What changed in the cards we track: August 2026

We re-check every card in our catalog against the issuer's own page, and we log every change with its old value, its new value and the date. This is the first monthly summary of what that turned up.

Welcome offers moved in three directions

Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select made its welcome offer easier to reach. The spend threshold dropped from $3,500 to $2,500, and the window tightened from four months to three. Lower spend over a shorter period is a better deal for most people, but it is worth noticing if you were pacing the spend deliberately — you now have three months, not four.

World of Hyatt dropped its welcome spend from $5,000 to $3,000, with no change we could see to what the offer pays. That is straightforwardly better.

Delta SkyMiles Gold went the other way, from $2,000 to $3,000.

Welcome offers change more often than earning rates do, and they change quietly. If you are holding off on an application, the requirement you researched a month ago may not be the one you are held to.

Bilt Obsidian improved twice

Rent went from 1x to 1.25x, and the everyday base rate from 1x to 2x.

The base rate is the one that matters more than it looks. A bonus category only applies to the spend that falls inside it, but the base rate applies to everything else — which for most people is the majority of what they charge. Doubling it moves more points than a new 3x category on something you buy twice a year.

Why we publish this

An audit is only worth what the rates behind it are worth. Ours are read from each issuer's own page, re-checked daily, and logged with a date, and this is the part of the product that is easiest to claim and hardest to prove. Publishing what moved, every month, is the only way to show it rather than assert it.

Rates and terms above were read from each issuer's own page during August 2026 and were current at publication. They change — that is rather the point.