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I have one card, but would rather have another - they're issued by the same bank. I don't want both of them because they both have annual fees and I want to keep only one card with an annual fee. The two things that I want to happen, if possible, are:

  1. Keep my credit history from the current card. I have spent a lot of money on it (essentially all my spending for the past 3 years), and if I understand correctly, if I just cancel it, my history will essentially disappear and my credit score will drop precipitously.
  2. Get the sign-up bonus for the new card. It's fairly substantial (worth $600 or so).

If I just apply for the new card, and then once I get it, cancel the old one, then I'll lose my credit history. So can I "convert" the old one into the new one? And if I call to see if this can be done, will I still get the signup bonus?

What's the best course of action here, and if I'm wrong about anything I stated above, please correct me!

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    You aren't going to lose your credit history. If cancelling a card wiped that out people could fix their credit by just cancelling cards.
    – JohnFx ♦
    Commented Sep 26, 2012 at 16:22
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    I still haven't been able to switch credit cards in the same bank ( from an annual fee to a no-annual fee) applied last August.. They say its because I have a 1.99% interest rate offer on the previous card which needs to expire before the switch is possible..
    – AARTI SRINIVASAN
    Commented Feb 18, 2013 at 19:26

2 Answers 2

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I'd say the best course of action would be to call the card issuer and ask them. Converting can definitely be done, but you'll have to enquire about the bonus.

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    I spent some time on a similar issue: changing from one card to another card from the same bank and having the "miles" rewards on the old card transferred over to the new card, without having two credit card accounts open at the same time for a few days. I discovered that it was not possible, or at least not possible according to the person at the other end of the line at the bank I was using. There were no issues about balance transfers (old card had balance due of $0) but bonus for new account would not be awarded unless the new credit card account was opened before old one was closed.
    – Dilip Sarwate
    Commented Sep 26, 2012 at 11:08
  • I converted cards twice, in two different banks, without a problem. But, the difference from what @Dilip described is that the reward types didn't change - both old and new types where cashback cards, in both cases. So if the reward types change, that might indeed cause a problem, good point.
    – littleadv
    Commented Sep 26, 2012 at 15:29
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Generally speaking, you don't get the sign-up bonus when you product change to another card. The right thing to do in your case is:

  1. Close the existing card to avoid the annual fee (or downgrade it to a no-fee version of the card).
  2. Sign up for the new card that you want.
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