Threatening CC company for CLI

[DaveSignal]

Not sure why anyone thinks threatening to close an account is a good idea or a good way to get something.  Unless you have a million dollars in the bank, you are suffering from severely egocentric thoughts along the lines of:

1.  I am special

2.  I am better all of the other millions of people in the country

3.  this company needs me and would fail without the small percentage it makes on my purchases.

Stop thinking this way.  The company doesn't need you.  You are not special.  Get over yourself.  The CSR is going to be polite and help you to close your account with as little trouble as possible.  But they aren't going to say stuff like, "well, if we give you a 3x CLI we hope you will change your mind".  thats ridiculous.  If they won't approve you for a 3x CLI when you last asked for one, they aren't going to suddenly change policy because you want to close the account.

[NewtoCredit80]

Well many people seems to forget that customer is a god. He can choose to give his business to which ever companies provides the best services. Every customer is important considering the customer acquistion cost of a new customer for a credit card company. You should look at latest result of Amex or CapOne for the same.

[longtimelurker]

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@NewtoCredit80 wrote:

Well many people seems to forget that customer is a god. He can choose to give his business to which ever companies provides the best services. Every customer is important considering the customer acquistion cost of a new customer for a credit card company. You should look at latest result of Amex or CapOne for the same.

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In theory, maybe.   But for many, credit cards are "sticky", once a person has started building up rewards (however puny) or even just set up a web account, or linked it to my a account, the vast majority don't care enough to research alternatives.   Not like the myfico universe.

And unlike say cell phone service, churn is harder to measure, unless you just count actually cancelling the card.  I would suspect that a much more common revenue loss comes from people just ceasing to use the card

[navigatethis12]

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@Kutuzov wrote:

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Sometimes you just need to change. Many times a new company will treat you better than your years old company. Not sure why but america is full of that, old customers are just hearded while new customers are rewarded. I personally got to change car insurance every now and then cause once you are with a company for 1-2 years they start just lifting your premiun, while a new one will make it a lot cheaper.

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The company you have been with for years already has you. They offer discounts or bonuses to new customers to get them to choose them over the next company. Like how a new cardmember can get $500 but if you do a product change you get nothing.

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@NewtoCredit80 wrote:

Well many people seems to forget that customer is a god. He can choose to give his business to which ever companies provides the best services. Every customer is important considering the customer acquistion cost of a new customer for a credit card company. You should look at latest result of Amex or CapOne for the same.

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This is not true. While a business appreciates customers, it doesn't mean they will go against their policies or standards to make the customer happy. If you have multiple negatives or high utilisation, why would a lender decide to go against the requirements they have set to make you happy? Say they do and a few months later you max out  the card and default, then they are going to have to take the loss that they would have avoided if they hadn't upped the limit. Customers who do believe they are a god just make themselves much less liked than other customers.

[Open123]

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@NewtoCredit80 wrote:

He can choose to give his business to which ever companies provides the best services. Every customer is important considering the customer acquistion cost of a new customer for a credit card company. 

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From a business owner's perspective, knowing when to show the door to those customers who aren't profitable and never will be is of paramount importance.  The 5% of the most troublesome customers will negate the profits from the 95% good customers; and, continuing to allocate resources better spent on the 95% to this dour 5% is pure folly, since these customers will never be satisfied regardless of what you do for them.

The goal of a thriving and growing business is to purge these 5% unprofitable/resource draining customers, who are like a financial cancer to a business's profit margin.

[navigatethis12]

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@Open123 wrote:

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From a business owner's perspective, knowing when to show the door to those customers who aren't profitable and never will be is of paramount importance.  The 5% of the most troublesome customers will negate the profits from the 95% good customers; and, continuing to allocate resources better spent on the 95% to this dour 5% is pure folly, since these customers will never be satisfied regardless of what you do for them.

The goal of a thriving and growing business is to purge these 5% unprofitable/resource draining customers, who are like a financial cancer to a business's profit margin.

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Completely agree on this. Although in my experience it seems to be more like 20% troublesome customers.

[Volpes]

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@DaveSignal wrote:

Not sure why anyone thinks threatening to close an account is a good idea or a good way to get something.  Unless you have a million dollars in the bank, you are suffering from severely egocentric thoughts along the lines of:

1.  I am special

2.  I am better all of the other millions of people in the country

3.  this company needs me and would fail without the small percentage it makes on my purchases.

Stop thinking this way.  The company doesn't need you.  You are not special.  Get over yourself.  The CSR is going to be polite and help you to close your account with as little trouble as possible.  But they aren't going to say stuff like, "well, if we give you a 3x CLI we hope you will change your mind".  thats ridiculous.  If they won't approve you for a 3x CLI when you last asked for one, they aren't going to suddenly change policy because you want to close the account.

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Its almost funny how arrogant you are being calling out others.

The thought isn't that far out, or at least I assumed. Many people do this sucessfully with other companies: satelite radio, cable tv, satelite tv, monitoring services.

I suppose its different with banks, but lets not forget some have been sucessful waiving AF.

[longtimelurker]

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@navigatethis12 wrote:

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@Kutuzov wrote:

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Sometimes you just need to change. Many times a new company will treat you better than your years old company. Not sure why but america is full of that, old customers are just hearded while new customers are rewarded. I personally got to change car insurance every now and then cause once you are with a company for 1-2 years they start just lifting your premiun, while a new one will make it a lot cheaper.

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The company you have been with for years already has you. They offer discounts or bonuses to new customers to get them to choose them over the next company. Like how a new cardmember can get $500 but if you do a product change you get nothing.

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And as stated in my post, in this particular case, car insurance in MA 23 years ago, everything was regulated, you got the same price everywhere, so changing had no actual benefit.

[Roarmeister]

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@NewtoCredit80 wrote:

Well many people seems to forget that customer is a god. He can choose to give his business to which ever companies provides the best services. Every customer is important considering the customer acquistion cost of a new customer for a credit card company. You should look at latest result of Amex or CapOne for the same.

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Actually, the single customer is just a number.  Furtherest thing from a god, and certainly not an important and entitled account.  The CSR could probably care less and same with the company.  Everybody SAYS the customer is No. 1 but the reality is that you are probably No. 10 or worse.  DaveSignal, altough coming off as a bit loud and demeaning, is right on the money in his post.  A lot of people have grown up thinking they are special and entitled but then life hits them between the eyes and they finally wake up!

[Raccoon290]

I've only commented on not using my card due to the existing limit, which was in my email to the CapOne EO.

And that wasn't really a threat, as it was fact.  I was on a limit of $500 which meant I couldn't use the card reguarly without making several  payments during the month or risk having a high utilization at statement close.