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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.


best travel rewards credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) and NO FX fees Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback when you spend at least £2,000 per month.

Barclaycard Select Cashback Business Credit Card

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Comments (57)

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

  • Will says:

    The fee refund per day is correct. Received £38.83 for SPG cancellation which I thought was a bit different to normal monthly rebate. Nothing offered to keep the card.

    Wife due to cancel gold next week (we flipped to me for first year bonus). Only spent £12k so doubt any offer will be given!

  • Keith says:

    I was also offered double points for six months on my Gold Card.

    As I have a reasonable amount of travel/overseas expenditure I took the offer and have been receiving three MR for all my travel expenditure, so well worth it.

  • Frankie says:

    I cancelled my BA Premium Card this week as I’ve now completed my 2for1 companion trip to Phoenix and the next voucher is in my partners name so I will wait 6 months and take out card again (which will be the third time) I was offered an extra Avios per pound spent for the next three months if I kept the card. My pro rata refund also seemed to be worked out daily. the lady said she had to calculate it and it was not 8 12ths of £150 as I expected. I got a bit more. The agent also just took the refund off what was outstanding and I paid the balance and account was closed.

  • Nick says:

    Cancelled my platinum Amex this month and I got no bonus offers. Not surprising though as I haven’t been a big spender in the past year.

  • John Peden says:

    They charged me for a late payment which caused me to loose my intro bonus. I called up to cancel a gold card, cold charge card and gold business in defiance…made no attempt to keep me, never mind upgrade me.

    • JQ says:

      I can’t see how this is anyone’s fault but yours… and Amex has a long memory, so you may even get declined for future Amex applications.

  • Thomas says:

    They lost a lot of customers when they upped the Centurion fee from 650 to 1800, with scarcely a shrug at the time, only benefit being that the BA PP card remains free ever since….

    • Nick says:

      Raffles, what about a centurion card article. Don’t recall reading one on hfp before?

      • Rob says:

        Very limited audience for that I think! It is a terrible product in value terms anyway.

        • Thomas says:

          At 650 it was a wonderful thing, being a titanium card too.. Yes, a little materialistic, but as a bachelor…..

  • Trickster says:

    I was offered nothing when I cancelled my gold card last month. However, on a previous cancellation my wife was offered double points for a period, I think 6 months.

  • Jeremy I says:

    Anyone have any experience of being offered anything when trying to cancel an MBNA-issued Amex?

    • James says:

      Got no offer when I called to cancel my Emirates MBNA Amex last month

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

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