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.
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Examples Of It Working
Let me give you three specific examples of this working:
- Chase recently removed announced that they would be removing the Lounge Club benefit on their Chase Ink cards. User Diamond sent a secured message asking for 5,000 Chase UR points as compensation and received it.
- American Express platinum loses access to Regus benefit. A reader was able to call in and get $100 in compensation from AmEx
- Citi Thank You Premier changes. Reader Jeremy got this card because he wanted a high earning rate on restaurant purchases, when he found out this 3x category was going away he ended up getting 5,000 ThankYou points
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.
- Chase To Remove Lounge Club Access On Ink Business Cards
- American Express Business Platinum Cardholders To Lose Regus Platinum Office Benefit
- American Express Business Platinum Will Lose 20% “Pay With Points” Rebate
- American Express Will Add A Minimum Order Size To ShopRunner Benefit
- U.S Bank Cash+ Card $25 Bonus Now Limited To Once Per Lifetime, Rather Than Calendar Year
- Changes Coming to Citi Thank You Premier – Reward Structure and Annual Fee
- Earning Changes To The Chase British Airways Card (3x On BA & 1x On All Other Purchases)
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?
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.
Nice, I’m going to have to try American Express again as they originally denied me for anything for losing shop runner, although maybe it’s because you’ve used the benefit so often.
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.
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)
Yes, it does.
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.”
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.
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.
Nope, shot down via SM.
Another no-go here, unfortunately. I tried over secure message. Maybe calling would be a different story…
People seem to be having more luck calling now, had a few positive reports of 5k Chase UR points on Twitter when calling about the lounge benefit.
How about the Chase British Airways card that will apparently be lowering the earning rate for everyday spend from 1.25x to 1x?
Added that to the list.
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.
No go. Got shot down as they are not offering any rewards to compensate. I was nice and courteous.