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Report your American Express cancellation counter-offers

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I get occasional emails from Head for Points readers asking me if it is worth trying to ‘bargain’ with American Express over threatening to cancel your card, hoping to get a lucrative retention offer.

My answer is usually ‘No’.

There is plenty of evidence over the years to show that American Express in the UK does NOT have a standard offer to make to people who ring up to cancel.

The majority of people are simply thanked for their custom and that is it.  When the Platinum fee was hiked from £300 to £450 in 2012, there was very little attempt made to keep people who decided to ditch it.

That said, some people DO get offered something.  There seems to be no logic behind how these offers are triggered.

I thought it would be interesting to track recent offers made to Head for Points readers who have called Amex to cancel cards. 

As a starter, Stephen emailed me recently to say that he was offered double Membership Rewards points for six months if he decided to keep his American Express Platinum card.  He turned this offer down.

He was also offered the chance to keep his free linked Platinum credit card for a fee of £36 per year if he did cancel the charge card.  Whilst Stephen turned this down, there is one reason why you might accept this deal – it would let you keep your Membership Rewards account open whilst you wait for a transfer bonus.

(I wrote about the Platinum credit card here.  If you have a Platinum charge card, you can earn an easy 3000 Membership Rewards points by asking for a free Platinum credit card to hold alongside it.)

Please post any offers that Amex has made to you recently in the comments below.  Thanks.

PS.  Here’s some news on a tangential topic. Stewart got in touch last week to say that Amex has changed its way of calculating fee refunds when you cancel cards.  They have usually rounded down to the nearest month, so if you cancelled after 7 weeks you only paid one month of fee.  Stewart was told that Amex is now calculating fee refunds on a daily basis.

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Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Membership Rewards, American Express Platinum card

Comments (57)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Erica says:
    22 Jun22 June 07:09

    Double points for 12 months on the gold card.

  • Gordon says:
    22 Jun22 June 07:15

    I cancelled my gold card in the last month and they offered me double points on all transactions for 6 months. Dont know if the offer is linked to card spend but i had spent over 25k in 15 months

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      22 Jun22 June 09:25

      I think I was offered the same when I cancelled at the end of last year before my first anniversary. A bit over 10k spend I think.

  • Max says:
    22 Jun22 June 07:27

    I ditched the Platinum Charge Card earlier this year and was not proffered any retention offer. But I did get a refund of the annual charge which, going by the amount refunded, had to be based on a daily not monthly calculated rebate.

  • Paul Irving says:
    22 Jun22 June 08:10

    When I recently cancelled my platinum card, they offered me double points for 12 months, but that would have still been the same as my BMI card so I declined.

  • Frenske says:
    22 Jun22 June 08:16

    Mmm that is bad news. My gold card is approaching its anniversary next month, no conversion bonus in sight and £150 fee is looming. Already ordered the BA AmEx.

    • Sideysid says:
      22 Jun22 June 08:28

      Mine too, but I’m planning on applying for the gold amex credit card that partners the charge card that Raffles has previously mentioned in an article that gives 3000 point bonus on a £500 spend.

      People have reported that when cancelling the gold charge card they are being offered the chance to keep the gold credit card going (no annual fee + keeping membership awards alive until a bonus becomes available)

      Then on the anniversary of the gold charge card you get a bonus of 7500 points, and judging by this article you can now get a pro-rata refund on the annual fee up to the day you cancel.

      • Sideysid says:
        22 Jun22 June 08:29

        Obviously the 7500 bonus is providing you have spent 15k by your anniversary date (which I have)

      • Rob says:
        22 Jun22 June 09:48

        The 7500 post one month after renewal, so you would get £110 of the £125 back, give or take

    • Will says:
      22 Jun22 June 08:51

      Fee for gold is £125 after the first yr

  • LHR Tim says:
    22 Jun22 June 08:30

    Mine was based on the following formula

    Retention Bonus Counter Offer = SQRT(Bugger All)

  • Danksy says:
    22 Jun22 June 08:37

    My OH was offered double points on leaving SPG
    I was offered 10,000 points to stay with SPG

    About to cancel Amex play so i will report back soon!

  • Jason says:
    22 Jun22 June 08:46

    OH downgraded plat to gold, just got 1 year double points etc and 125 fee.
    I cancelled platinum the day the statement was generated and my bonus points showed in my baec account. Amex refunded the total fee by transferring the credit( id paid statement plus fee to cancel) of £450 to my BA amex.
    As customer service goes i think amex are amazing, closely followed by HSBC premier, thats in a good way! They must be 2 of the few organisations where you can actual speak to a person these days. They also seem to actually want your business!

    • Andy says:
      23 Jun23 June 09:57

      Agree entirely with this. Amex CS is fantastic. I’ve made a few complaints about misinformation I’ve been given by them over the ‘phone, and customer service listened to the tape of my original call to check what I’d been told and gave me a few thousand avios or MR points to apologise for the confusion they had caused me. No messing about, no trying to exuse themselves – they just did the right thing immediately. Regardless of all the benefits you get with Amex I’d use them anyway.

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