Why I Turned Down Both Amex Surpass Retention Offers & Still Closed The Cards

Amex Surpass Retention Offers – My Results & Why We Still Closed

Amex has dominated credit card rewards headlines the past few months for both good and bad reasons.  They offered inflated perks and bonus earning on many of their cards, including Hilton cards.  Just last week, they swiped back a lot of those bonus points and miles.  However, for hobbyists like us, the four credit card limit Amex recently implemented may turn out to be the most consequential move they have made yet.  So, it was with great interest we prepared for our hopeful Amex Surpass retention offers.  Our analysis and the ensuing calls made the decision easy, but we begrudgingly accepted a rather large consequence.

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Our Current Standing with Amex Credit Cards

Prior to our retention calls, my wife and I each had five credit card accounts with Amex. Among those accounts, we each held two Hilton credit cards for a total of four Hilton card accounts.  I had the Aspire and Surpass cards, while my wife had Surpass and no-fee cards.  We each had enjoyed playing the upgrade/downgrade game and receiving predictably frequent promos as lucrative as new card welcome offers.  We enjoyed that play and planned to continue.

But then came Amex’s implementation of the four credit card rule.  While lowering the limit by one seemed like no big deal at first, we later realized the rule threw a big wrench into our future Amex card application plans.  We had each spent just over $15k on our Surpass cards in the past year, but our interest in the inflated 12x grocery earning on the Surpass cards had (luckily) waned as our annual fees were upcoming on both cards.  We have Hilton free night certificates coming out of our ears and no concrete plans yet on how we will use them, which made earning more certificates with Surpass spend less appealing to us.

Also, we have our eyes on other Amex credit cards.  We’ve only had one Delta card between the two of us so far, and we are also focused on a few other business cards.  Paying two Surpass annual fees would just take up two more credit card slots for no good reason, especially since we weren’t planning to spend substantially on them, anyway.  Nonetheless, I was interested to see what Amex would offer in our retention calls and open to keeping the cards if the right offer appeared.

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Our Retention Calls

A few weeks ago, my wife was up first.  She was offered a $95 statement credit for keeping her Surpass account, which would cover her annual fee for the next cardmember year.  There were no requirements to receive the credit.  Meh.  She politely turned down the offer and closed her account.

Earlier this week, I called regarding my Surpass account.  When I was asked why I wanted to close, I mentioned that I was interested in other Amex cards and noted their new four card limit rule.  Perhaps I could’ve been more coy.  Regardless, the CSR didn’t have much of a comeback to that statement.  The CSR offered 15k Hilton Honors points if I kept the account open.  Double meh.  I, too, declined the offer and closed my account.

Fallout and Next Steps

By closing these two Surpass accounts, my wife and I are left with one Hilton card account each.  The big consequence to this move is that we can’t be as productive in the upgrade/downgrade game.  While we can still be players, it will be a much slower game with two cards rather than four.  Nonetheless, we accept that consequence so that we can be more positioned to obtain new cards and welcome offers while adhering to the four credit card limit.

The next step we each need to take is to close one more account to get down to three cards.  This is where we are really feeling the new four card limit the most.  I’m not in a good position to close another Amex card until March 2021.  I have a Blue Business Plus that I could close any time, but I won’t of course; that’s a long-term keeper as a 2.5% cash back card.  I could close my Aspire in January 2021, but I will probably keep that one around for use in the upgrade/downgrade game (I’ve held all Hilton cards).

My wife could close another account now, but that would be her Hilton no-fee card.  We are letting it lie for a bit while we see if she gets an upgrade offer soon.  If not, we will close, and she will always be able to apply for an Aspire account in the future.

Hilton Amex Surpass Retention Offers – Conclusion

Closing our Surpass cards was an easy decision, but we have needed to put much more time and effort into future plans due to Amex’s obfuscation.  More variables exist now with Amex, and they are all seemingly moving faster and in more nuanced ways.  We’ll be back for more, though, Amex!  How have your Amex plans changed or stayed the same over the past few months?

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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