[2020.6 Update] Based on our recent testing, product changes via Chat have become much faster. Customer service now sends you all the terms at once instead of confirming them line by line, which was never a complicated process to begin with. Now it usually takes only 5-10min to complete a product change, and if the representative is experienced, they may be able to finish it for you within 3min!
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Background
During COVID-19, customer service phone lines for both merchants and banks were overwhelmed by people staying at home. A friend of KUKU who is also into credit card rewards told me a few days ago that calling in for a product change has recently been especially difficult; he waited 2h before someone answered. Looking around online, I also found that many people still seemed to be calling customer service to do product changes, and the phone lines were very hard to get through on.
Unfortunately, one of my Citi AA credit cards was also charged its annual fee. For the story behind this Citi AA card, see the article below:
Since the annual fee posted, it was definitely time for a product change. I planned to convert it to the excellent card Citi Double Cash (2x TYP credit card).
Contacting Customer Service
In the past, product changes could only be done by phone, so everyone got used to calling whenever they wanted to switch cards. During the pandemic, it has been very hard to reach customer service by phone. If you really want to call, you might try late at night or very early in the morning. Late-night reps may be less familiar with the process. If you get up early, you can also try calling during the early shift.
What KUKU used was actually very simple — Citi's Chat with us.
Citi Chat with us
After people heavily used the Chat team to request matches related to Citi AA credit cards, Citi reduced the team's authority. However, during the pandemic, phone lines were overwhelmed, so Citi expanded this department again. On the online banking homepage, you can see the prompt:
Desktop path: bottom of webpage — Contact us — Chat with us
Citi also strengthened the Chat feature inside the App. Path: tap the chat icon directly, or go to Service — Help & Surpport — Message us
Also, chats in the App and on the website sync in real time. Citi likely did this so that if a rep replies while you're chatting on the website, the app can push a notification in case you do not see it right away. But when I used Chat with customer service at 10 a.m. Central Time, I got a response instantly, so clearly not that many people were using it at the time.
The Product Change Process
State clearly that you want a product change. The bot transferred me to a live representative in about 4 seconds. The rep immediately understood the request, but that was only the beginning. She then spent a full 40min typing in the Terms. In short, she was telling me what benefits I would lose and what benefits I would gain, sending them one by one, and the whole thing took 40min.... During that time, you do not need to reply at all, though you can also send something like OKay... I rotated among OK, Yes, and Go ahead.
When this line was sent, it finally meant the process was almost over:
After the enthusiastic rep finished the product change, I could immediately see it take effect in the app (the website was slower). The AA card showed as closed, while Double Cash appeared at the same time. The only things left were to wait for the $99 annual fee refund and for the new card to arrive.
Even though the rep spent 40min on it, the experience was still much more pleasant.
Conclusion
This post is simply to let everyone know that Citi can now process product changes through Chat. During the pandemic, it took about 4 seconds to get connected to a representative, but waiting for the rep to finish entering all the Terms took about 30-40min. Overall, it was still far more pleasant than a long phone call spent listening to hold music. Next month I also plan to product change another Citi AA card to Thank You Rewards+. Hopefully the reps will be even more efficient by then.