up to $2000 per quarter for $100 cashback) is well worth making this a keeper card with no AF. 5% back on utilities is a phenomenal category option that earns me hundreds more each year than a next-best card would offer. I’d therefore recommend first applying for another US Bank card that you don’t plan to keep long term past the signup bonus, like the Altitude Reserve, and then product change to this before paying the annual fee in the 2nd year.
This sounds like a fascinating option. I had no idea there was a card that bonused home utilities. Are the categories stationary or do they change each quarter? If I was able to keep Utilities for one year, that category alone would yield over $270 CB. The others aren’t as strong, but could be useful if you had a large planned expense (like Furniture). I have no experience with US Bank so I don’t know their system and I don’t see too much on FM. Gregg–possible post on this option?
Their categories have remained fairly consistent for several years. I believe they removed a donations category and maybe another one at some point, but nothing drastic. For no annual fee, it should easily be a keeper for almost everyone. On occasions you have a big expense you know is coming you can change up to furniture, electronics stores, etc. Even better when Player 2 has the card, as you can cover more categories by choosing different options.
Thanks, Troy! I will definitey be putting this one of the list when I go over 5/24 again.
Good idea!
Also, Troy mentioned the charity bonus category. I would love a card for this as so many places are now offering CC donations with no added fees. Is there a card for this (or some better way of making charitable donations?).
I don’t think any cards bonus charities anymore unfortunately. US Bank used to have a few different options but they’ve stopped doing that altogether.
That said, if you have the Amex Blue Business Plus card with the Amex Offer for Spend $500 Get $25 (up to 10 times), that’s a great option for charitable giving.
Yes! I actually used that bonus (along with the 2500 bonus MR for spending over $2000) four times last month for charitable donations. Used the other six on a window pane replacement bill done in $500+ increments. Unrelated question: when I get subscription updates now, they include the email address but not in link (blue) form, which I means I have to cut and paste to reply. Is this an intentional change on FM’s part? I miss the link. Thanks, Greg.
Someone else reported that same issue last year (about comment emails not including clickable hyperlinks). We haven’t been able to reproduce the problem though so it’s hard to fix it! When I subscribe to comments, the emails include hyperlinks.
Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere (I can’t find the answer).
If I downgrade an AMEX card, thinking Hilton Surpass to the NF card, do the AMEX offers apply to the new card? Thanks.
Yes
Greg,
Can you speak to credit card strategy this year for Marriott if you’re starting out without any cards, want to get 30 elite nights for status, and still qualify for sign up bonuses? Is Amex business card and Amex Brilliant the only play? Does it matter which to apply for first?
Yes that’s the only play for two signup bonuses. No, order shouldn’t matter
Isn’t there still a Chase personal card you can apply for and get 15 nights instead of the Amex Brilliant? Ever since they changed everything a couple of years ago I can’t keep track.
Yep. Bonvoy Boundless or Bonvoy Bold.
https://frequentmiler.com/marriott-bonvoy-complete-guide/#creditcards
How can I get multiple Blue Business Amex cards? The $50000 limit is an issue for
Me
I haven’t tested this, but I believe you could apply for a second one especially if you use a different business. You won’t earn a welcome bonus for the 2nd one though.
Great article. A few additions:
thanks for the advise! this is awesome information especially marriott bonvoy amex card.
Great tips, thanks!
Very useful nugget about the Chase card…wish i had known that before I cancelled it.
With regards to Citi’s product change rules:
I am about ~8 months away from being eligible for another TYP sign up bonus with Citi so I am trying to be very careful about accidentally resetting the clock.
1. Yes
2. Yes
Looks like Chase no longer offers the no-fee United Mileage Plus. They now push you to the United “Gateway” card that doesn’t offer access to award space (as far as I can tell)
Actually, my understanding is that the Gateway card does offer enhanced award space. The card offer details specifically mention the last seat availability which has traditionally been the indicator that a car also offers enhanced economy saver awards:
Award Availability, Pricing, and Fees
Was just on the phone with a chase rep to downgrade my United explorer mileage plus and was using this article as my guide. When he wouldn’t allow me to downgrade to just the “united mileage plus” and was only offering the “united gateway mileage plus” I was scrambling to look into the details of that card to try to figure out if they allowed the enhanced award availability. After a few minutes I found this comment and made the switch. It would be great to update this article with that info if you get the chance. It seems like there are a few things that could be updated (you can’t get the freedom card via downgrade anymore, right?). Thank you for this info and all the hard work!
Great suggestion! I’ve updated this post and will re-publish it soon
[…] written before about signing up for cards you don’t want in order to get the cards you do. Product changing can be a valuable tool for your belt, whether in order to downgrade to a no-fee […]
I was considering downgrading the $95 United Explorer to the no-fee United mileage Plus. But since I’ve used up all my AAA free car towing for this year, I decided that the $95 card’s Roadside Assistance Plan was still worth the price.
Nice but I can’t get approved for any of these cards
For the ‘Card no longer available’ category, the Barclay AAdvantage Aviator Silver card with solid perks for the $199 annual fee is only available by upgrading the Barclay Aviator Red card that has a $99 annual fee. The Silver was never available to apply for on its own though so maybe it gets its own category.