AT&T Universal Card to be discontinued on 6/30/2006

I received the following letter today:

Citi, the issuer of your AT&T Universal Cash Rewards Card, has decided to
discontinue this credit card for business reasons. Therefore your account will be closed on 6/30/2006.

It goes on to say that you have until 7/31/06 to redeem accumulated cash rewards, and they can only be redeemed if you have $50.00 or more.

This is clearly not a nice way for Citi to terminate their card, since you loose the last of your rewards if they are under $50.00. If you were thinking of requesting a rewards check, you might want to hold off until you receive your final bill. And don't to forget to terminate any automatic billing to the credit card.

What happens to balances owed on the card - particularly those at 0% interest? Do these have to paid off by a certain date?

I wonder why they still have the links online to apply for the card if they are discontinuing it.

https://www.accountonline.com/View?docId=Index&siteId=AC

yes sounded like they are only discountinuing the cash rewards card.

As far as balances, here is what they are saying
"when will your account be closed? No further charges will be accepted on your account as of 6/30/06. Your current account terms and conditions will continue to apply to any balances remaining on the card."

More from the letter...

If you have an outstanding balance you will continue to receive a monthly statement even after your account is closed. You should continue to send in payments until your balance is paid in full.

never mind question was answered by Raven1

thanks for calling them

swandown said: I just applied for this card last week -- I wonder what will happen??

BTW, there are still online applications (complete with the $100 bonus) here and here


Those links are not for the Cash Back card.

It's really strange that they're closing the Cash Rewards cards outright (with an option to convert) rather than just converting them outright to Dividend Platinum.

Just got the letter today. We've had this card for a while, one of our oldest "in use" cards. Any way to keep that original date for the card? Is there any potential negative for our credit rating from this?

I just talked with Citibank about this. They told me the first letter says the accounts will be closed, BUT a second letter is already on it's way saying we can convert to a Citibank Dividend Select card which is exactly like the AT&T cash reward, but not AT&T. The lady told me they were simply narrowing down their number of cards offered that were duplicates.... not sure if I am buying that.... but that was what she said....

Now the question they could not answer for certain was if my $300 Cash Back limit would start over if I cash out before I switch over... We will find out.....

The dividend card is the same, minus the free long distance mins, cell phone insurance, etc... I will miss the free cell phone insurance.

quesiton:
I have CitiPlatinum rewards (5900+ points) & AT&T (1500+ points). I added AT&T card TQ rewards account to my Platinum Reward account (in Thankyounetwork.com). Then tried to get a GC for 50$. I thought they will let me combine both and take out my AT&T balance rewards first and then the platinum. But unfortunately they took my platinum balance (now I have 900 points). I still have to wait for another 100 points to get this 25$ GC before they kill my AT&T rewards. I dont want to lose my 1500 points.. any ideas?? anyone tried this before?
thanks for the headsup. I am yet to receive the letter.

Always knew this was coming.

"you'll receive 5 points on eligible AT&T products and/or services."

Before Merger: ATT

After merger: ATT= BellSouth/Direct TV/SBC/ATT/ATT wireless/Cingular

I don't think they ever intended to have that customer exposure.

Just wondering, can we do anything other than spend more money to get our rewards? i only have 25$ in rewards, and cant (wont) spend enough to get to 50 in the next month. Doesnt seem right they can keep my $25.00.

chessycatlane said: Just wondering, can we do anything other than spend more money to get our rewards? i only have 25$ in rewards, and cant (wont) spend enough to get to 50 in the next month. Doesnt seem right they can keep my $25.00.It does seem unfair for them to give us such short notice as to make it difficult for people to spend enough to reach $50 before the deadline.

In any case, even if you do not reach $50, you still earned those rewards. They should have to compensate for it somehow. But I assume the agreement has a clause that allows them to terminate at any time without giving you anything...

If you convert to Citi Dividend Platinum Select, I wonder if you can transfer the earned rewards over?

nanga said: Someone should look at T&C and come out a way to sue them or get the money from them. I have $37 and this is they who decided to close the card, not me ! why should I loose my money for something they did for their convenience ? I asked the same thing to CSR and she says its in out T&C and that's not gonna happen....but this doesn't seem fair. Another thing they should have told 3 months ago...they we had a way to reach $50...they are just giving a month time...
Everything sound unfair...converting to dividend also is going to loose $37....I don't think its right..I am very angry!

I feel the same way.. one month notice is way too short to close the credit card. I have 0 on that card but feel citi should do something to compensate our unconvenience it brings. like triple Cash Back rewards for first three months on the new converted card for everyone. or we could complain to CSR to get same offer eventally. HAHA!

ToHellWithUGA said: Just got the letter today. We've had this card for a while, one of our oldest "in use" cards. Any way to keep that original date for the card? Is there any potential negative for our credit rating from this?
I have exactly the same question. The AT&T Universal card is my very first credit card. Will it hurt my credit history if I convert it to Dividend card?

Do you have name, id of CSR ?
Thanks.
dudetheobscure said: Just spoke to a very nice CSR who both converted my AT&T card to the new Citi Div card and cashed me out for my remaining 25+ AT&T dividend $.

That is funny because I just saw an ad for the card in this sunday's newspaper in one of the coupon books. I was wondering if they were gonna ditch this because the ad still had the old ATT logos on it. Weird.

MBZ32190 said: That is funny because I just saw an ad for the card in this sunday's newspaper in one of the coupon books. I was wondering if they were gonna ditch this because the ad still had the old ATT logos on it. Weird.Apparantly they are not getting rid of all AT&T Universal cards, just the AT&T Universal "Cash Rewards" card.

Space said: MBZ32190 said: That is funny because I just saw an ad for the card in this sunday's newspaper in one of the coupon books. I was wondering if they were gonna ditch this because the ad still had the old ATT logos on it. Weird.Apparantly they are not getting rid of all AT&T Universal cards, just the AT&T Universal "Cash Rewards" card.

My card used to be AT&T Universal cash rewards. I converted to AT&T Platinum in order to get a 0% BT.
I received the letter today, and it mentions my card as AT&T Universal Cash rewards, and says it will be discontinued.
I'm not sure what will happen to 0% BT. On hold with them right now.

UPDATE: Only cash rewards card is supposed to be canceled. My card had issue because it used to be cash rewards.
Those with 0% should be ok. Just no new purchases or transfers after 6/30.

mapple said: Cash reward section of my July (ending 7/17) statement disappeared. I called to find out how much it is and the csr said they don't have the reward dollar for July statement but they have total reward dollar which based on my calculation is only 1% on everything for July statement. I asked her where is the additional 4% on gas/drug/supermarket and she said she does not have that information. She will send me a letter explaining July reward in 14 days.

I want my 4% check not a piece of letter.

sylvan said: Airtouch said: My cash reward for last month was only 1% for everything I spent even though I spent alot on Supermarkets. Got only $6.38 ($638.24 spent, $572 of $638.24 were on supermarket purchase) add on to my previous balance when I request my check rebate. I got robbed!!

Did you call them?

The same thing happened to me, >$600 should have been at 5% but was only at 1% (> $30!!!). I just got off the phone about 90 minutes ago. The CSR was "can you hold while I check" and about 5 minutes later came back very apologetic. She could not fix the problem, but had to refer it to the proper department. She promised me that they would either fix it so the check had the correct amount or else they would issue a seperate check for the additional 4%.

Less happily, when I asked about the $100 sign up bonus for the points reward card, and "could you convert my card", she said I had to reapply because the cash rewards card was already closed, and to get the bonus I had to do a new application for the new card. I decided not to press the issue.

sdb

Just got a check last week for the missing 4% for the july statement. No letter though.