topic Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve in Credit Cards

Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

SALEEN961 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 05:22:09 GMT

After hearing about the increased annual fee on my Sapphire Reserve card I started to wonder if it was really worth keeping around at $550/yr as the new perks, while valuable to some, don't hold any real value to me personally as I don't use Doordash or Lyft. After doing some quick math on my expected travel expenses for the foreseeable future I decided that the card just wasn't worth it with my decreasing travel spending, so I paid off my balance and used all my points before calling in to cancel my card.

Before calling Chase I had decided that if they offered me $200 in points or a $200 discounted annual fee I would keep the card for another year, but to my surprise when I called Chase they didn't even ask why I was closing the account let alone make a retention offer. In the past Amex has really fought to keep me as a customer with a card I spend very little on that has a low annual fee, so I really wasn't expecting this. After paying $450/yr in annual fees and spending a little over $25,000 on my Sapphire Reserve in 2019, they didn't even ask why I wanted to close the account.

TLDR: Don't bluff about closing an account with Chase, they won't even ask why you want to close the account.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

Andypanda — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 05:30:44 GMT

Don't know much about Chase, and the only card of thers I'm interest in is tge Amazon prime card, but i wonder if they are trying to thin the heard?

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

FinStar — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 05:56:11 GMT

In the past, typically depending on when the AF hits, I've reached out to them to see whether a retention offer is available. More often than not, it's worked out favorably, especially on my Ritz Carlton card. Though, I've never stated that I wanted to close the account.

That said, it's not certain whether this is part of their exit strategy on X number of customers for CSR.

Did you at least get to reallocate the CL to your other Chase CC before closing it?

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

red259 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 06:02:36 GMT

@Andypanda wrote:
Don't know much about Chase, and the only card of thers I'm interest in is tge Amazon prime card, but i wonder if they are trying to thin the heard?

Not really. They are trying to make money. What they are doing is betting that enough people won't do the math and will just pay higher AFs and accept less back in return. I live in a major city and I find the door dash thing almost completely useless. I guess this depends on where you live but for my part of the country grubhub/seamless and Uber eats pretty much all shred door dash. Lyft isn't really cutting it for me either, but I have been absolutely shocked at just how crappy door dash is. Its become a struggle to even use the credit on something I want to eat. In the end its about making as much profit as they can while paying out as little in benefits as possible. There is no reality where chase wants to lose customers. That would make zero sense. They already paid out bonuses to get these customers. They simply don't want to pay extra to retain customers and are hoping their new so-called benefits will get enough people to shell out the higher AF.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

gingerflower — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 06:01:13 GMT

Good choice especially with the annual fee!

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

SALEEN961 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 06:07:31 GMT

I did make sure to reallocate my available credit before closing the card, before hand my other Chase cards had my lowest limits by a large margin, but now they're pretty comparable with my other cards.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

FinStar — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 06:11:36 GMT

Got it. I suppose not losing the available credit from the CSR can be seen as a plus.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

wasCB14 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 06:30:38 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
Got it. I suppose not losing the available credit from the CSR can be seen as a plus.

Unless there's a planned Chase app coming up and someone already has a lot of other Chase credit relative to income.

I PCed CSR to a 2nd Freedom rather than close it, but I'd probably seek a CLD before I applied for another Chase card to have a bit of a cushion for an approval.

(5 Chase cards)

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

iced — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 15:08:02 GMT

@SALEEN961 wrote:
After hearing about the increased annual fee on my Sapphire Reserve card I started to wonder if it was really worth keeping around at $550/yr as the new perks, while valuable to some, don't hold any real value to me personally as I don't use Doordash or Lyft. After doing some quick math on my expected travel expenses for the foreseeable future I decided that the card just wasn't worth it with my decreasing travel spending, so I paid off my balance and used all my points before calling in to cancel my card.

Before calling Chase I had decided that if they offered me $200 in points or a $200 discounted annual fee I would keep the card for another year, but to my surprise when I called Chase they didn't even ask why I was closing the account let alone make a retention offer. In the past Amex has really fought to keep me as a customer with a card I spend very little on that has a low annual fee, so I really wasn't expecting this. After paying $450/yr in annual fees and spending a little over $25,000 on my Sapphire Reserve in 2019, they didn't even ask why I wanted to close the account.

TLDR: Don't bluff about closing an account with Chase, they won't even ask why you want to close the account.

This is probably a YMMV situation. Sounds like sometimes they'll counter with something and sometimes they won't.

Both times I called in to close a Chase card I was asked why I wanted to close, with one of those including a counter-offer to keep the card. I'm a pretty insignificant customer of theirs as well, so I'm inclined to think it could just be a matter of getting the right person on the phone at the right time.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 15:14:21 GMT

is downgrading to the sapphire preferred not a good move instead of closing it?

that one has a lower AF.

dont have a chase cc yet so not sure if that one is a decent one to have.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

M_Smart007 — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 15:55:35 GMT

@SALEEN961 wrote:
I did make sure to reallocate my available credit before closing the card, before hand my other Chase cards had my lowest limits by a large margin, but now they're pretty comparable with my other cards.

For a minute, I was worried that you closed it with the full CL.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

AverageJoesCredit — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 16:24:24 GMT

My guess is Chase has no shortage of high income users and probably to them, 25k spend , while high for me, probably doesnt match the clients they really fight for. Im sure if everyone was offered points or a $200 discount , no one would cancel and they'd just be taken for another year ride until said person wants to cancel again. When it comes to money and credit, banks dont care sbout any of us. The day you become not profitable, you become a liability. Good luck with your next endeavers

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

ldkcivilservant — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 18:57:47 GMT

I had the same experiance when I closed my CFU last week. You want to close? Ok. Done.

It's no problem, because I wasn't playing a game, I didn't want the card, but it was still a little... jarring.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 19:07:30 GMT

@red259 wrote:
There is no reality where chase wants to lose customers. That would make zero sense. They already paid out bonuses to get these customers. They simply don't want to pay extra to retain customers and are hoping their new so-called benefits will get enough people to shell out the higher AF.

I mainly agree. They want to lose (and can shutdown) unprofitable customers, but the general "$550 is too much" population are probably not worth expending money to keep, so if they want to go, Chase will let them go. My guess is that Chase has data to show that AF sensitivity is correlated to low profitability (as you might expect)

Now it could more sophisticated and the right type of customer could get a retention offer on this card but haven't heard of this,

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

Citylights18 — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 03:31:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
is downgrading to the sapphire preferred not a good move instead of closing it?

that one has a lower AF.

I would think so over canceling it.

Unless its a situation as the OP was saying with a small limit on the CSR along with it being a newer account bringing down the AoA assuming the OP added it in 2016 when it first came out or later after that.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

kerplunk — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 03:38:52 GMT

I was a profitable CSR customer for Chase at $450, but I'm glad they raised the fee as it helped me realize I didn't need that card. Ended up going with a no annual fee cash back card to replace that spend and I'm loving it.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

wasCB14 — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 03:47:41 GMT

@Citylights18 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
is downgrading to the sapphire preferred not a good move instead of closing it?

that one has a lower AF.
I would think so over canceling it.

Unless its a situation as the OP was saying with a small limit on the CSR along with it being a newer account bringing down the AoA assuming the OP added it in 2016 when it first came out or later after that.

But CSP still has an AF and a fraction of the rewards and benefits of CSR. The value of CSP is in the bonus, the (still?) waived AF for a year, and the primary rental coverage. Without the bonus, a lot of cards can beat CSP with $25k annual spend on a travel/dining card.

I took the view that another Freedom is nice when a fair number of quarterly categories are useful.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

mikesonthemend — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 03:56:25 GMT

Before: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/jamie-dimon-i-wish-chase-sapphire-reserve-cost-jpmorgan-more-money.html

After: https://onemileatatime.com/chase-reserve-cost/

It was costing them too much

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

MyFault — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 06:20:46 GMT

I'm not sure i would have just closed the account entirely, however i'm not sure how much history you had with the card. Why not xfer the CL from it to your other cards and PC to the Sapphire no AF card with the lowest CL they allow, and keep it open?

@Anonymous wrote:
@red259 wrote:
There is no reality where chase wants to lose customers. That would make zero sense. They already paid out bonuses to get these customers. They simply don't want to pay extra to retain customers and are hoping their new so-called benefits will get enough people to shell out the higher AF.
I mainly agree. They want to lose (and can shutdown) unprofitable customers, but the general "$550 is too much" population are probably not worth expending money to keep, so if they want to go, Chase will let them go. My guess is that Chase has data to show that AF sensitivity is correlated to low profitability (as you might expect)

Now it could more sophisticated and the right type of customer could get a retention offer on this card but haven't heard of this,

The CSR was never a profitable card for Chase, so those who don't want to pay the new $550 AF i'm sure they're happy to let go if they don't want to stay.

Not to knock the OP's spending, but i do believe that $25k annual spend isn't large to Chase. I'm still deciding whether to PC my CSP to CSR, but i have until July to figure it out. The DoorDash doesn't do much for me, nor does the Lyft membership, but i can definitely utilize them to use the credits to keep the effective AF down.

I think Chase's position moving forward is, to say goodbye to those who don't want the CSR now due to the increased AF and move it into a more profitable card for them. Vs how it's been since it was released.

Re: Canceled My Chase Sapphire Reserve

wasCB14 — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 04:23:56 GMT

@mikesonthemend wrote:
Before: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/18/jamie-dimon-i-wish-chase-sapphire-reserve-cost-jpmorgan-more-money.html

After: https://onemileatatime.com/chase-reserve-cost/

It was costing them too much

The CSR model (at least when it was a $450 card) definitely costs Chase a lot of cash with the $300 travel credit, 1cpp as cash, and 1.5 cpp as "travel cash". Add to that other UR cards at 1.5 cpp. Chase can probably get a cut of some sort of travel agent commission, but it won't be very much.

I don't really mind the Amex quirks and gimmicks because the gross amount of the credits is high and I can actually use them without much waste. But they probably cost Amex far, far less than their face value as Uber and Saks likely don't lose that much in revenue through trickle credits *while getting attention from generally affluent consumers, so they probably charge Amex very little*. And when miles cost Amex fairly little, they don't suffer by offering a lot of airline transfer bonuses.

Not that many people have the Schwab Platinum, and those that do still pay a big gross AF.

Lyft and DoorDash seem to be a big step towards the Amex model and away from the relatively "clean" former CSR model.