Cancelling the Club Carlson Credit Card
As you are probably well aware by now that today is the last day to book awards using the Club Carlson credit cards “Bonus Award Night”. Being someone who struggles to plan ahead, I had held off on booking with my points, but alas I found use for them this summer.
Of course the point of this post isn’t about my bookings. Today my wife closed her Club Carlson credit card. It is kind of a funny coincidence that her annual fee was due today, considering it is the last day of the card’s significant usefullness. Either way, it is now closed.
The Call
After handing my wife the card and asking her to call, she spent about 3 minutes navigating the phone tree before someone at U.S. Bank answered. At that point I left the room with the baby. About 3 minutes later I walked back in and she was done already. The card was cancelled and U.S. Bank didn’t make any effort to retain her as a cardholder.
Why Cancel
Some people may want to keep the U.S. Bank Club Carlson credit card since it now gives a free night (in the U.S.) after $10k in spending per year and also 40,000 Club Carlson points as an anniversary bonus. Since both my wife and I have the card, paying two annual fees simply doesn’t make sense for us.
I haven’t decided if I will cancel my card when the annual fee comes due in a few months, but I may consider it. With my shift to Hyatt, my lack of love for Club Carlson properties and the reduction in value of their points, there is limited use for me. I may build my stockpile back up though to keep around for their sweet spot category 1 & 2 redemptions.
Conclusion
U.S. Bank doesn’t seem to care too much about retention and my guess is they are fielding more than their fare share of cancellation calls on this card. It is kind of sad to think that one of the most valuable cards in the loyalty space has been reduced to an afterthought at this point.
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Kept mine but called and got 7500 points just for calling and expressing my concern about category changes and end of the second night award benefit. The representative was friendly and said Carlson makes the rules and don’t blame US Bank. I figured that the 40000 anniversary bonus points was worth it before June 1. Maybe I’ll cancel or downgrade next year. Anyhow I,cleaned out all but 10k points in a binge of award bookings for Paris, NYC and MUC
OP< you made huge mistake of not reading the other posts.
You should have asked for fee refund during canceling. they are refunding fee regardless of date paid, see my post above
You can cancel the card & get your full FEE BACK regardless of the date you paid the fee. 1 month or 11 months ago. THis is due to all the mass complaints filed against US BANK & CC for the bonus award night scam. I guess CFPB agents had long conversation with them.
But they may AT ANY TIME go back to their old policy 30 days since account open date to get fee refund.
I canceled the card and got fee back for few reasons
BOnus award night gone
reward rate is increased way too much up to 70000 for standard room.
Most of their already few hotels are like MOTEL quality.
very few properties.
$75 fee for the severely devalued 40K points is NOT worth
The gold benefits have given me NOTHING. it is a gold in name only with nothing offered.
Wife & I cancelled our cards last week when AF was due. We recently both got the Wyndham card and it makes more sense to put $10K spend on Wyndham since $7.5K spend get’s us a free night “anywhere”. Only had the Club Carlson cards for one year but we sure rocked the free nights. 36 nights in the Caribbean which includes 18 future nights (10 Grenada) (8 Aruba) and 10 nights in the U.S. w/ 4 nights @ the end of June @ the Warwick in Philly. Losing Club Carlson & REDbird was an MS Tsunami.
Waited til the last minute to burn through the rest of mine as well… Just booked 6 back-to-back nights at the 1919 Reykjavik for early September 2016 using both biz and personal cards. I had paid my annual fees right before the massive devaluation announcements were made. Will probably keep them until next year and then cancel or downgrade (probably US Bank Cash Plus)
Couple quick questions. Does US Bank have any attractive no-AF downgrade options (and would they allow from a co-branded card like this)? And can you cancel the card and still use a free-night booking (made before now for later this summer)?
I have read on several blogs that you do not need to still have the card to use a free night so long as you had the card when you made the free night booking. I also heard that there is a no annual fee version of the card if you don’t want to pay the annual fee but wish to remain a U.S. Bank customer. As for me I will probably (reluctantly) keep the card for the annual 40,000 points. I travel to Europe at least every couple of years, and there are some decent category 1 and 2 properties over there that make paying the $75 annual fee worthwhile. However, with the recent multiple devaluations, I will no longer be using the card for everyday spend. The card is going to the sock drawer to be only used a couple of times per year when I stay at the Country Inn in San Diego.
Yes the bookings stand if you cancel the card. There is also a no annual fee card as well. There was a good post about it on FM. http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2015/05/01/bet-you-didnt-know-an-overlooked-no-fee-club-carlson-credit-card-and-an-experiment/
I would rather save my $10,000 in spending for 3 or more cards with $2,000 in spending and a lot more value than 1 hotel night!