How To Quickly Close Amex Business Card Accounts
Much of working with Amex is a pleasure. They’re the most generous card issuer for my situation. I pick up new cards and points with them more easily than any other bank. But it ain’t all pretty. Cancelling card accounts can be a time-suck. A recent experience reminded me of an easy method to more quickly close Amex Business card accounts. I’d known about it prior, but it hadn’t really stuck with me at that time. But I plan to use this strategy moving forward, and many of you can save time this way, too. But first, why bother writing an article about this?
Amex Retention Efforts
Amex aggressively pursues retaining cardholders. This characteristic largely works out in cardholders’ favor. I’ve loved extra Membership Rewards, more partner points, and waived annual fees, sometimes without spending requirements. Obtaining such a retention offer takes time in a chat or (egads) a phone conversation, but the juice is often worth the squeeze.
However, I periodically know I have zero interest in a retention offer, regardless, and I just want to close the card. The initial chat agent refuses to close the card, instead “helpfully” passing me on to a retention agent to help with my request. Wait times for agents can be long. And some agents are very slow throughout the process. Meanwhile, I’m burning time I’ll never get back.
My Recent Chat
I’m currently swimming in Business Platinums and want to make room for other pay over time card accounts. A hefty annual fee just hit, and I’d already maximized all benefits from the card, despite Dell’s best efforts to foil that plan. It was time to close, and chat was next.
Here’s the big strategy to quickly close Amex business card accounts: chat during the weekend. The first (and only – yay!) rep helpfully reminded the following:
I briefly sat back and appreciated how useful this agent’s response was. In the meantime, the agent doubled down. It’s perhaps the most eager I’ve ever seen an agent to close a card:
After confirming to cancel the card, the rep immediately sent the disclosure. We proceeded from there and were all done!
Conclusion
Unfortunately, this shortcut isn’t seemingly available for personal cards. But many of us are playing a high turnover game with business cards, anyway. And to be clear, if you want to quickly close a business card, do NOT call on the weekend, as only the chat capability with business retention reps is closed Saturday and Sunday. If you have strategies for closing Amex personal cards quickly, I’m all ears/eyes – post in the comments!
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I’ve closed a few Bus Plats this year, usually by chat. Yeah, it takes a little time, but it gets done. For one of them they offered me 50K in points, so I took that one. But I’ve cancelled 3 and 1 more to come next month. What is the current limit of pay over time cards?
Ten, generally.
Chat is too damned slow, every time I have used it. A Phone call works faster, even with wait times.
I closed a Hilton AMEX personal card over chat this week