American Express Business Platinum Retention Call Results
My American Express Business platinum card came due for it’s annual fee this past month and I waited until the very last minute to make a retention call to Amex. Truthfully, I had no intention of closing the card because I’m a huge fan of the 35% point rebate on flights. If anything, I’d be much more likely to cancel my personal platinum card. For some retention call tips check out Credit Card Retention Tips & Takeaways from Recent Experiences with 4 of the Largest Banks! (Chase, Amex, Citi & Barclaycard). Also click here for retention call results for many cards.
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The first customer service rep I spoke to was not able to help me with retention so she transferred me to a separate department. I explained to the rep that this card has lost some value for me because I already have a personal platinum card and I really got this card for the 50% points rebate. I noted that since the rebate was reduced to 35% the benefit is not as valuable to me. She put me on hold for a second so she could look for offers. When she came back she said the best offers were either a $100 statement credit or 10,000 Membership Rewards Points with no additional spend required. I said something to the effect of Okay, that’ll work I’ll keep the card open… I think I’ll take the credit.
Related: Complete Guide to American Express Membership Rewards Points
At this point I realized that I wanted the membership rewards points instead but she had already begun her spiel. (They’re required to read you a disclosure and get your permission to issue the offer and keep your account open.) When she finished the statement she asked “Do you accept terms and do I have your permission to issue your credit?” This is when I replied “actually no I want to take the membership rewards points instead of the credit.” At this point she said “I’ve already issued the credit, I’m not sure if there’s anyway to change it to points now.” Basically, she went ahead and issued the offer before she read the whole disclosure and got my permission. Bummer!
I chose not to wait on hold to see if there was a way she could change it, mostly because I was already on the phone with AMEX for about 30 minutes at this point and I didn’t feel like sitting on hold any longer.
I’m fairly certain the reps are not supposed to pull the trigger or finalize the transaction without your consent, otherwise they wouldn’t require consent the first place. I’m not upset about it, though it would have been nice if she had confirmed my decision before taking any actions that were irreversible.
Moral of the Story
I think the take away here is to be very careful what you say while you’re on the phone with American Express. I’ve heard horror stories where people call for a retention offer, mention that their thinking of closing their account and the customer service rep abruptly cancels their card. In the future, I will wait until I hear every single potential offer and then either ask to call back or put them on hold for a few minutes so I can make a decision.
You can read about retention offers for the following Amex cards as well
- American Express Personal Platinum
- American Express Personal Platinum Delta card
- American Express Business Green
Offer Analysis
The Business Platinum card is still $450 a year while the Personal Platinum is $550 a year. The $100 statement credit effectively brings the fee down to $350, which is a good deal in my opinion. I’m happy with this outcome because I am able to make full use of the $200 airline incidental credit and I certainly get more than $150 a year in value out of booking through the travel portal. Overall, this retention effort was a success.
Has anyone gotten any good retention offers on this card lately, or any other American Express cards for that matter?
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Got 10000 points, to keep card after told them not sure I wanted to keep with new AF $100 higher. Very nice on phone.
AMEX has alliwed me to “reinstate” closed accts w/in 30 days w no issues – appears on my credit report exactly as it did & no changes otherwise to the acct.
Thanks! That’s really good to know.
I asked amex once about a closed account which was reporting almost 10 years of history on my credit report and why it wasn’t being taken into account for my “member since” date.
The guy just went ahead and deleted it off my report without warning. My credit scores took a nosedive!
Ugh! At least that’s good to know for 5/24 purposes 😉
I called on Ritz the other day and said I was thinking of closing my account and the rep said “Fine. It’s closed.” No disclosures. She closed it. Thinking of. Well ok.
It’s really crazy that they do that! Were you able to re-open it?