Closing Amex PRG

[Anonymous]

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@red259 wrote:

When I looked into it I never saw anyone who claimed to be offered more than 25k bonus for renewal and the people who got that offer had some serious spend, including 200k+ a year on the card. My spend was much lower on this card, so I think the best I could possibly hope for was 15k and that was not going to be enough. 

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I'd keep it for another 20K MR. Or 15K during BA Avios 40% bonus

[Anonymous]

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@red259 wrote:

When I looked into it I never saw anyone who claimed to be offered more than 25k bonus for renewal and the people who got that offer had some serious spend, including 200k+ a year on the card. My spend was much lower on this card, so I think the best I could possibly hope for was 15k and that was not going to be enough. 

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When i do go cancel my green charge, ill call and ask what are my options on canceling my green charge and see how the conversation goes.

[Fico2Go]

For me, the PRG was perfect for temporary sheltering of spending without getting hit on the reports. But it was not enough to continue. My previous spending was 40k a year on this card. If I were to spend more on this card next year I'd have to calculate the lost opportunity for having this card.

[CreditJim]

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@red259 wrote:

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@CreditJim wrote:

I called to close my PRG a couple of months ago and was offered 35k MR points to keep it open, which I took. Even at just a 1c/point statement credit it more than covered the AF.

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What kind of spend did you have on the card for the year? Did they require any spend to get the bonus?

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Sorry I stand corrected. I've just checked my old statement and I got 25k MR, not 35k as I thought. Either way, I knew it was enough to cover the AF. It says 'Bonus Points Award 25,000. Retention Loyalty/25k MR Pts A4WG'. I put 40k in spending on it last year. I believe that this year is the last year I'll get the bonus 15k MR for spending over $30k, so I'll do that and then cancel before I have to pay the AF again, unless I'm given another retention offer.

ETA: No additional spend was required to get the 25k retention offer.

[kchengg1]

Just called them now and was offered 25k to not close my card. I took it.

35k spend within 10 months.

[Involver]

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@red259 wrote:

I'm posting this because I got inaccurate advice on this very issue in the past and wanted to make sure people understand the process in case they need to deal with it in the future.

I called in to Amex and closed out my PRG. They didn't make a retention offer and I didn't bother asking because based on my research there was no offer that I have seen them make that was going to be high enough to make the card worthwhile to me. My situation is the statement just cut and I have a balance due next month. The AF also posted in this most recent statement. I was advised by the CSR that you do NOT have to pay the balance off before closing the card. Also, she said she would credit back the AF so it does not appear that I will have to pay it first to get the credit back. My membership reward points are safely tucked away with my amex everyday account, so I do not lose them. Finally, as was mentioned in prior threads the cancelled account stays on your profile so you can pay through the website even though its been closed out. It was a painless experience and had I known before that I could close the card with a balance I would have closed it prior to the AF posting to begin with. So my dealings with amex in the past two days have been very simple and they were able to answer every question I have. 

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A testament to why it is better to call the lender directly than to fish for speculative answers from a forum.

Too many people wonder why their banks do things. 

You did the right thing and went straight to the source.

[heyitsyeh]

Closed my PRG today, was offered nothing for retention because they saw I already had an ED. Oh well, I still get to keep the 1k MR points lol.