Amex "I'm going to cancel my card" - bonus points given thread.

[Mr H]

100,000 QFF points as a once-only loyalty bonus to retain an Amex Ultimate card. Had to cancel and immediately reopen the card - was told this would not impact on renewal dates or travel insurance for trips already booked.

 

[DC3]

Offered 25,000 points to keep my Plat Charge card, with the annual fee due, although not really using it much any more.

No, thank you. Another Amex card bites the dust.

Edit: 25,000 points is almost useless, since the devaluation.

 

[one9]

So the credit was loaded, you've used it then proceed with closing the card before the annual fee was due? Nice!

yes

 

[foggy]

I called and cancelled my explorer. No points offered.
Reinstated it still though as im still getting doubles on travel credits

 

[joon8887]

My plat charge annual fee is due soon. Anyone got a retention offer recently?

 

[DC3]

My plat charge annual fee is due soon. Anyone got a retention offer recently?

See post 1302, above.

 

[joon8887]

See post 1302, above.

not much at all

 

[DC3]

not much at all

There are recent reports of offers up to 100,000 MR points, but not for the Plat Charge. And that would only equate to 50,000 airline points. I found that I was using non-Amex over the past year anyway.

 

[joon8887]

There are recent reports of offers up to 100,000 MR points, but not for the Plat Charge. And that would only equate to 50,000 airline points. I found that I was using non-Amex over the past year anyway.

Which card was that for?

 

[Quattro]

Which card was that for?

Was for the Qantas Ultimate.

 

[Mr H]

There are recent reports of offers up to 100,000 MR points, but not for the Plat Charge. And that would only equate to 50,000 airline points.

I got 100,000 Qantas points from the Amex Ultimate last week.

 

[joon8887]

I got 100,000 Qantas points from the Amex Ultimate last week.

As a retention bonus?! Holly cow

 

[Mr H]

As a retention bonus?! Holly cow

Yep

 

[joon8887]

Yep

Can you give me some tips on what to say and not to say?
How much did you put through on your card?

 

[Quattro]

I'm due for Plat Charge in Feb. Last year no luck (laws were introduced not that long ago).

Will see how I go this year. We have decided after this year (wedding and honeymoon) we will be cancelling the platinum charge. Probably for the best being everyone gets a much higher success rate with retention bonuses on the Airline cards; both QFF and Velocity.

 

[Mr H]

Can you give me some tips on what to say and not to say?
How much did you put through on your card?

I had had the card for two and a half years, had not been paying off the balance so I had been paying interest. According to my account, I had got 322,000 points from the card including the sign up bonus of 100,000, so that's about 90,000 points a year, divided by 1.5 gives about $60k a year of spend.

I phoned up asking to cancel and they said yes. They asked why I was cancelling, and I said in order to open a different card to get a sign up bonus. They asked was it an Amex, and I said no, a Mastercard. They asked how many points I was going to get, and I said 120,000 (the Qantas card). So they said they would see whether they could make me an offer to stay, and came back and said 100,000 QFF points. Fine by me.

 

[Leroy87]

Called up to cancel Platinum Edge (fee due in a few weeks). Still hold Explorer (for now anyway, may ditch it when the fee is due). I only use the Edge for groceries and fuel so maybe 10-15k per year, pittance really.

Said I wanted to cancel as it was getting fiddly using the two travel credits, went through the process with the rep: cancel direct debit, agree to the terms, destroy the cards, email will come etc. All good and then he says (and he sounded quite surprised really) "actually, if we were to offer you 60k MR would you keep the card?"

Sure, I said. Why not .

 

[StochasticFlyer]

My plat charge annual fee is due soon. Anyone got a retention offer recently?

I only got offered 25k on my platinum charge despite my average 10k spend every month. Got the points and cancelled afterwards

 

[theblank]

Can you give me some tips on what to say and not to say?

Dont say "i want to cancel" despite apparently lucky anecdotes from others, by law they must accept your request and not coerce you to change your mind.

 

[DC3]

... I phoned up asking to cancel and they said yes. They asked why I was cancelling, and I said in order to open a different card to get a sign up bonus. They asked was it an Amex, and I said no, a Mastercard. They asked how many points I was going to get, and I said 120,000 (the Qantas card). So they said they would see whether they could make me an offer to stay, and came back and said 100,000 QFF points. Fine by me.

100,000 QFF points. So, that would be equivalent to 200,000 AMEX MR points.