With Sears going into liquidation as soon as next week, the Sears credit card will soon be little more than a curiosity. Citibank will try to hold on to as many cardholders as it can by converting the Sears card to a Mastercard. I received the card replacement notice in yesterday’s mail. I imagine most Sears cardholders will receive the same notice shortly, just because the bank will have more success in converting cardholders before their local Sears and Kmart stores close. If you are a Sears cardholder, though, it isn’t likely that you will want it replaced with the Sears Mastercard. That is an upgrade that might benefit a shopper who does not already hold a Mastercard or Discover Card, but that will be only a few thousand people. Otherwise, when you get the upgrade offer, you will need to take action to decline it, or you will be getting an unwanted credit card in the mail. Fortunately, the bank makes that easy to do.
The upgrade notice is a cheery letter with the headline, “Congratulations, you’re being upgraded to the Sears Mastercard.” A single bold sentence in the letter contains all the instructions you need to decline the upgrade, along with a deadline date, but even if you lose the letter, you can still decline the Mastercard by following the instructions:
If you would prefer not to receive this upgrade, you can decline it by calling 1-800-669-8488 or visiting cardoffer.searscard.com by [deadline 6 weeks out].
As always, make sure the web address redirects to the Citibank secure site. At that web page, I needed only the actual card and a personal ID number to decline the card upgrade. I didn’t need any codes from the upgrade notice.
If you have a Sears card and can’t locate it, call the bank and tell them the card is missing — the same thing you would do with any missing credit card. That is still important to do even if Sears is closing soon.
