Here’s an easy way to get points towards your next trip. Might I recommend Quilotoa in Ecuador? Photo by: Evan Berman

I’ve written before about how credit cards are a terrific way to unlock inexpensive travel. Whether you have 8-plus cards or just 1, you probably enjoy the earning points part more than the paying the annual fee part. Unfortunately, with many of the great cards– such as the AmEx Platinum– come with a high annual fee. Here’s a tip on how to make the most of that, whether you plan to keep or close the card.

What is a Retention Offer?

Here’s a simple business idea: it’s cheaper and easier to retain existing customers than to find new ones. How is that relevant to this article? Well, once you’re a cardholder, you are a customer for AmEx, Chase, Citi, Capital One, Discover, etc. As such, they want to keep you for as long as possible. The way that they do this is by offering a retention offer– in return for a guarantee that you will not close the card for 12 months, they will offer a bonus. This may vary and is usually either a statement credit or points.

You may be provided this on the spot or offered an incentive to spend on the card. Similar to a sign-up offer, this is in the form of “spend x amount in y days to earn z points.”

Important Steps to Follow

There are a few things to note in terms of timing and process:

1. You must wait until the annual fee posts for your card. There is nothing that the Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) can do until then.
2. You may call or use the chat function on you AmEx account (all other issuers such as Chase or Capital One require calling). If you’re worried about being put on the spot or “lying” about your potential cancellation, I recommend using the chat function.
   • If using the chat function, type in cancel card as the prompt and you will be directed to the retention specialist. Don’t worry about accidentally cancelling the card, you must provide consent for this to occur.
3. You’ll get the hard sell on why you should keep the card, especially if you, like me, use the statement credits to get as much value as possible from the card. Don’t be put off by this, the job of a “retention specialist” is to retain customers! Funny how that works. 😉
4. They know what you’re doing, you don’t need to be coy. By all means, start off with saying “I’m thinking about cancelling my card because of [insert reason(s)]. If you don’t get an offer, be up front and ask if there is a retention offer available.
5. If the offer is not what you hope for, feel free to ask if that’s the best offer they have. Also, try again with another agent– you never know what you might find!

Here are the numbers to call for each major card issuer:

• AmEx (800) 452-3945
• Barclays & BofA Phone number on back of your card (both rarely provide retention offers)
• Capital One (877) 513-9959
• Chase (800) 945-2000
• Citi (800) 950-5114
• Discover Phone number on back of your card (ask for a retention specialist)

My Experience

The $695 annual fee for my AmEx Platinum hit in January and I was not looking forward to paying it. Once the AF was displayed, I used the chat function and was connected within a minute. After some back and forth with the retention specialist, I hadn’t gotten anywhere and after she mentioned all the value that I’d gotten from the statement credits, I decided to get straight to the point:

The “exclusive offer” and “valued Card Member” comments are boilerplate and precede the offer. Again, you may have a different offer– I’ve seen reports of offers as high as 50,000 points for $5,000 spend in 3 months. That being said, those individuals reported spending upwards of $70,000 on this card, which is not great due to the point earning structure. 30,000 for $3,000 spend seems to be the standard offer currently.

As mentioned above, another possibility is a statement credit. This could be better or worse, depending on your redemptions and how you value points. Personally, I value AmEx points at a minimum of 1.7 cents per point (and usually much higher). As such, I’d prefer 30,000 points to $500. However, you will not get to choose between offers frequently.

The conversation continued with an explanation of the offer. Very important: you MUST keep the card open for 12 months after accepting the offer. If you close the card before then, AmEx has a tendency of clawing back your points. Below is the full text and a link to the terms and conditions:

After my confirmation that I accepted the offer, she told me that I was good to go and the offer had been activated:

Summary

I took 5 minutes to chat with AmEx after the annual fee had posted for my AmEx Platinum card. By asking for a retention offer before paying it, I was able to receive an offer for 30,000 Membership Rewards points by spending $3,000 in 3 months. While much lower than the 125k after 6k spend and 15x on Dining up to $25k in the first 6 months sign-up bonus that I received when opening the card, this is an easy way to get 30,000 extra points for keeping a card I was already planning on keeping.

This article focuses on the Platinum Card, but any time you have a card anniversary (multiples of 12 months since you opened the card), call (or chat) in and see what the options are for a retention bonus. Even if you are not offered one or it is poor, you can always say that you’re still evaluating and try again later. There is no pressure to keep or cancel your card!

Have you used this tip before? If so, let me know what your best and/or worst offer was in the comments below!

Evan