Citi TYP Retention

[MrDisco99]

Hey guys... been a while...

My Citi TY Premier card turned a year old last month, so this month's statement featured an added $95 fee.  Time to try for a retention offer.

I called the number on the card and said I wanted to close the account.  It nearly let me do the whole thing through the automated system.  Before I could confirm, I said "representative" to get me to a live person.

Not much success there.  I told her I was considering closing the account and wanted to know if there were any retention offers available.  She said there were none.  I was expecting a lowball, but certainly not zero.  So I called the bluff and said I wanted to go ahead and close the account.  She came back with an offer to downgrade the account to the Preferred card.  I said I'd look into it and call back.

I have no intention of downgrading to the Preferred.  I just didn't really want to cancel.

Did Citi get stingy or am I just not good at haggling?  Should I call back and try for an offer again?  Maybe change my wording?

[longtimelurker]

---

@MrDisco99 wrote:

Hey guys... been a while...

My Citi TY Premier card turned a year old last month, so this month's statement featured an added $95 fee.  Time to try for a retention offer.

I called the number on the card and said I wanted to close the account.  It nearly let me do the whole thing through the automated system.  Before I could confirm, I said "representative" to get me to a live person.

Not much success there.  I told her I was considering closing the account and wanted to know if there were any retention offers available.  She said there were none.  I was expecting a lowball, but certainly not zero.  So I called the bluff and said I wanted to go ahead and close the account.  She came back with an offer to downgrade the account to the Preferred card.  I said I'd look into it and call back.

I have no intention of downgrading to the Preferred.  I just didn't really want to cancel.

Did Citi get stingy or am I just not good at haggling?  Should I call back and try for an offer again?  Maybe change my wording?

---

What has your spend been on the card (and what Citi might see on others)?   At times, Citi has been fine with very little spend on the AA cards, but they may be looking for "value" on customers they give retention offers to.

Flyertalk has a thread on this.  One recent premier post:

"$95 credit for spending $95 in the 3 billing cycles including current cycle (I hope I got this right, but will spend more just in case I mis-heard). In addition, 1000 TYP for each cycle I spend $1000 in over the next 16 cycles. Overall, a pretty strong offer, I thought. Annual spending on this card was probably like $13k."

[FinStar]

OP, as mentioned above by @longtimelurker, unless you are/were placing some decent spend on the card, besides meeting the initial SUB requirement, may not yield much success in terms of a retention offer. It's a YEMV and coded as part of your account, if available.

I use mine pretty moderately and have received a variety of promotional offers at least every other year since I've had the card. Mine is still one of their legacy AmEx TYP products.

[MrDisco99]

I couldn't remember what my usage was like so I just looked it up online.  Here's total purchases on each statement in the last 6 months...

3/18 - $127

4/18 - $654

5/18 - $929

6/18 - $66

7/18 - $99

8/18 - $495

And I know I spent over $4K in July through September of last year chasing the bonus.

So yeah... it's been up and down but it has been getting used.

I've also gotten occasional promotional offers on it which I've taken, like 5x on home improvement or 6 months of 0% interest.

[FinStar]

My suggestion is to keep using it and try at some point to see whether your account gets an offer. Most people start cringing when the AF comes due, but that's part of having the product and maximizing the benefits overall.

Optionally, aside from the AF, it's up to you to determine whether the card will meet your needs long term.

[MrDisco99]

Will they just send me a retention offer? I was under the impression I should call for one of those.

[FinStar]

Generally, such offers are a call-in and inquire type of things. So check again within the next week or so until something becomes available. You can always downgrade if you want to avoid the AF or closing the account.

Just keep in mind not to call your bluff in closing the account because you may just get that wish granted.

[AverageJoesCredit]

I'm with Finstar, be careful of claiming you may want to close the account, it has happened when you mention the magic words, magic has happened and the account was closed.

[DrZoidberg]

---

@MrDisco99 wrote:

I couldn't remember what my usage was like so I just looked it up online.  Here's total purchases on each statement in the last 6 months...

3/18 - $127

4/18 - $654

5/18 - $929

6/18 - $66

7/18 - $99

8/18 - $495

And I know I spent over $4K in July through September of last year chasing the bonus.

So yeah... it's been up and down but it has been getting used.

I've also gotten occasional promotional offers on it which I've taken, like 5x on home improvement or 6 months of 0% interest.

---

That's honestly pretty week spending for their mid-tier card. They prob won't give a retention for that small of spending .And you can't count your $4k spending towards the bonus because if they paid out the bonus, they probaably lost money. I don't see this getting a retention bonus. 

Most of the time retention bonuses are reserved for the higher tier cards like Prestige, CSR, Amex Plat, etc. Or if you put thousands through the card each month. 

[longtimelurker]

---

@DrZoidberg wrote:

---

@MrDisco99 wrote:

I couldn't remember what my usage was like so I just looked it up online.  Here's total purchases on each statement in the last 6 months...

3/18 - $127

4/18 - $654

5/18 - $929

6/18 - $66

7/18 - $99

8/18 - $495

And I know I spent over $4K in July through September of last year chasing the bonus.

So yeah... it's been up and down but it has been getting used.

I've also gotten occasional promotional offers on it which I've taken, like 5x on home improvement or 6 months of 0% interest.

---

That's honestly pretty week spending for their mid-tier card. They prob won't give a retention for that small of spending .And you can't count your $4k spending towards the bonus because if they paid out the bonus, they probaably lost money. I don't see this getting a retention bonus. 

Most of the time retention bonuses are reserved for the higher tier cards like Prestige, CSR, Amex Plat, etc. Or if you put thousands through the card each month. 

---

Yes, got to remember that the bank probably makes at most 2% off the swipe fee after rewards, so in this case waiving all of the AF wouldn't make a lot of sense.      But with Citi, you never know.