I just got 55,000 American Express points
We talked about the credit card retention offer before: Retention Offer Before Closing the Credit Card. Today, one of my American Express Platinum cards is due for an annual fee, so I decide to ask for retention before I consider closing the card. Before start, I want to give you a simple breakdown of the platinum card benefits:
- $200 Airline Credit
- $100 Saks Fifth Avenue Credit
- $200 Uber and Uber Eat Credit
- $240 Entertainment Credit(Audible, Disney+, The Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, Peacock, SiriusXM, and The New York Times )
- $189 Clear Credit(Airport Security program)
- Free Global Entry or TSA-Pre
- $200 Hotel Credit
- Gold member of Hilton and Marriott
- Airport Lounge program
- Free Shoprunner and Walmart+ membership
- $300 Equinox Credit & $300 SoulCycle At-Home Bike Credit
Totally for an annual fee of $695. I am holding the Schwab version of the platinum card, which has an exclusive benefit: transfer points to the Schwab brokerage account at a ratio of 1 point=1.1 cent. So for me, I believe it is worthy to keep if I can have a good retention offer. Actually, I have used this way to generate a monthly income nicely: My Cash Flow from Credit Cards: How I earn $542 per month.
So I open the chat window on my online bank account, and just input”Cancel a card” to avoid more robot conversation:
The system will transfer your chat to a real agent who is in charge of the cancellation:
Then they will ask you the reason to cancel, you can express your major concern. For me, it is high annual fee:
Then ask for a retention offer directly, not to waste time:
If there is an offer on your account, the agent will tell you, which means, the offer is not 100% available. Luckily, there is one for me:
55,000 points are worth at least $605. Combined with all the benefits, I think I can keep it for 1 more year! If no offers is available, you must seriously think about if it is worthy to keep.