Question
Right now, my girlfriend and I each pay $50/year respectively for our Citibank AA Mastercards. Once we get married, I'm thinking of cancelling hers, and just getting her an additonal (free) card on my account.
Are there any disadvantages to this? Can both cards on the account have access to reduced mileage awards?
What do most married couples do?
Answer
Not enough information. How did you decide to cancel her account rather than yours? Which account was opened first, which has the higher credit limit, who has the higher FICO score?
If you close one card all the miles will flow into one AAdvantage account, will this make it difficult to use the miles remaining in the other account?
What other credit resources do you each have? It's useful to have card accounts with more than one issuer, in case a card is lost, you have a dispute, or they simply have a system failure. One of you might wish to have the Citi AAdvantage card, while the other might choose to have the Starwood Credit Card from American Express which (ironically) can generate more AAdvantage miles per dollar than the Citi AAdvantage cards.
dennis
Answer
Not enough information. How did you decide to cancel her account rather than yours? Which account was opened first, which has the higher credit limit, who has the higher FICO score?
If you close one card all the miles will flow into one AAdvantage account, will this make it difficult to use the miles remaining in the other account?
What other credit resources do you each have? It's useful to have card accounts with more than one issuer, in case a card is lost, you have a dispute, or they simply have a system failure. One of you might wish to have the Citi AAdvantage card, while the other might choose to have the Starwood Credit Card from American Express which (ironically) can generate more AAdvantage miles per dollar than the Citi AAdvantage cards.
dennis
Here is some more info...
1. I use an AMEX *wood as well which I use most of the time. I have been holding onto the Citi AA MC just for those times I need MC. She is the opposite- she uses MS all the time, and has my addl *wood in case she needs AMEX.
2. Both our cedit scores are similar.
3. My account has been open for 5 more years than hers. She is still on the 1st year free promo.
4. I'm not picky about which account miles flow into.
Answer
It does sound as if your wife's AAdvantage Mastercard will be redundant, although in my experience it is important for both partners to have at least one card that is not shared with the other to maintain privacy and also to not spoil the surprise when buying presents :) .
Answer
Close one account, wait 3 months (maybe less), then apply again for more bonus miles, free for one year. Then repeat for the other spouse. Do this annually to avoid the fee.
Answer
Close one account, wait 3 months (maybe less), then apply again for more bonus miles, free for one year. Then repeat for the other spouse. Do this annually to avoid the fee.
Avoid the fee, but lost the benefit from having a 5+year account. Maybe if this was done with a different version of the mileage bonus card it would work, but then the only benefit would be the miles.
Answer
Right now, my girlfriend and I each pay $50/year respectively for our Citibank AA Mastercards. Once we get married, I'm thinking of cancelling hers, and just getting her an additonal (free) card on my account.
Are there any disadvantages to this? Can both cards on the account have access to reduced mileage awards?
What do most married couples do?
It's a 50-50 split.... but whatever you do, don't forget the pre-nup :D
You don't want to lose the miles.....
Answer
...the benefit from having a 5+year account.
What is that benefit? And why is it more valuable than the annual fee and the 20,000 miles sign up bonus? (Yes, the terms and conditions of that offer were changed to extend the offer to June 30, 2006. I will update my website soon.)
Answer
Close one account, wait 3 months (maybe less), then apply again for more bonus miles, free for one year. Then repeat for the other spouse. Do this annually to avoid the fee.
I would second this opinion. The extra credit score you can get by keeping the 5-year-old credit card wouldn't make that much difference, though someone might disagree here.
Answer
Avoid the fee, but lost the benefit from having a 5+year account. Maybe if this was done with a different version of the mileage bonus card it would work, but then the only benefit would be the miles.
I strongly believe your payment history and whether you carry revolving credit, carry much more weights in your FICO calculation than the history of cards.
Answer
Thanks for all the advice. Now the harder question:
I'm 2 months into the current membership year with my MC. Is it possible to cancel it now and received a pro-rated refund? Are there any strategies to play in this situation?
Answer
Thanks for all the advice. Now the harder question:
I'm 2 months into the current membership year with my MC. Is it possible to cancel it now and received a pro-rated refund? Are there any strategies to play in this situation?
You will, if you merge the AA card to another Citi card. Then the pro-rated refund will show up on your other Citi card as a credit. If you dont use the credit for 3 months, a check will automatically sent to you to clear that out.
Answer
You will, only if you merge the AA card to another Citi card. Then the pro-rated refund will show up on your other Citi card as a credit. If you dont use the credit for 3 months, a check will automatically sent to you to clear that out. It happens on mine all the time. However, I have never cancelled a fee-card in the middle of its life - I always merge it into another Citi card. The fee card is then cancelled, and the refund shows up as credit on the other card.
OK, good to know. Can someone recommend a card I can merge my existing fees into? I haven't signed up for a new Citi card in years.
Answer
I highly recommend that your S/O keep some kind of credit seperate and apart from you! This is important! I know the gist of your original question had to do with travel/points, but in general, if I could give one piece of advice to any woman getting married, it would be to keep a line of credit of her own. I have known women to give up their own credit and combine it with their husbands and in the end, she ends up losing her own status. For example, in the case of divorce. One woman I know now has to re-establish herself as a credible, credit-worthy person although at one time, she had her own cards and 'status.' Although you may choose to combine your AA MC accounts, I hope you will encourage her to continue to carry an account of her own (be it with AA MC or some other).
JMHO....