Good afternoon everyone. Part of my credit card strategy is to call and ask for a retention offers every time a credit card annual fee posts to my account. I am not successful 100% of the time, but I always find it worthwhile when I receive a retention offer for $50, $100, $150 or even $695 with a single call. Today’s post is a friendly reminder to call and ask for retention offers. The worse thing that can happen is that the rep screams at you relentlessly says they have no offers available. You can then decide to keep the card open, downgrade to a no annual fee credit card, or cancel the card. Here are my 2 recent examples.
The $450 annual fee posted to Laura’s JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card on January 1. She called the customer service number on the back of the card and received a $150 statement credit to keep her credit card open. The $150 statement credit posted at the end of January and then she paid off the remaining credit card balance. $150 for a 5-7 minute phone call is a great hourly rate :)
Unfortunately, one of the downsides with retention offers from Chase is that they usually send you a 1099-MISC tax form claiming the retention offer is “Other Income”, so the value of your retention offer will be slightly less after you pay taxes. Here is an analogy I like to use: If your boss came to you and said “we want to give you a $150 raise,” would you object because your taxes will go up slightly? I doubt it.
A few days ago, I noticed the $400 annual fee posted to my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card. I called the customer service number on the back of the card and received 4,000 “Customer Appreciation Points” that will post on my April statement. I value these points at 1.5 CPP since I use them for travel Real Time Rewards, so this was only a $60 retention offer. I will be able to use the $325 travel credit in the coming months, and my recent experience with Submitting Primary Rental Car CDW Insurance Claim with eClaimsLine / Card Benefit Services with this credit card saved me $685.
“You hit 0% of the shots you do not take” aka, if you never pick up the phone and ask for retention offers, you will never receive any retention offers. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Called in to USB regarding the mobile wallet issue (i.e. transactions with Apple Pay only earning 1X instead of 3X) and asked for a retention offer since AF posted at the same time. Was offered 1,000 points.
Wonder if they’re hurting from the Union Bank merger. Was expecting 10,000 or 5,000 points. 4,000 is close enough, but 1,000? Feels like they would’ve been better off saying nothing’s available.
Have you had any issues with mobile wallet transactions? DPs indicate that it’s been occurring since Jan. 2024.
I noticed that issue a few months ago. Some transactions in January show as 1x, but transactions in February and March show as 3x for ApplePay purchases. I’m looking at the rewards tab in the app.
HUCA. Have heard other dps that 2nd retention call is more generous. I myself was awarded 5k, when I usually have gotten 10k in the past. This was on the first call, fwiw.
Thank you for sharing your data point :)