Credit Card Retention Bonuses

[milechazzer]

Can anyone clarify regarding Amex's "process"....

Does Amex have an actual "retention department"?  In my experience, when I call and say I want to close the account, the regular customer service rep always says "Sure, I can take care of that for you."
If there is an actual retention department, can you call up and ask to be transferred to retention?
Is there any difference in how they handle retention for personal cards vs. business cards? Charge cards vs. credit cards?

thx

[YY]

Can anyone clarify regarding Amex's "process"....

Does Amex have an actual "retention department"?  In my experience, when I call and say I want to close the account, the regular customer service rep always says "Sure, I can take care of that for you."
If there is an actual retention department, can you call up and ask to be transferred to retention?
Is there any difference in how they handle retention for personal cards vs. business cards? Charge cards vs. credit cards?

thx

Just call the customer service number on the back of your card and tell them you were thinking of cancelling because of the high fee, or other reasons you can think of and was wondering if there was a way to wave the fee or give you some kind of bonus to stay on
IME they asked me a bunch of questions about my business and they offered me a small retention bonus of 7k miles, after saying how high the fee was and its not worth it they finally came back withw 25k bonus offer.
From what I have read the retention bonus depends on how good of a customer you are, although there are some exceptions where people got good deals even after only being with them a few months and only a few thousand charged

[milechazzer]

Just call the customer service number on the back of your card and tell them you were thinking of cancelling because of the high fee, or other reasons you can think of and was wondering if there was a way to wave the fee or give you some kind of bonus to stay on
IME they asked me a bunch of questions about my business and they offered me a small retention bonus of 7k miles, after saying how high the fee was and its not worth it they finally came back withw 25k bonus offer.
From what I have read the retention bonus depends on how good of a customer you are, although there are some exceptions where people got good deals even after only being with them a few months and only a few thousand charged

Thx. I've had the Amex PRG open for about a year, and have probably spent close to $70k in total. I already called up and told the cust serv rep exactly what you suggest above, and she responded that they could not waive the fee or offer me any points. I'm going to HUCA, but was curious whether I was missing anything, or it's just the luck of the draw.

[YY]

Thx. I've had the Amex PRG open for about a year, and have probably spent close to $70k in total. I already called up and told the cust serv rep exactly what you suggest above, and she responded that they could not waive the fee or offer me any points. I'm going to HUCA, but was curious whether I was missing anything, or it's just the luck of the draw.

another thing that may be different is I have been an Amex customer for 12 years although only has the Platinum card for 1 year with similar spending to you

[Fan of Dan]

UA card 10K miles
SPG card 4K SPG points.

[askmoses]

UA card 10K miles
SPG card 4K SPG points.

Was it the first rep on the SPG or did they transfer you to retentions?

[Fan of Dan]

Was it the first rep on the SPG or did they transfer you to retentions?

Got transferred.

[milechazzer]

another thing that may be different is I have been an Amex customer for 12 years although only has the Platinum card for 1 year with similar spending to you

No, that can't be it. I have to question how accurate their records are, but they always thank me for being an amex customer since '95

[milechazzer]

Thx. I've had the Amex PRG open for about a year, and have probably spent close to $70k in total. I already called up and told the cust serv rep exactly what you suggest above, and she responded that they could not waive the fee or offer me any points. I'm going to HUCA, but was curious whether I was missing anything, or it's just the luck of the draw.

I called back again, and told them point blank I wanted to close the account. After the rep said "sure, no problem" and read me the disclosures, I asked again about working with me on the annual fee. Finally he transferred me to a "membership consultant" who could discuss that possibility. After putting me on hold for about 10 minutes, the membership consultant finally offered me 10k MR pts up front plus add'l 7500 MR pts after I spend $1500 within 60 days (based on the $175 annual fee).

[tzifanya54]

Thx. I've had the Amex PRG open for about a year, and have probably spent close to $70k in total. I already called up and told the cust serv rep exactly what you suggest above, and she responded that they could not waive the fee or offer me any points. I'm going to HUCA, but was curious whether I was missing anything, or it's just the luck of the draw.

Its at least partially luck of draw... I recently made a big stink on some of the amex cards my wife has about the AF's. They transfered me to a supervisor at retentions that actually read her compuer screen to me... where it clearly said they cant do a/t for extra points credits, or even downgrade the cards(due to lack of spending). the very next day the computer automatically threw out 2 offers and I had the option to downgrade....

[YY]

I called back again, and told them point blank I wanted to close the account. After the rep said "sure, no problem" and read me the disclosures, I asked again about working with me on the annual fee. Finally he transferred me to a "membership consultant" who could discuss that possibility. After putting me on hold for about 10 minutes, the membership consultant finally offered me 10k MR pts up front plus add'l 7500 MR pts after I spend $1500 within 60 days (based on the $175 annual fee).

glad you were able to finally get someone who could help.
It may also be partially based on what kind of card you have.
I had a Business Platinum with a $450 AF, maybe they want to retain that more.
The best part is, once you get your points posted, you can then still go and downgrade to green

[deusconsilio]

I called back again, and told them point blank I wanted to close the account. After the rep said "sure, no problem" and read me the disclosures, I asked again about working with me on the annual fee. Finally he transferred me to a "membership consultant" who could discuss that possibility. After putting me on hold for about 10 minutes, the membership consultant finally offered me 10k MR pts up front plus add'l 7500 MR pts after I spend $1500 within 60 days (based on the $175 annual fee).

You did well. They never offered to transfer me and after 4x HUCA I just cancelled the card.

[milechazzer]

You did well. They never offered to transfer me and after 4x HUCA I just cancelled the card.

Even if they turn you down for a retention bonus, don't you still have the option to upgrade the account to Platinum for a bonus?

[yoruel]

anyone got anything on amex spg card recently ?

No.
I have another card i want to cancel, should i wait(the fee is not coming for a while)

[askmoses]

No.
I have another card i want to cancel, should i wait(the fee is not coming for a while)

Why cancel now then?

[SLP]

How many days do I have from when the annual fee posts to request a refund?

[deusconsilio]

Even if they turn you down for a retention bonus, don't you still have the option to upgrade the account to Platinum for a bonus?

This was the Amex SPG card

[CS1]

This was the Amex SPG card

-1
Do you have other spg cards?

[Alexsei]

Chase BA 9k avios after $1500 spend in 3 months
Any better offers I should push for ?

[Fan of Dan]

Chase BA 9k avios after $1500 spend in 3 months
Any better offers I should push for ?

That is good.