Master Collection of all of My Reconsideration and Retention Calls

As an experienced miles and points collector, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be approved for new credit cards (and their huge sign up bonuses) and to keep the best travel credit cards while paying the least amount of annual fees.  Some credit card companies will offer statement credits, either to fully or partially offset the annual fee, just by calling and asking.  Other times, they will offer a “spending challenge” where you will have to spend $X in Y months to get a statement credit or bonus miles/points.  Here are some of my recent conversations concerting reconsideration calls (calls to be approved for new credit cards) and retention calls (calls to minimize or eliminate the annual fee).

For simplicity, green represents good calls (such as being approved or receiving a favorable retention bonus) and red represents bad calls (such as not being approved or not receiving a retention bonus).

Reconsideration Calls (and one Reconsideration Bank Visit):

• 7/14/14 – US Bank Club Carlson Business Credit Card bank visit (link).  
• Account approved after a few days.
• 6/12/14 – Citi American Airlines Executive World MasterCard (link).  
• Account approved over the phone.
• 6/12/14 – Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card (link).
• Account approved over the phone.

Retention Calls:

• 8/6/14 – Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card (link).
• Received a category 1-4 free night certificate after spending $1,000 in 3 months.
• 8/6/14 – Chase Southwest Airlines Premier Credit Card (link).
• Received 3,000 Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward Points.
• 7/29/14 – Dad’s Citi American Airlines Platinum MasterCard (link).
• Received a $95 statement credit.

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