Credit Card Losing A Benefit? Ask For Compensation

Credit cards often have new benefits added, but they also have benefits removed or modified. Whenever this happens, you should always call in and ask for some type of compensation. This has worked extremely well for me in the past and is something I realized I haven’t talked about before.

Examples Of It Working

Let me give you three specific examples of this working:

How To Ask For Compensation

You attract more bees with honey than vinegar and I find that this is especially true when it comes to asking for compensation. Always be polite and friendly, customer service representatives have the discretion to give you a small amount of points/miles/cash back but they by no means have to.

Try to be specific as possible, for example: “Hello, I just received a letter informing me that the lounge club benefit would be going away. That’s one of the main reasons I applied for this card. I’m not sure I’ll keep this card long term anymore because of this, is it possible to get 5,000 Chase UR points to help cover future lounge expenses? Thank you and have a nice day”.

Obviously don’t use that exact same script and experiment until you find something that works for you. I usually have better success when I ask for a specific compensation (e.g 5k points) but this also limits you a bit as they might have offered you more.

Recent Benefits That Have Been Removed

This is an incomplete list, so if you remember any other benefits that have been recently removed – comment below.

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Jay
Jay (@guest_146223)
July 16, 2015 11:49

Called Chase about the BA card back in May and a supervisor gave me 3,500 goodwill points – 2 weeks later received a letter stating “my request for goodwill points was reviewed and unable to be granted”. Any insight on this happening to others?

Laura
Laura (@guest_99882)
April 6, 2015 15:40

I called Chase and got 4,500 points for losing the Ink benefit. I called Amex and got 2000 points for losing the portion of the Shop Runner benefit which allowed free 2-day shipping for purchases under $20 (I used it A LOT and so I mentioned that). Called Club Carlson and asked for some compensation for the massive devaluation (I didn’t mention the word devaluation, but that’s what it is). No go with Club Calrson. It’s probalby because I’m a pretty recent CC holder, just 3 months. Oh well, two out of three is good enough for me, but I’ll be canceling my Club Carlson card before the annual fee is due again next year.

Austo
Austo (@guest_98606)
April 3, 2015 17:27

I called in and got 5,000 UR. I spent about 10 minutes on the phone and didn’t mention compensation until about minute 8. At first I just repeatedly said I was disappointed it was going away and asked which cards have no annual fee if I wanted to switch, etc.

Austo
Austo (@guest_98608)
April 3, 2015 17:30

It did leave me with a question that I didn’t ask the CSR though. If I have a sapphire card and switch to the Ink Cash w/o Annual Fee.. does the Sapphire card create the ability for me to transfer my UR points earned from the Ink Cash? (I’m assuming the “5% cash back” is ilke the “200 dollars” that Freedom adverts)

Gunnie
Gunnie (@guest_97849)
April 2, 2015 07:17

In my attempt to ask for point compensation I got the following in a longer than necessary secure message.

“Further, we are unable to compensate your account with ultimate rewards points.”

Josh
Josh (@guest_97376)
April 1, 2015 09:36

I decided to try beating around the bush for the Chase Ink Lounge benefit, but they eventually came back with “sorry we have nothing to offer as compensation for the loss of this product.” Was worth a shot.

Josh
Josh (@guest_97951)
April 2, 2015 12:15

I logged in today and noticed my credit line increased $2k. Maybe this is compensation? I didn’t request the increase and it wasn’t mentioned in the secured message responses.

Glenn
Glenn (@guest_97096)
March 31, 2015 20:04

Nope, shot down via SM.

Bryan
Bryan (@guest_96943)
March 31, 2015 13:35

Another no-go here, unfortunately. I tried over secure message. Maybe calling would be a different story…

NaritaBound
NaritaBound (@guest_96864)
March 31, 2015 09:27

How about the Chase British Airways card that will apparently be lowering the earning rate for everyday spend from 1.25x to 1x?

Zach
Zach (@guest_96860)
March 31, 2015 09:19

Like Jay, I was also denied any compensation for the Lounge Club benefit. I was specific and asked for 5k UR points. Maybe some others will be more fortunate.

jay
jay (@guest_96836)
March 31, 2015 08:24

No go. Got shot down as they are not offering any rewards to compensate. I was nice and courteous.