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Question: Does Annual Spending Reset to $0 if I Downgrade my Amex?

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Question: Does Annual Spending Reset to $0 if I Downgrade my Amex?

Question: Does Annual Spending Reset to $0 if I Downgrade my Amex?

Our question of the week is a good one: what happens to your annual spending if you downgrade an Amex card? Various credit cards from American Express have annual spending bonuses–especially with their hotel cards. Maybe you can earn higher status or a free night award. But what happens if you change cards during the year?

The Question

Our question of the week comes from Anshul in our Facebook group:

If I downgrade my Amex Hilton Aspire card to the Surpass card, will my calendar year-to-date spend still count toward the $15k spend requirement for the free night award? Or will the spend be reset to zero?

If the spend is retained, does that mean that if I’m over $15k already, I will automatically get the free night award upon downgrading?

The Benefit in Question

Anshul has the Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card. He could downgrade to the Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card to get a lower annual fee. The Surpass card also offers a free night award if you spend $15,000 on the card in a year. You can read more about this benefit

Will money spent on the “old” card count toward this free night award spending bonus on the “new” card? That’s the question.

What Does American Express Say?

Here’s what Amex chat reps have to say about annual spending if you downgrade a card:

Question: Does Annual Spending Reset to $0 if I Downgrade my Amex?

Not wanting to trust just one rep (they’ve been known to give a wrong answer or two!), I asked the same question to a different rep later in the day.

Question: Does Annual Spending Reset to $0 if I Downgrade my Amex?

A Caveat 

When Anshul asked about annual spending if you downgrade an Amex card, one of our moderators had an interesting experience to share.

For him, spending from the current statement period rolled over. This “current” spending counted toward the new card. However, spending on any prior statements that closed earlier in the year did not count.

Final Thoughts

Maximizing the benefits that come with your credit cards is important. It’s why we put together this end-of-year checklist. The perks and benefits a card offers can affect which cards you keep or even which card you might downgrade to later on. When it comes to Amex cards that offer perks like “earn a free night after you spend x on the card”, it looks like your annual spending count will go back to $0 if you downgrade the card. Thus, consider the opportunity costs on losing this benefit if you downgrade or cancel your card.

Have a question? Ask in our Facebook group or email me at ryan[at]milestomemories.com

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Ryan Smith
Ryan Smith
Travel hacker in 2-player mode, intent on visiting every country in the world, and can say "hello" or "how much does this cost?" in a bunch of different languages.

Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

2 COMMENTS

  1. When I upgraded my Card the $15k spending on the Surplus was taken into Account for the $60k Aspire Free Night Award.
    Would be weird if the system acts differently for upgrades and downgrades.

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