"Offers on your card." What does this mean?

[Gunnar419]

In another thread I told about my attempt to get a second Sallie Mae MC. It failed because they said they wouldn't give the same product twice to one person, but without missing a beat, the analyst said, "We have offers on your existing card that would give you better results, anyway." And he gave me a great CLI without even having to go off and calculate anything the way they so often do.

I've heard this before about "check for offers on your card" or "we have offers for you," but what exactly does it mean?

If they "have offers" just sitting around waiting to be picked up, why don't they make the offers? Wouldn't they send an email or put something on your online account page or something? I know they sometimes do that. But the idea of an "offer" that's just sitting in their computers waiting for me to find it, as if it was an Easter egg or something, seems weird. Do the offers go away if you don't ask for them? And the analyst said "offers" plural as if there were more waiting if I just asked the right questions, but how am I supposed to know what they are and what to ask for?

How does this work? Does anybody know?

[ways2go]

Cap one has a modify feature on their webpage. I've waiting for that to come back for an upgrade to a QS. It hasn't come up. I just might close it, because there is a AF on my platinum and I just picked up two Amex card in the past week. BOA has a special offers too. That says I'm pre-qualified for cash rewards visa with a whopping 22.9 interest. I'm passing on that too. I don't see any special offers button on my Chase IHG card though.

[Revelate]

Don't know about Sallie Mae / Barclays, but the offers made by BOFA / Amex / etc et al cost the lender money, and I suspect the point of the marketing is to have the customer opt in, and then use the card for the offer, in hopes that the customer continues to us the card to recoup the loss.

Competitive marketing in this case.

[john398]

It could be a ballance transfer offer, but I do not know, did you click the link?

[Gunnar419]

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@ways2go wrote:
Cap one has a modify feature on their webpage. I've waiting for that to come back for an upgrade to a QS. It hasn't come up. I just might close it, because there is a AF on my platinum and I just picked up two Amex card in the past week. BOA has a special offers too. That says I'm pre-qualified for cash rewards visa with a whopping 22.9 interest. I'm passing on that too. I don't see any special offers button on my Chase IHG card though.

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Another oddity about offers. I see that "modify features" link on CapOne's site, also. It has never, ever offered me antything. It always says I'm ineligible because I "recently made changes in my card" (even when I've made none for a year). Then CapOne turns around and openly offers me a CLI and changes my Venture into a QS over the course of a single chat session.

A different scenario from Barclays, but still doesn't make sense.

[Gunnar419]

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@Revelate wrote:

Don't know about Sallie Mae / Barclays, but the offers made by BOFA / Amex / etc et al cost the lender money, and I suspect the point of the marketing is to have the customer opt in, and then use the card for the offer, in hopes that the customer continues to us the card to recoup the loss.

Competitive marketing in this case.

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Thanks, Revelate. I do see the types of offers you're talking about on my Amex card and it's kind of fun to do those opt ins. I don't mind having to opt in. What makes me shake my head is the idea of "offers" being kept secret on a bank's computers where nobody but a CSR or a credit analyst can see them. That doesn't seem like they're even offers.

I was glad to get the big CLI Barclays gave me, and clearly that CLI amount was already predetermined, but if so why didn't they tell me it was available to me?

[Gunnar419]

I'm bumping this because I was so wordy in my OP that I made my meaning unclear. To put it better,

What's the point of a lender having an "offer" on a card if the so called offer just sits on their computers, completely off limits and unavailable until you happen to call in for some other reason?

If it's an offer, why don't they come out and offer it?

[ways2go]

Yeah on my Cap One Platinum.  The modify button never worked.  I never got a CLI in over a year,  so I clicked on the Request CLI.   They gave me a 2K CLI last feb...