Reports are coming in of American Express offering generous retention bonuses for cardholders with an annual fee due. Whenever you have an annual fee due it’s always a good idea to call in to see if the card issuer will offer you something for keeping the card, we’ve discussed retention bonuses in depth before here. Obviously this is done on a case by case basis, but it looks like the back end that shows what offers representatives are allowed to offer is being more generous than normal. Some offers include:
- $500 statement credit on Ameriprise Platinum
- $150 for business gold
- 30,000 Membership Rewards Points for Business Platinum (5,000 points instant, 25,000 points after $5,000 in spend within 90 days)
- $100 statement credit on Business Platinum
- $300 or 40,000 points on Platinum
- 10,000 Membership Rewards after $1,500 in spend
When calling in it’s usually a good idea to have a reason why you want to cancel the card. American Express has increased the annual fees on a lot of cards recently, there has also been issues with the Uber Platinum credit as well.
Annual fee on my Amex Platinum — which has been open for 12 months (my account has been open for 6+ years) and had ~$2,000 per month in charges — posted 28 days ago. Called today to see about retention offers and was offered the following:
1) 30,000 MR immediately for no spend)
2) Use 65,000 MR to pay/offset annual fee, and get 30,000 MR for no spend (so 35,000 MR net to offset the annual fee)
3) Downgrade to Green or Gold for reduced annual fee
Anyone have thoughts or suggestions on which offer to take? cc
William Charles 
Chuck
Also, for anyone who needs the direct line for Retention: 800-452-3945
My Amex Gold annual fee posted and my platinum annual fee is going to post in a few weeks. Is it possible to get retention offers for both? Has anyone else ever managed to get both?
Don’t see why you couldn’t get retention offers for both cards — they are separate cards after all, hence Amex wanting to retain you as a customer for both.
15k MR after $2k spend in 3 months, retention offer for Amex Gold with minimal spend, member since 2004. Tried to push to 20k but no go. Figure it brings the AF cost to $100, equal to Green card (which I may try to get in addition.) Wishing they would be more flexible with the yearly airline credit.
30k MR after 4k spend in 3 months – retention offer for Amex Gold
6k spend in the past year, member since 2011
How long did it take you to get your retention bonus in your MR account balance after you had met the spend requirements?
Datapoint:
Called AMEX Retention to cancel Amex Gold Card – First year just ended and I got hit with the $195 AF as I had the PRG initially.
Was offered 20% back on all dining purchases up to $100 back, so that’s $100 for $500 spend.
I asked if I could get points instead, and got offered 15k MR points for $2k spend in 30 days.
Took the points, obviously. Was very pleasant conversation, I just told them the math didn’t add up to keep the card with the AF.
I meant 90 days on that 15k offer on 2k spend, whoops.
Just called about my Schawb Amex Plat. Was offered $500 or 50,000 MR points without any spending. Took the 50K points and ran away!!! 🙂
Called this morning with my AMEX Platinum $550 fee on the books, with payment due tomorrow. Asked to downgrade product, told the rep I had two premium travel cards and looked at which one to keep, and had chosen to go the other way. He looked through my account and quickly offered a $500 statement credit… I was stunned, and couldn’t say yes fast enough.
I was just offered $500 Stmt credit or 50K MR points no spend needed to keep my platinum card open.
Called Amex Platinum twice to see if I could squeeze out even 2K MR’s out of them as I was right up against the 30 day deadline to cancel. Nada. Neither CSA offered so much as a crumb. They seemed uninterested in keeping me as a customer, so I canceled. I’ll miss the lounges, but will be happy to keep the $550 (YIKES!). It certainly paid for itself during year one, but wouldn’t come close in year 2. Furthermore, I travel a LOT in Europe and NOBODY there accepts Amex. And for good reason. The commission is simply too high for merchants. That’s my story.