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2 Recent Credit Card Retention Offers: $150 Statement Credit & 4,000 Customer Appreciation Points

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 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 :)

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Tracking Down a Missing $50 Bank of America Business Credit Card Retention Offer

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  On October 31, I called Bank of America about my Bank of America Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards (UCR) Credit Card and told the rep I wanted to close the credit card because I wasn’t using it anymore.  The rep offered me a $50 retention offer with no spend if I kept the credit card open and I said yes.  Fast forward to December 7, I still had not seen the $50 retention offer, which I assumed would show up as a $50 statement credit.  As part of my daily routine, I check my Bank of America app and did not see any credits show up on my UCR.  When I called Bank of America to inquire about the status of my $50 retention offer, the rep put me on hold for a few minutes to read the notes and see what happened.  When the rep returned, I was told that the $50 retention offer was put into my Cash Rewards.  I never thought to check there.  In this post, I will show you where to go to find the retention offer in the Cash Rewards and the various redemption options.

To get started, sign into your Bank of America account (either online or via the app), select your business credit card account, and then select the corporate account.

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PSA: Confirm Retention Offer Statement Credit or Bonus Points Post to your Account – If Not, Follow Up

Good afternoon everyone.  At the end of every year, I write a post like I Paid $4,043 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2022 – Was it Worth it?  In that post, I shared how much I paid in credit card annual fees and how much value I received from credit card benefits, targeted spending offers, and retention offers.  99% of the time, I get more value out of a credit card than the cost of the annual fee (otherwise I would have closed or downgraded to a cheaper or no annual fee credit card).  One of the key parts of my credit card strategy is to call every time a credit card annual fee posts to my account. 90% of the time, I do not get any retention offer or a retention offer that does not excite me (like 0% APR for 12 months or 0% balance transfers).  But about 10% of the time, I do get a decent retention offer that I happily accept.  Like the old saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you do not take.

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My 2 Unsuccessful Retention Offer Calls for Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business & AMEX Gold

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well. Yesterday, I called Chase and American Express about 2 credit cards that had annual fees that just posted. When I called Chase about my Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card (no longer available for sign up or product change), I told the rep that the $99 annual fee just posted to my account and that I wasn’t using this credit card very much since I use my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card (no longer available for sign up, but can be product changed into) for my Marriott purchases.  I asked the rep if they were able to waive the annual fee. The rep looked for retention offers and said there were no offers available.  For reference, in past years, I have received retention offers of $50 or $100.

Generally, I prefer to keep credit cards that are no longer available, unless there is a very good reason to close or product change them to another credit card, so I decided to keep the card open.  With that said, I can easily get more than $99 of value with the 35K Marriott Free Night Certificate that comes with this credit card each year. In fact, I already redeemed my 35K FNC for a stay later this month that costs more than $200.

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My Recent Retention Offers for AMEX Blue Business Plus & US Bank Altitude Reserve

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.