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Card news

What actually changed on the cards in our database, dated, with the consequence spelled out. A devaluation is news here in exactly the way a new bonus is.

18 entries · generated August 13, 2026 · covering October 2025 onward

Nobody pays us to write this. UseTheseCards has no affiliate links and no advertisers, so a card appears here because something changed for the people who hold it — not because a bonus is worth a commission. Devaluations get the same space as launches. How we're paid · Editorial policy

September 2026

Effective Sep 20, 2026 announced, not yet in force Benefit change Devaluation

Freedom Flex loses cell phone protection — and its foreign transaction fee

Chase discontinues the Flex's cell phone protection on September 20, 2026; losses through September 19 are still covered. The card's 3% foreign transaction fee comes off the same day, so one change is a loss and the other is a gain.

August 2026

Aug 4, 2026 Signup offer

Capital One's Savor bonus is $50 above its usual

Savor is showing $250 after $500 in three months, against a long-standing $200. Capital One calls it limited-time but publishes no end date, so the extra $50 can disappear without notice — and a $50 bonus is not a reason to open a card you wouldn't otherwise want.

Capital One Savor Cash Rewards

July 2026

Jul 30, 2026 (approx.) Signup offer

Sapphire Preferred's 100,000-point offer is over

The record 100k bonus ended around July 30; the public offer is back to 75,000 points after $5,000 in three months. Doctor of Credit reports referral links may still surface the old number, which we can't verify, so we don't list it.

source · date could not be pinned exactly in our research
Jul 27, 2026 Issuer change

Discover cards now run on Capital One's app and website

Servicing for the Discover consumer cards moved to Capital One on July 27. Names, $0 annual fees and earn rates carried over; what did not are redeeming rewards toward your minimum payment, redeeming through Apple Pay, and gift cards under $25.

Discover it Cash BackDiscover it MilesDiscover it Chrome Gas & RestaurantsDiscover it Student Cash BackDiscover it Student Chrome
Jul 22, 2026 New card

Robinhood starts inviting people to the Platinum Card

Invites for the $695 Platinum Card began going out on July 22, invite-only. Robinhood's own published reward terms still document only the Gold Card, and the benefit set was already revised once after customer backlash — so anything written about this card before July describes a different product.

Jul 1, 2026 Rotating calendar

Q3 rotating categories: gas at Discover, gas and transit at Chase

Discover pays 5% on gas (including EV charging), transportation including airfare, and drugstores; Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex pay 5% on gas & EV charging, public transit and select live entertainment. Both need activation, and Discover's is not retroactive — anything you spent before activating earns 1%.

Jul 1, 2026 Benefit change Devaluation

Robinhood Gold Card adds a 3% foreign transaction fee for new cardholders

Anyone onboarded on or after July 1, 2026 pays 3% abroad. Earlier cardholders are grandfathered "for now" — that hedge is Robinhood's wording, not ours, so don't plan a trip around it.

June 2026

Jun 15, 2026 Benefit change Devaluation

Sapphire Preferred refresh: 3x gas and vacation rentals in, the 10% anniversary bonus out

Chase added 3x on gas and EV charging and 3x on vacation rentals, and killed the 10% anniversary points bonus — existing holders keep it only through October 1, 2026. The same day, Sapphire transfers to World of Hyatt were cut to 4:3.

Chase Sapphire PreferredChase World of Hyatt

May 2026

May 28, 2026 Issuer change

Citi Custom Cash is closed to new applicants

Citi stopped taking applications on May 28, 2026 and steers applicants to Double Cash. Existing cardholders keep the card and its automatic 5% top-category slot, so this only matters if you don't already hold one — and no honest list should still be recommending it.

May 27, 2026 Issuer change Devaluation

Preferred Rewards is now BofA Rewards, and the top boost needs $1M

Bank of America replaced the Gold / Platinum / Platinum Honors tiers with Member 10%, Preferred Plus 25%, Preferred Honors 50% and Premier 75%. The boost that used to arrive at $100,000 in balances now takes $1M, and it still does not raise the $2,500 quarterly cap.

May 15, 2026 Devaluation

AAA Daily Advantage narrowed what counts as groceries and gas

Superstores, discount stores and convenience stores are out of the 5% grocery category, and supermarket pumps are out of 3% gas. The cap is also stricter than most databases show: $500 of cash back earned per calendar year across groceries, gas and wholesale clubs — not $10,000 of spend.

April 2026

Apr 24, 2026 Issuer change

The AAdvantage Aviator Red is a Citi card now

Barclays account access ended April 24 and Citi began mailing replacement cards on April 27. Autopay scheduled after the cutover was cancelled, so payments set up under Barclays simply did not run; the card had been closed to new applicants since October 2025.

Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard

February 2026

Feb 7, 2026 Issuer change

Bilt left Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo-issued Bilt Mastercards were deactivated on February 7, 2026. Bilt 2.0 is issued by Column N.A. and serviced by Cardless; holders could move across with no hard pull and the same card number, close, or convert to a Wells Fargo Autograph with a new number.

Wells Fargo Bilt Mastercard (legacy, Wells Fargo)Bilt Blue Card

January 2026

Jan 2, 2026 Benefit change Devaluation

The Amex Platinum's $895 fee starts reaching existing cardholders

The 2025 refresh took the annual fee from $695 to $895 — immediately for new members, and at the first renewal on or after January 2, 2026 for everyone already holding the card. The Saks credit that padded the math was then eliminated on July 1, 2026.

American Express The Platinum Card
Jan 1, 2026 Benefit change

Sapphire Reserve's Edit credits stopped being half-year credits

From January 1, 2026 both $250 Edit hotel credits are usable any time in the calendar year — the Jan–Jun / Jul–Dec split is gone, which is a real improvement for anyone who kept forfeiting the first half. A separate new $250 credit for select Chase Travel hotels is stated through December 31, 2026 only.

December 2025

Dec 15, 2025 Devaluation

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve's 4.5% mobile-wallet trick is dead

Points now redeem at 1.0¢ instead of 1.5¢, travel redemptions only work against U.S. Bank Travel Center purchases, and the 3x mobile-wallet earn is capped at $5,000 per billing cycle. Transfer partners were teased in December 2025 and the banner was quietly removed in May 2026 without ever launching.

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite

November 2025

Nov 1, 2025 Devaluation

Alliant's 2.5% card is a flat 1.5% card

The Tier One structure and its checking-balance requirement were eliminated on November 1, 2025 — no tiers, nothing to qualify for, and nothing above 1.5%. If you kept this card for the 2.5%, most no-fee flat-rate cards now beat it outright.

Alliant CU Cashback Visa Signature

October 2025

Oct 26, 2025 Devaluation

Sapphire Reserve removed flat 1.5¢ portal redemptions

The guaranteed 1.5 cents per point through Chase Travel ended October 26, 2025, replaced by Points Boost — up to 2 cents, but only on rotating flagged inventory. Cash-out is roughly 1 cent, so the reliable floor people planned around is gone.

Where this comes from

Every entry is written by hand from the issuer research in our data files, and carries the source we read. We date an entry by the day the change took effect; where the research could not pin the exact day, the entry says approx. rather than picking one. An entry dated in the future is announced and not yet in force, and it is marked as such.

This page is judgement — what changed and what it costs you. The raw record of what changed in our data is a different thing, and it can't be edited into a nicer story:

Data changelog — 7 card-data commits

Card facts live in version-controlled files, and every fact change is its own commit. This is that commit history, newest first — a rate we got wrong stays visible as the day we fixed it.

Aug 5, 2026
News tab: searchable 18-entry archive + tag filters; point-valuation research (53 currencies, conservative floors)
b26c894
Aug 4, 2026
Signup-offer tracking (48 offers researched + best/signup-offers page) and annual-fee verdicts (keep/on-pace/at-risk + downgrade paths + 30-day alert)
1d65e21
Jul 31, 2026
Record evening rulings: offers extension sweep, Custom Cash maximize mode, taxonomy expansion; owner answers: both Android, 1.0¢ point floor
66245af
Jul 30, 2026
Build household v1: PWA (3 tabs, add-card flow, engine, sync client), CF worker, 99-assertion test suite
24b5d93
Jul 30, 2026
Card research: 14 products researched from issuer pages, audited, encoded (cards.json + audit notes)
0216be8
Jul 30, 2026
Picker toggle+copies stepper fix, 240-card library integration, offers sweep block
9bb54e9
Jul 30, 2026
Card library research: 10 issuer groups, ~260 cards (raw agent output)
2d8b0de

Wrong, stale, or missing something? — we fix the data file, and every one of those fixes is a dated commit in the record above.