A credit card’s value doesn’t stop at the welcome bonus and everyday benefits. There’s also some hidden leftover value, and a Retention Offer is one example. When you’re about to close a card, don’t forget to squeeze out that last bit of value. Today I’ll summarize some retention tips and lessons based on my recent experience.

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An Introduction to Credit Card Retention Offers

Generally speaking, when you’re thinking about closing a card, the credit card issuer will try various ways to persuade you to keep using it. The most common approach is to offer you some extra card benefits, which is what we usually call a Retention Offer. There are many types of Retention Offers, such as:

  • A lower APR
  • A waived annual fee
  • Some Statement Credit as an incentive
  • A spending offer such as spend xxx, earn xxx points
  • Bonus rewards or cash back in certain categories

Each bank is different in how generous its Retention Offers are, and the offer can also vary by card. And if you happen to get an agent in a bad mood, they may not even want to check for you. However, most banks usually have a dedicated department that handles Retention Offers for customers, and the offers they can see are often much better than what a regular customer service agent can provide. For a more detailed introduction to Retention Offers, see:

The Offers I Recently Received

Recently, annual fees were coming due on quite a few cards for me and my wife, so I called in one by one to ask about Retention Offers. Here are the offers I chose:

After making so many calls, I feel like I now have enough data points to organize and analyze some Retention Offer strategies. In the next few sections, I’ll use these examples to explain them.

Tip 1: Compare Credit Cards

Usually, the agent won’t immediately tell you every available retention offer. They’ll chat with you a bit first, maybe read off the card’s benefits or talk about newly added features. If you come across as rude or overly desperate and just demand an offer, the agent may get annoyed and decide not to give you anything. My suggestion is to be reasonable and make your case clearly. For example, when I called Citi and Barclays to ask about Retention Offers, I compared the Citi AA Card with the Barclays Aviator.

When I called Citi about retention on the AA card:

  • Agent: This is a great card. You get free checked bags, priority boarding, and it recently dropped foreign transaction fees!
  • Me: I know those benefits. The main reason I want to close the card is that I already have the Barclays Aviator, and that card has basically the same benefits: free checked bags, priority boarding, and no foreign transaction fee. Its annual fee is also only $89, which is lower than this one. And they often send me spending bonus offers. Could you check whether I have a similar spending bonus offer here?
  • Agent: I understand. Let me check for you. One moment.

In the end, I got an annual-fee offset offer: spend $95 and receive a $95 credit, effectively wiping out the annual fee. When I called Barclays, I also mentioned the advantages of the Citi AA card, such as waiving my annual fee this year. Barclays didn’t want to lose out either, so they waived the annual fee on my Aviator as well.

This method also works with regular customer service agents. Once they hear your reasoning and feel it makes sense, they may proactively look for offers for you or transfer you to the retention department.

Tip 2: Complain About a Weak Spot

Sometimes, the reason you want to close a card is simply that it hasn’t lived up to your expectations, so of course you don’t want to keep paying the annual fee. In that case, if you mention the card’s shortcomings on the call, the agent may be more understanding and more willing to look patiently for an offer. Here’s part of my conversation when I called about the AMEX EveryDay Preferred:

  • Me: This is so strange. Why didn’t my purchases at Walmart and Target earn 4.5x points? Doesn’t this card earn 3*1.5 at supermarkets?
  • Agent: Target is considered a discount store, not a supermarket. Some Walmarts qualify and some don’t; the one you usually go to apparently doesn’t. By the way, what do you usually buy at supermarkets?
  • Me: Groceries, of course. I shop for groceries at those two stores all the time, so it’s really disappointing not to get 4.5x points.
  • Agent: Sorry, that’s just how the merchants are categorized, and we can’t change it. But since you’ve had the card for so long, let me see whether there’s anything I can offer to make up for it.
  • Me: Okay.
  • Agent: I checked, and the most I can offer is 8,000 Membership Rewards points. How does that sound?

Of course, I wasn’t going to say no. This method works especially well with AMEX, whose agents are generally helpful and often have more authority. Regular agents can sometimes give you an offer directly without even transferring you to a dedicated retention department.

Tip 3: Ask About Multiple Cards in One Call

Many of us have several credit cards with the same bank. If you call separately for retention on every single card, you have to go through the same back-and-forth with a regular customer service agent every time. In fact, once you’ve been transferred to the retention department and asked about the first card, you can often ask whether similar offers are available on your other cards too. Asking about multiple cards in one call saves time, and the agent is already familiar with you, so they may be more patient in checking for offers. That’s the ideal situation. In my recent calls, both Citi and AMEX were willing to check my cards one by one.

  • Agent: I’ve already enrolled you in this offer. The terms are... [several hundred words omitted] ... Do you have any other questions?
  • Me: Thank you so much. I love bonus offers. By the way, I have other Citi cards too. Could you check whether there are similar offers on those?
  • Agent: Of course. Please give me the card number and I’ll check.
  • ……
  • Me: Thank you so much. I’ll take this offer too. Could you also check another Citi card for me?
  • Agent: No problem.

So in a single phone call, I checked all of my cards. Of course, some cards had offers and some didn’t, but it never hurts to ask.

Tip 4: Be Direct

Some phone systems have a cancel card option built in. If you call and say “cancel card,” the system may automatically route you to the relevant department, so you don’t have to waste time talking with a regular customer service agent. Recently, when I called AMEX about offers on the AMEX Platinum and AMEX Premier Gold Rewards, I simply said I wanted to cancel the card in the automated phone system, and it automatically transferred me to the appropriate customer consulting department. With that specialized department, I didn’t bother with extra small talk:

  • Me: Hi, I’m planning to cancel this card. Are there any retention offers available that would make it worth keeping?
  • Specialist: One moment while I check. You have the following offers: 1, 2, 3...
  • Me: Great, I’ll take offer 1.

The whole process took less than five minutes, and I got a retention offer right away. Very efficient.

But remember: this does not work with Citi, because there is a chance the system will automatically close your credit card instead of transferring you to a live agent.

Tip 5: Compare the Offers

Sometimes the agent will give you several retention offers to choose from. When that happens, you should choose based on your actual situation and needs. If you can meet the requirements to earn the offers, then generally the more valuable reward is better. For example, here are several offers I was given when I called about the Citi AT&T credit card:

  • A: Spend $3,000 in six months and earn an extra $100 statement credit
  • B: Spend $3,000 in six months and earn an extra 10,000 ThankYou Points
  • C: Spend $1,000 and earn 5,000 ThankYou Points
  • D: Earn an extra 1 TYP on each purchase, up to 50,000

First of all, this is a card I use a lot. Earning 3x TYP on most online shopping makes it an excellent card. So spending $3,000 in six months is no problem at all. Since I could meet the requirements for both A and B, there was no reason to choose C. As for D, it was only an extra 1 TYP per purchase, and I probably wouldn’t spend anywhere close to 50,000 anyway, so it wasn’t worth the hassle. Between A and B, I preferred TYP because the points could be used at 1.6 cents each toward AA airfare, or transferred to airline miles for award tickets. The value of 10,000 TYP would be greater than $100, so I ultimately chose B.

Conclusion

Asking for a credit card retention offer is absolutely within your rights, and mastering these techniques can make the process much more effective. However, I wouldn’t recommend taking the offer, getting the bonus, and then immediately closing the card. That could hurt your relationship with the bank, and in the long run it’s probably not worth it.