Retention Bonus Rules & Tips For Each Card Issuer – Get More Than One Bonus Each Year

This post will:

  • Explain banks’ retention department incentives
  • Provide reader some ideas how to exploit these incentives
  • Give bank by bank summary for major credit card issuers
  • Help you to hit more singles and doubles, and an occasional home run

Conversations

If you want to get best retention offers and bonuses, then you really need to enjoy talking on the phone with Customer Service Representatives.  You, at very least need to enjoy a bit of chit chat and make a connection with the person on the other side.  Think of it from their perspective, most people who call are not happy, they are demanding and sometimes are just plain rude.  If you can be polite, ask them about where they live, make a connection to that place, then getting a CSR to help you becomes a lot easier.

Retention Department Incentives

#1 goal of the Retention Department is to keep you as a customer.  It cost them a lot of money to get you, for you to sign up for that credit card, they paid marketing costs, referral costs, so they don’t want you to close your account.  So, if their incentive is to keep you, then that means you should call them a few times a year and see if they still want to keep you!

Get You Retention Offers

There is a misconception that a retention offer will be only given to you if an annual fee is coming up, or you had a card for 11+ months.  This is a myth, you can start getting retention bonuses after you first cycle closes.  That’s right, from personal experience, I’ve had retention bonuses given to me as early as 45 days from my application.  When you call a CSR, just ask to be transferred to a retention department.  Don’t threaten to close the card, just simply ask if they have any retention offers.  If they mention to you that you just recently received a sign-up bonus, thank them for that, but ask again if there is anything available.  Sometimes use of words like “long-time customer” or “goodwill points/miles” will go a long way.

Different Banks, Different Strategies

American Express

I call American Express every 90 days, and just chat with their CSR.  Daytime hours are best, that’s when the A-Team is usually working and they tend to be friendliest bunch.  I ask for goodwill points, or extra miles.  It helps that I been with them for 17 years, but I do cycle a lot of cards with them.  3,000 SPG or 3,000 Hilton points or 3,000 Delta miles for a 5 minute call is worth it.  When your 1 year mark comes around, their standard line is that they do not reimburse annual fee.  When you hear that, ask them to make an exception and offer to talk to a Supervisor.  That has yielded 7,000 SPG, 10,000 HH or 5,000 Delta miles for me.  As always, YMMV.

Capital One

(Added by Will) Capital One doesn’t really offer retention bonuses, but they will waive the annual fee on cards if you mention a valid reason (e.g Citi Double Cash has no annual fee and offers 2% cash back). Data points: 1, 2

Chase

I call Chase about 60 days after I was approved for a credit card.  Chase CSRs are able to check their computer and determine if you have an offer associated with your account.  From personal experience, Southwest cards give 3,000 miles retention bonus around 60 day mark.  So think about that Companion Pass, if you just need extra 6,000 miles after you spent $4,000 on your cards, well these retention bonus miles will help.  Ink gave me 10,000 UR points at 60 day mark, United gave me 3,000 miles.  Again, YMMV.  Of course, at 12 month mark, make sure you do it again, as Chase tends to waive an annual fee if you ask politely.

 

Citibank

This is my favorite bank for retention offers.  Traditionally, I call at 60 day mark, 180 day mark, new calendar year mark and 360 day mark.  I been successful in getting 3,000 AA miles, $95 credit, and 10,000 AA mile bonus all on the same card before the first year was over.  Citibank tend to load their retention offers around these day marks, new calendar year was just a recent discovery for me, but I was able to get some great retention offers for last two years, in January – even though just two months earlier I picked up retention offers on exactly same cards.  Who knows what goes on with Citi IT systems, but you may as well exploit it to your advantage.

 

Bank of America

I had great success and getting annual fee waived after first cycle closes.  Think, Alaska and Virgin Atlantic cards, they charge a fee upfront, but once it posts, you can call BofA and they will usually waive it.  You want extra miles, way about 180 days and call them for a retention offer, usually they will give you a few thousand miles.

 

Barclaycard

Not a lot of experience with retention offers from this bank.  I was successful in getting US Airways annual fee waived when I asked, but aside from that – I just don’t have any other cards from them.

[Editor Update: From my own personal experience Barclaycard is waiving the annual fee on all US Airways cards at the moment from year two onwards. It’s not difficult to get this fee waived at all. They’ll also usually waive the annual fee on the Arrival Plus as well, but you might need to ask to speak to a supervisor, again from year two onwards.]

US Bank

Will usually give you enough points to cover the annual fee on the FlexPerks cards. You could end up just paying the annual fee in cash and then getting more value than you paid by redeeming them for travel.

What Does it Mean For You?

If you don’t mind chatting with CRS from time to time, these retention bonus/offer calls will yield some great return on your time.  Usually these calls don’t have much wait time, as banks have an incentive to talk to you and to convince you to keep the card.  Sometimes a call will not yield any results; however, your batting average is likely to hover around .500 over long term.  It’s all about picking up those singles and doubles, and an occasional home run (10,000 UR points) for about 5 to 10 minutes of your time.  Just remember to be polite, ask other people about their day, their life, and the weather – they will enjoy trying to help you!

This was was a guest post that was submitted by PedroNY who is very active in the points & miles community. I’d like to thank him for taking the time to submit this guest post, I had no idea you could get retention bonuses so often so I’ll be spending some time talking to some CSR representatives soon. If you think you have a good idea for a guest post, consider submitting one (if we use it, we will give you $50). If you just want to let me know about something to cover on the blog then contact me

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Bryant G
Bryant G (@guest_1902408)
August 30, 2024 11:25

DP – Called Amex rep about cancelling Gold after raised AF and additional credits. Very friendly conversation. He offered 25k MR or $250 statement credit for $2k spend in 3 months. I accepted the MR points.

fifthman
fifthman (@guest_1684195)
September 1, 2023 12:37

Bank of America Air France KLM World elite Mastercard
Annual fee of $89 hit account
Called the customer service and Rep# 1 told only way to waive fee is to cancel. Hung up called again
Rep#2 transferred me to another person who offered me $175 statement credit 8-12 weeks after $1500 spent in 3 months.

Nate
Nate (@guest_1677700)
August 22, 2023 18:16

DP on Capital One Venture Card. I called the retention line 10 days after my annual feed posted. Said I was thinking about canceling and was wondering if there was a retention offer. They said sorry there is no offer. Then I asked if I could get an Annual Fee waiver and they checked and we’re able to offer a $95 credit for the annual fee.

I’m not sure if it was the push back or specifically saying Annual Fee Waiver, but I was pleasantly surprised.

DealHunter-2021
DealHunter-2021 (@guest_1657239)
July 20, 2023 10:21

Thanks to the author and those commenting who shared your DPs and excellent suggestions. Worked well when I called and talked to AMEX customer service about retention offers.

Platinum retention offer 35k points or $350 statement credit after 4k spend in 3 months

Gold retention 30k points or $200 statement credit after 3k spend in 3 months

AF on both cards posted about 3 weeks ago. Have had the cards for just over 12 months.

I picked points as that was more valuable to me than statement credit. TPG values each AMEX rewards point at 2 cents each.

I also found this thread on Reddit useful which has people sharing their DPs on AMEX retention offers: https://www.reddit.com/r/amex/comments/108t783/platinum_retention_offer/

Jane
Jane (@guest_1637486)
June 19, 2023 13:19

Amex Gold $250 AF posted. Closed through chat and had my first experience with a very pushy rep trying to get me to keep it open. They offered 15,000 MR for $2k spend in 3 months (I declined).

PedroNY
PedroNY (@guest_1316769)
January 17, 2022 17:32

Got $695 on Amex Biz Plat x2!

Cheers,

PedroNY

i c
i c (@guest_1198500)
May 31, 2021 16:20

Got 30K no spend through amex chat for a personal plat up for renewal next month

M w
M w (@guest_1152262)
February 28, 2021 23:34

Used amex chat and got an offer on my blue from amex. $75 statement credit for $1,500 spend.

Jane
Jane (@guest_1144958)
February 14, 2021 17:20

Is this actually still working for anyone? Tried to get Savor fee waived referring to how dining and entertainment has been mostly closed for the past year. No dice and no retention offer.

M w
M w (@guest_1152251)
February 28, 2021 23:08

Won’t let me waive on savor anymore. Let me last year.

bob
bob (@guest_1102602)
December 3, 2020 14:51

BoA Alaska DP: AF Posted 7/30
Called on 8/4 got $100 Statement Credit with 1k spend
Hit Spend on 9/3
Credit posted 9/14