Retention typically refers to a team or department within an organization that has a goal to retain your business. They may offer you deals, incentives or free services to sweeten the pot.
Example: Your cable has an extended outage, you call in to cancel the services because you are unsatisfied. They offer you free or discounted services plus extra channels to retain your business (thus reducing revenue chrurn).
You'll often times see people get upset , say, when trying to get a retention offer from Amex before they cancel a card due to upcoming AF and not given one. Retention offers aren't gaurenteed and by no means are obligated be given. Nice to receive though
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Nice to receive though
Sometimes. Other times, you can't cancel without being sent to retention and being forced to listen to their windy speech and offers
when you've already firmly decided to cancel. DirecTV comes to mind, amongst others.
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
You'll often times see people get upset , say, when trying to get a retention offer from Amex before they cancel a card due to upcoming AF and not given one. Retention offers aren't gaurenteed and by no means are obligated be given. Nice to receive though
+1
Retention offers are meant to keep you from leaving whatever business you're dealing with. Most companies find it cheaper to retain existing users than to find replacements. Then you have companies like Cap1 where retention offers are non-existent because it appears that they are more profitable selling their Asset Backed Securities, so they aren't concerned with churning their user base. They would rather have newer, lower quality users to package versus keeping their less profitable long-term cutomers.
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
You'll often times see people get upset , say, when trying to get a retention offer from Amex before they cancel a card due to upcoming AF and not given one. Retention offers aren't gaurenteed and by no means are obligated be given. Nice to receive though
Yes, ideally retention offers come into play when you are (seriously) considering closing a card but aren't certain. Then a retention offer can change your mind, hopefully being a win-win for you and the issuer. They can fully or partially offset an annual fee, or give extra rewards for additional spending (again helping the issuer as well as you).
As AJC suggests, some people have gone for retention offers even when they had no real intention to close. This has sometime led to card closure without any offer (and then "I'm so mad" posts!) Basic advice is if you want to do this, use language like "I'm THINKING about closing the card because I'm not sure I am getting value" as compared to "I want to close this card" as you might encounter an overly helpful CSR who will get the job done if you use the latter.
In general, an issuer will only give a retention offer if keeping your business is likely to be profitable. If you have a small spend, or only use 5x categories, waiving fees or giving you extra rewards is unlikely to make sense
If you actually really want to close the card, try doing it online where possible.
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:Retention offers are meant to keep you from leaving whatever business you're dealing with. Most companies find it cheaper to retain existing users than to find replacements. Then you have companies like Cap1 where retention offers are non-existent because it appears that they are more profitable selling their Asset Backed Securities, so they aren't concerned with churning their user base. They would rather have newer, lower quality users to package versus keeping their less profitable long-term cutomers.
I've heard a lot of people talk about getting the AF waived on Venture. That counts as retention.
@longtimelurker wrote:@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
You'll often times see people get upset , say, when trying to get a retention offer from Amex before they cancel a card due to upcoming AF and not given one. Retention offers aren't gaurenteed and by no means are obligated be given. Nice to receive thoughYes, ideally retention offers come into play when you are (seriously) considering closing a card but aren't certain. Then a retention offer can change your mind, hopefully being a win-win for you and the issuer. They can fully or partially offset an annual fee, or give extra rewards for additional spending (again helping the issuer as well as you).
As AJC suggests, some people have gone for retention offers even when they had no real intention to close. This has sometime led to card closure without any offer (and then "I'm so mad" posts!) Basic advice is if you want to do this, use language like "I'm THINKING about closing the card because I'm not sure I am getting value" as compared to "I want to close this card" as you might encounter an overly helpful CSR who will get the job done if you use the latter.
If you actually really want to close the card, try doing it online where possible.
Using words like "thinking" and "considering" is good if you're truly undecided about a card. FT suggests that with Citi, it is very helpful to use the word "close" or "cancel", too (rather than vague comments like "I'm not sure the card is a good fit"). So "I'm thinking about closing my card" would generally work well with them. I've added "I was wondering if I had any offers to keep the card".
But even if you include "thinking" or "considering", you may encounter a CSR to doesn't know you're playing a game, or knows what you're doing and just has no interest in playing along.
My approach is to never call unless I'm genuinely willing to close the card.
