Making use of for a brand new card is thrilling, however as time goes on, the identical card could not serve your wants or suit your life-style. You could possibly cancel your card, however that may have an effect on your credit score rating and trigger you to forfeit all the rewards you have amassed.
One technique to shield your credit score rating, established line of credit score and relationship with an issuer is to downgrade a bank card. Contemplate the Citi Strata Premier® Card (see charges and charges), a well-liked mid-tier journey card with a $95 annual charge.
Though the cardboard has a low annual charge, cardholders could discover it exhausting to justify paying it over time. The cardboard’s foremost journey profit, the annual $100 lodge credit score, is restricted because it requires a lodge reservation of at the least $500 booked via Citi Journey.
An alternative choice to the Strata Premier is its no-annual-fee sibling, the Citi Strata℠ Card (see charges and charges). Beforehand, the cardboard was often called the Citi Rewards+ Card, nevertheless it was lately rebranded and now boasts spectacular incomes charges.
No matter your purpose is likely to be, let’s discover when and why chances are you’ll wish to downgrade from the Citi Strata Premier to the no-annual-fee Citi Strata Card.
The data for the Citi Rewards+ has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or offered by the cardboard issuer.
Maintain your hard-earned Citi ThankYou factors
By not canceling your Citi Strata Premier and as a substitute downgrading it to the Citi Strata, you may shield your hard-earned ThankYou factors.
When you cancel a bank card, you forfeit any rewards earned. Because the Citi Strata additionally earns ThankYou factors, downgrading enables you to preserve your current rewards.

Simply know that your ThankYou factors on the Citi Strata are considerably much less priceless. When you’ll have entry to most Citi ThankYou switch companions, your factors will switch at significantly decrease charges.
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ThankYou factors on the Citi Strata Card switch to the next airline companions:
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue — 1,000:700
- AeroMexico Rewards — 1,000:700
- Avianca LifeMiles — 1,000:700
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles — 1,000:700
- Emirates Skywards — 1,000:560
- Etihad Visitor — 1,000:700
- EVA Air — 1,000:700
- JetBlue TrueBlue — 1,000:700
- Qantas Frequent Flyer — 1,000:700
- Qatar Airways Privilege Membership — 1,000:700
- Singapore KrisFlyer — 1,000:700
- Thai Royal Orchid Plus — 1,000:700
- Turkish Airways Miles&Smiles — 1,000:700
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership — 1,000:700
ThankYou factors earned on the Citi Strata Card additionally switch to the next lodge companions:

If transferring factors is not an enormous deal for you, you possibly can nonetheless redeem your factors for money again, reward playing cards or buying at choose retailers.
I suggested a pal late final yr to downgrade his Citi Strata Premier to keep away from the cardboard’s annual charge and shield his 50,000 ThankYou factors. A couple of months in the past, he wanted an award ticket. As a result of he was sitting on a pleasant stash of factors, he known as Citi customer support to improve his card in order that he may switch the factors to Qatar Airways Privilege Membership.
In that situation, by downgrading the cardboard, my pal had a kind of financial savings account for the factors. It got here in useful and made his downgrade choice price it in comparison with shedding his factors when he beforehand determined the Strata Premier wasn’t working for him.
Associated: Getting began with factors, miles and bank cards to journey
You are OK with lacking the Citi Strata’s welcome supply
New Citi Strata Card candidates can earn 30,000 bonus factors after spending $1,000 throughout the first three months of account opening. Primarily based on TPG’s August 2025 valuations, this welcome supply is price $570.
When downgrading the Strata Premier, you possibly can’t earn a welcome supply for the Citi Strata.

Though 30,000 bonus factors appears like rather a lot, it isn’t an overwhelmingly giant welcome give you’re passing up.
As compared, the all-new Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (see charges and charges) has a welcome supply of 80,000 bonus factors when making use of on-line, which is price $1,520 in line with TPG’s August 2025 valuations. You should spend $4,000 within the first three months of account opening to earn this welcome supply.
Associated: 21 playing cards at the moment providing welcome bonuses of 100,000 factors or extra
You get comparable incomes charges for bonus classes
When the Citi Rewards+ was refreshed into the Citi Strata Card, Citi overhauled the cardboard’s incomes charges. Truthfully talking, the cardboard’s incomes charges are fairly just like the Citi Strata Premier, so you will not have bother incomes ThankYou factors.

The bonus-earning classes embody:
- 5 factors per greenback spent on inns, automotive leases and sights booked on the Citi Journey web site
- 3 factors per greenback spent at gasoline stations, electrical automobile charging stations, supermarkets and choose transit
- 3 factors per greenback spent on an eligible self-select class from one of many following: beauty shops, barber retailers and hair salons; health golf equipment; dwell leisure; choose streaming companies; or pet provide shops
- 2 factors per greenback spent at eating places
- 1 level per greenback spent on all different purchases
Maybe the brand new bonus classes might be much more useful after downgrading, since you get entry to a self-select class and bonus factors on choose transit.
The incomes charges are fairly profitable, and it is nice to see the self-select class on a no-annual-fee card. You may change your self-select class quarterly to finest match your spending.
Associated: Evaluating flat-rate with bonus-category cash-back bank cards
Will Citi refund my annual charge if I downgrade the Strata Premier?
In case you downgrade the Citi Strata Premier to the Citi Strata Card, you’ll get a refund for the annual charge in case you provoke the downgrade in your card anniversary date (which is when the annual charge sometimes posts). Most issuers, together with Citi, mean you can get a refund for a card’s annual charge in case you’ve already paid it and downgrade the cardboard inside one billing cycle from when the charge was posted.
Contemplate a method that maximizes each playing cards
An alternate technique is to open the Citi Strata Card alongside your current Citi Strata Premier. Listed here are some advantages in case you select this route:
- Earn an extra welcome bonus (as long as you meet Citi’s eligibility standards)
- Earn extra Citi ThankYou factors by utilizing the Citi Strata for choose transit purchases and purchases that fall throughout the self-select bonus class
- Use the Citi Strata Premier for all different bonus class purchases, because it earns factors at the next price
- Entry Citi’s full listing of switch companions and higher switch charges of 1:1 for these companions

By including the Citi Strata to your pockets, you may have extra alternatives to earn bonus factors and an extra line of credit score, which will be helpful for big purchases.
Backside line
It is all the time a good suggestion to routinely consider the bank cards in your pockets to see what’s working for you and what is not. The perfect time to measure a card’s price is when the annual charge posts, so you possibly can resolve whether or not to maintain it, downgrade it to a no-annual-fee model or cancel it.
Within the case of the Citi Strata Premier, there are a number of causes to downgrade it to the Citi Strata quite than closing out your account.
Holding each the Citi Strata Premier and the Citi Strata Card can also be another choice for these trying to maximize their incomes potential and spend money on the Citi ThankYou factors ecosystem.
To study extra, learn our full evaluation of the Citi Strata Premier.
To study extra, learn our full evaluation of the Citi Strata Card.
Apply right here: Citi Strata Premier
Apply right here: Citi Strata Card