Retention offers are incentives given by credit card companies to get you to continue to keep your credit card account open. The incentive comes in the form of a waived annual fee, a statement credit, or some bonus points and miles given to you (although never as high as a welcome bonus).
Why would credit card companies do this? Because they want you to keep your account open so they can continue to profit off of you. They are counting on you keeping your card open, charging money to it, and accumulating debt so they can charge you interest. They do not know that those of us in the points and miles world will not be accumulating debt because we pay off our cards in full every month.
Retention offers are important because they help us be able to keep the expensive credit cards with the great benefits that we have applied for, without the cost of the annual fee.
When Should I Ask for One?
Retention offers should be asked for when the second annual fee is charged on your credit card. You have 30 days from the moment the fee hits your account to ask for a retention offer.
You cannot ask for a retention offer for the first annual fee on a credit card so do not even try.
How Do I Ask for One?
Call the number on the back of your credit card and chose the options to speak to a representative. With American Express you can ask for one through the chat in your account.
When you get ahold of the representative tell them that you are THINKING of cancelling your credit card because you have other cards that offer similar benefits and you just can’t justify the annual fee of this card. They will start to tell you all the wonderful benefits of your card. Be prepared to verbally dodge whatever they say. In the end if they do not mention a retention offer, you can kindly ask if there are any available. If there are not, tell them that you need more time to think about it and hang up. Try calling again another day since retention offers can change day to day.
My Experience
I’ve only ever tried this once with my Sapphire Preferred card because it is the only card that has had a second annual fee charged. I’ve tried calling 3 times now and have had no luck. There isn’t a guarantee that asking for one will work. If you cannot get a retention offer then it is completely up to you if you want to pay the annual fee again, downgrade to a no annual fee card, or cancel your card altogether.
