Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well. Over the last few weeks, I made retention calls on 2 credit cards and I wanted to share my data points. I started with the American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card. Even though this credit card doesn’t have an annual fee, I had heard others had success getting retention offers, so I decided to call and see if there were any offers. I started with the AMEX Chat, but the chat rep said I needed to call a specific department to talk about retention offers. On the phone, I explained to the rep that I have been using my American Express Business Platinum Card and American Express Business Gold Card a lot recently and haven’t been using my AMEX Blue Business Plus very much lately and I was considering closing the card. The rep checked the offers and said they could offer me a $50 statement credit with no spend. I asked if there were any other offers, but there were no better offers available, so I gladly accepted the offer. The $50 statement credit posted to my account a few days later.
Up next, I called about my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card after the $400 annual fee posted to my account. I told the rep that I was considering closing the credit card since the annual fee just posted. The rep checked for retention offers and said they could give me 10,000 points to keep the credit card open to offset part of the annual fee. I gladly accepted the offer and the rep said I would see the 10,000 points on my next statement. I didn’t ask about any other offers. Looking at my March 2023 statement, I spent $11,000+ during the last cardmember year and used up the entire $325 travel credit. 10,000 points are worth $150 toward travel when used with the Real-Time Rewards feature. $325 travel credit + $150 in points toward travel – $400 annual fee = $75 net gain.
If you have any questions about these credit cards or retention offers, please leave a comment below. Have you made or received retention offers on either of these credit cards recently? I would love to hear about your data points. Have a great day everyone.
Only got a 5k offer on my Altitude Reserve. Same offer I got last year. The year before that they waived the full $400 AF.
Hi Phil, those are good data points. I have gotten 5,000 points in previous years too, but never got them to waive the $400 annual fee. Did you spend a lot on that card that year?
I just went and checked. I spent around ~$21k the year I got them to waive it. I think it had more to do with getting a sympathetic CS rep when I called for the retention. They asked why I was considering canceling the card and I told them it’s a travel card and I haven’t been able to use the card to it’s potential because of COVID. They said they would put in a request to have the AF waived. The next day it showed up on my account as “REVERSAL OF ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE”.
I believe it was totally luck in getting the correct CS rep and the whole cardmember year was during COVID (3/5/2020 – 3/5/2021).
I highly, highly doubt they would ever waive it again.
Hi Phil, yes, it seems like the perfect combo of high spend, plus having your card member year during Covid, and getting a sympathetic rep. Perfect storm to get the whole $400 AF refunded.