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Beginner’s Guide: What is a retention offer?
Simply…a retention offer is an offer that is given by the bank to retain you as a customer. Keeping a credit card, or charge card, in your wallet is an investment, and with any investment you’re looking for some return. If the underlying points you earn or the benefits provided by the card aren’t giving you that return, you may be thinking about cancelling that card.
Anytime one of my cards is hit with an annual fee, I do an analysis to determine whether the fees I’m paying are worth the benefits I extract. Whenever I’m on the fence as to whether I will keep it or not, I always investigate retention offers that the bank may give me to keep that card another year. I’d strongly suggest you do the same.
Here’s how I approach it
When your cardmember year has expired you’re gonna get hit with an annual fee. You want to pre-emp this fee and call in the month or so ahead to see if there are any offers.
Chat:
First off…ask via chat. Most likely they won’t be able to give you your offer, but they will tell you if they see an offer on your account. If they don’t…it doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t one available.
A look at how I’ve handled it in the chat earlier in the pandemic
Phone
Get on the phone and call up an agent. Ask if there are any retention offers available. If they say no, and you’re willing to give up the card…tell them you want to cancel. I’m seriously considering dumping the card. The annual fee is high and I’m not taking advantage of most of the benefits I’d usually get outsized value from…uber, incidental airline fee credits, lounge access, etc.
In 2021, I called in and was given an offer for 30k after $4k spend. It was a very solid offer and in fact, many people who did it later in the year got 50k offers!
Either way you’ll usually be transferred to a specialist.
In my experience specialists work on a three tiered retention schedule. YMMV but if you ask for the best available offer they are SUPPOSED to give it to you…skipping the initial two offers.
- First offer: Do you know how amazing your bennies are…lemme tell you
- they’ll prolly ask you why you wanna leave and what you value most
- 2nd offer: okkkkk sir we can give you…a lowball points or statement credit
- 3rd offer: ok sir this is the best we can do
Retention offers I’ve negotiated:
A few of the offers I’ve had the past…
- American Express Platinum: 50k – no spend
- Amex Platinum – 30k with $4k spend in 3 months
- American Express Gold Business: 15k – no spend
- Barclay AA Aviator Red: annual fee waived…no spend
- Amex Platinum: 20k no spend
Be Advised
Retention offers are getting stingier and stingier and vary widely.
In fact, over the last couple of years, on multiple cards I’ve expected to talk to someone…but the reality was different. When I told the automated agent I wanted to cancel, I was prompted that if I pressed a button they would go ahead and do it. I never spoke to a real person. They went ahead and cancelled the card without ever putting me in contact with retention or even a breathing human.
So if you say you want to cancel, be prepared to give up the card then and there – you may not get transferred to a specialist. Always ask for retention offers, if they say there are none, only say you want to cancel if you are willing to pull the trigger. You may get what you ask for.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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