One thing I’m surprised more card issuers don’t do is offer automated retention offers. Some card issuers do this by offering anniversary card benefits (e.g Southwest cards give you an annual points post & lots of hotel cards give restricted free night certificates) but those aren’t customizable based on how likely it is that a cardholder will cancel a card.
Customer acquisition costs for new cardholders are extremely high, so being able to retain customers long term is important for profitability. Card issuers will often give retention offers if you call in to cancel. We’ve seen American Express send out targeted spending bonuses to cardholders that will have their annual fee due during the promo period (meaning they can’t really participate unless they pay the annual fee) but this is the first time I’ve seen an offer specifically call out it being a card anniversary offer. Reader Brett W received this offer:
As you can see the length of the offer isn’t long and it’s a small bonus (maximum of 1,500 points) but it’s based around when his annual fee will be due. I’d be extremely surprised if we don’t see more of these offers in the future as card issuers build up data on when cardholders are likely to cancel and what offers will get them to keep the card.
