@Anonymouswrote:I've been a BCE cardholder for coming up on 2 years. For the first time today, I received a "Congratulations! You've been chosen for a lower promo APR" letter. The letter states that my current APR, 14.24%, would be reduced to 6.99% for the next 12 months. Took me 10 seconds to enroll the account by going to the link provided in the letter. Just wondering if anyone else received this letter recently (or in the past) and if there's something that causes the offer?
As, a data point, I've never paid Amex a penny of interest since opening the account and have no intentions of doing so. Basically, it makes this promo offer essentially useless for me, but I suppose why not enroll. I figure that perhaps since I've never paid them any interest, perhaps this is their way of enticing me to carry a balance and finally do so? I'm wondering if this offer is targeted toward those that typically don't pay interest? The only other thing I can think of that may have triggered the offer was that last cycle I reported a balance of a little over $2500, quite a bit more than the usual $0-$100 balance that I normally let report. I allowed a higher balance to report just because I was placing a CLI request, but PIF that balance a couple of weeks later after getting the CLI.
Yes I did receive it, and a similar one for my Amex Hilton card.
@Anonymouswrote:I'm just curious if there's any sort of target customer that they go for with these offers, or if it just seems sort of random.
Well I can tell you that I always use both cards every month, I never spend more than a couple of hundred dollars tops, and I always pay before the statement cuts.
@Anonymouswrote:Dang I just tried to chat for an offer and got nothing this time.
I think it's a targeted thing. Mine came by email.
@longtimelurkerwrote:From what I recall, one of the downsides of doing this is that Amex wouldn't give you a permanent rate reduction if you took one of these promo ones. But I think they have stopped doing permanent ones anyway.
When I apped for my SPG early last year, the computer gave me a higher 17.x% APR so I hopped on chat after applying and they immediately permanently lowered it 2% to what was then the 15.x% floor for the card. I ran $50-60k through the card last year and got a 9.99% for 12 month targeted offer back around November. Not anticipating carrying a balance, but it never hurts to have as a backup - even 3 months at 9.99% is less than a 3% balance transfer fee.
I also have (and constantly receive) lower APR offers for Pay Over Time on my charge cards. I never received these when I used to carry balances on my Amex cards, but since I've been PIF with all of my Amex cards for the past 27 months, they come regularly. I don't think they get targeted to the people that do usually carry balances. I'm not sure that I understand the AA from Amex comments, though. I carried $20-30k balances with Amex for years and years; they never blinked and never rate-jacked me. It's one of the main reasons I'm so loyal to them.
@DeeBee78wrote:They offer promo APR's on the POT lines as well? Like how low? Interesting to know!
They've offered me 7.99%, 9.99% and 11.99%. I think someone got 5.99% fairly recently. Fortunately, my normal rate isn't horrible compared to some that I've seen here. With the last round of prime rate increases, it has crept up to 16%, though.