Is it possible to swap credit card deals?

Swapping deals after credit card offer has been acquired

06:58 25 January 2014

It is just your luck that upon signing for a credit card offer that comes with a presumably over the top bonus of 50,000 airline miles here comes a better deal offering 75,000 miles after just a few weeks. As it is, you cannot just move on knowing that if you just waited for a few weeks, you could have had a better deal.  Credit cards deals vary all the time as part of marketing strategy, anticipating that better deals should win more sign-ups.  But should card holders just let this go and be happy with what they got?

This leaves many consumers feeling short changed because despite shopping around and nitpicking the various offers and terms that come their way before making a decision, they still end up with a lesser credit cards deal.

By and large, credit card companies do not allow cancelling a card to be able to re-apply for a better offer. In the rare occasions that the bank acquiesces to the request, the cardholder will still have to be a client for over a year and has a preferred status. Some credit card companies do not have a black and white policy regarding this issue and are eager to give in to the new clients who signed up at most three months ago and match the preferred offer.  But then again, this is something you cannot do again in the event that another better credit cards deal comes along.

If the cardholder would really want to follow up on the matter, she or he can call the credit card company to know it they can match the better offer.  If the current card has just been recently acquired, there is a good possibility that they will do this. 

One thing that you should be aware of is that a better credit cards deal may not really be what it seems to be.  For example, the low introductory rate or outrageously high airline miles could just be an ingenious way of making you use your card more often than necessary just to get the airline miles.