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:
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.
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
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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.
It seems like that’s the case.