Credit Card Programs - United VISA: "You will forefit all of your united miles if you cancel"

I finally cancelled my Chase United Mileage Plus Visa card today after milking it for all it was worth- and had a rather strange exchange with the cancellation supervisor. Keep in mind - I've drained my Mileage plus account down to < 10, however, about half of the miles earned were from VISA, the other half actual flown miles. The conversation went something like this:

tmapian: I'd like to cancel my card
Supervisor: Are you aware that by cancelling your Chase card you will be forefiting all of your United Mileage Plus miles? Your account will be closed and you will have no access to your miles.
tmapian: Um, that's not true. I've flown numerous times this year and credited those to my account, and Chase can't touch those
Supervisor: (in a angry tone) Sir, I've been a Chase supervisor for over 18 years, don't you proceed to tell me my business. You will lose all your miles, case closed. When you signed up for the card you agreed to this, and I can fax you the highlighted terms and conditions if you want"
tmapian: Yea, just cancel my card.


I literally have less than 5 miles left in my Mileage Plus account, so I really don't care if they do "take all my miles"- however, I find it hard to believe that they can actually do this - especially with BIS miles. Thoughts?

Supervisor: Are you aware that by cancelling your Chase card you will be forefiting all of your United Mileage Plus miles? Your account will be closed and you will have no access to your miles.

Supervisor: (in a angry tone) Sir, I've been a Chase supervisor for over 18 years, don't you proceed to tell me my business. You will lose all your miles, case closed. When you signed up for the card you agreed to this, and I can fax you the highlighted terms and conditions if you want"



hahahaha :D

Pure BS.

If your Chase card is LESS than 6 months old, yes, you would lose the 25K bonus given to you. Chase can and does, deduct 25K from your UA account. I do not know if you have 0 bal what would happen. I do know that 25K can be deducted from your UA account by fact. I also read about some posts about your UA account can go into negative balance and UA could make you purchase miles to make it up - this part I dont have solid fact to verify the info.

If your Chase card is older than 6 months, then all you might lose, would be the UA miles earned before statement close date. Of course I dont think anyone would be dumb enough to close a reward card before the reward earning is posted to the corresponding account.

However, Chase does enforce the 6 month clause, rather randomly.

I finally cancelled my Chase United Mileage Plus Visa card today after milking it for all it was worth- and had a rather strange exchange with the cancellation supervisor. Keep in mind - I've drained my Mileage plus account down to < 10, however, about half of the miles earned were from VISA, the other half actual flown miles. The conversation went something like this:

tmapian: I'd like to cancel my card
Supervisor: Are you aware that by cancelling your Chase card you will be forefiting all of your United Mileage Plus miles? Your account will be closed and you will have no access to your miles.
tmapian: Um, that's not true. I've flown numerous times this year and credited those to my account, and Chase can't touch those
Supervisor: (in a angry tone) Sir, I've been a Chase supervisor for over 18 years, don't you proceed to tell me my business. You will lose all your miles, case closed. When you signed up for the card you agreed to this, and I can fax you the highlighted terms and conditions if you want"
tmapian: Yea, just cancel my card.


I literally have less than 5 miles left in my Mileage Plus account, so I really don't care if they do "take all my miles"- however, I find it hard to believe that they can actually do this - especially with BIS miles. Thoughts?

Typical Chase lying. :td:

An alternative to closing an account is to change the account, thereby preserving the positive aspects of the original account, such as the line of credit and credit history, while eliminating the unwanted features, such as an annual fee and affiliation with a no longer patronized airline - as well as possibly gaining additional useful features and benefits unique to the changed account.

Example: Chase will change a United Platinum card with an annual fee to a Chase Freedom Card with no annual fee, without pulling a credit inquiry or reporting the original account as closed.

An alternative to closing an account is to change the account, thereby preserving the positive aspects of the original account, such as the line of credit and credit history, while eliminating the unwanted features, such as an annual fee and affiliation with a no longer patronized airline - as well as possibly gaining additional useful features and benefits unique to the changed account.

Example: Chase will change a United Platinum card with an annual fee to a Chase Freedom Card with no annual fee, without pulling a credit inquiry or reporting the original account as closed.

The only annoying thing is, the consolidated card would remain attached to the new card, like forever. We converted a Marriott Visa Signature to a Freedom almost 2 years ago. The transactions continue to show up on both cards, that you can view them online. Though the MR card does not generate paper statement from the day of conversion, but every CS said s/he cannot delete the MR card as it would also delete the Freedom card.

I always get a name and location for CSRs. When I get one like this, I usually send a letter-not to his/her boss (who may admire overzealous retention efforts) but someone with a broader view, like the CEO.

I always get a name and location for CSRs. When I get one like this, I usually send a letter-not to his/her boss (who may admire overzealous retention efforts) but someone with a broader view, like the CEO.

And have you gotten any meaningful responses? If so, care to share here?

I would love to see what Jamie Dimon or his direct underlings to say in the response letter to you.

Agree that the line you fed by the CSR was complete BS. In the future, though, watch out for further integration. JP Morgan Chase just renewed their credit card contract with UA, and as part of the deal gave them another $600 million in cash (on top of the $600 million they gave a few weeks ago). As part of the deal, it sounds like they've acquired a portion of UA MileagePlus. What that means ... who knows.

And have you gotten any meaningful responses? If so, care to share here?

I would love to see what Jamie Dimon or his direct underlings to say in the response letter to you.

While the OP was about Chase, I don't recall if I ever had to write them. My point was that no company of size wants employees or agents lying or breaking the rules to meet a quota. Many high level execs have set up their offices so that letters of this sort are dealt with in a way that one letter doesn't mean much but several letters on the same topic may spotlight a problem, which is then addressed.

A rogue CSR making false threats to up his or her retention ratio is likely a frequent offender. Letters can help weed out the bad eggs.

...Supervisor: (in a angry tone) Sir, I've been a Chase supervisor for over 18 years, don't you proceed to tell me my business. You will lose all your miles, case closed. When you signed up for the card you agreed to this, and I can fax you the highlighted terms and conditions if you want"...

Too bad you didn't ask him to fax you those T&C he claimed were there in your agreement. It would have been interesting to see what, if anything, he had to rely on.

Is Chase no longer pro-rating the annual fee when you cancel? That's what they told me when I called but I went ahead and cancelled anyways. Last year I cancelled then a week later they called back and offered to waive it if I kept the card.

What they probably meant (though just not seems to explain properly) is that if there are miles pending to post from the Card activity they will not post when you will cancel the card.

I had the same situation and some 100 odd miles that were pending to post were never posted to the UA MP account.

I had a very similar experience with a Chase rep almost a year ago. Called to cancel a UA MP card. Got transferred to a guy who was determined to not let me cancel. First he argued about why I should cancel at all. Later he threatened to take away the intro bonus miles. I had read terms and conditions very carefully and was pretty sure that that wasn't possible (at the time; things may have changed). This conversation occured shortly after a pretty famous recording made its way around the internet-- one of a guy trying to cancel his AOL account. AOL was roundly criticized and had to publicly apologize. I reminded the Chase rep of this, because my conversation was very similar. He didn't seem to care.

Bottom line: The card was canceled and I didn't lose any miles. However, the MP card solicitations continue to show up in the mail at least twice per month, one each for myself and my wife.

BoA Tried telling me the exact same thing when I called up and asked about changing my Platinum Alaska Airlines card to something basic with no annual fee (I've got the Citi AA card now, and the Citi card is the new 'everyday' card).

I've had this card for about 2 years, and got 1 plane ticket (and enough miles saved for another in my MP account) and even though I asked about converting it to a basic Visa product, the CSR told me that I'd loose all my MP miles (and I said, you mean the ones from this current billing statement, and he said no all miles I've ever accumulated with this card [almost 75k miles]).

That doesn't sound right, and he suggested that I reallocate or split (can’t remember what word he used) my credit limit between 2 cards. Even though the whole point of converting this account was so I wouldn’t have to pay the annual fee anymore. I wouldn’t want to really close this account since it’s my oldest credit card in my wallet and the limit is a lot more than all my other cards and closing it would be really bad on my credit report (oldest card and almost half of my allocated credit card credit). So I’ll call them back up and see if I can talk to someone else (unless they’re all trained to give that line) since the annual fee hasn’t posted yet (thought it would last month… guess it’s at the end of this month).

Is Chase no longer pro-rating the annual fee when you cancel? That's what they told me when I called but I went ahead and cancelled anyways. Last year I cancelled then a week later they called back and offered to waive it if I kept the card.

Just an update, I called to verify my account was closed after receiving a terms and conditions update in the mail. The account was indeed closed but there was a $60 credit on the account! The CSR flat out lied to me about the annual fee being non-refundable. I asked about 3-4 times and he said no adding "you've already paid it so you should keep the card." I'm going to wait for the the $60 refund check to clear and complain to Chase.

Jeez, are these retention CSR's like the police in that they are allowed to lie to you to try to get what they want :D

Just an update, I called to verify my account was closed after receiving a terms and conditions update in the mail. The account was indeed closed but there was a $60 credit on the account! The CSR flat out lied to me about the annual fee being non-refundable. I asked about 3-4 times and he said no adding "you've already paid it so you should keep the card." I'm going to wait for the the $60 refund check to clear and complain to Chase.

Jeez, are these retention CSR's like the police in that they are allowed to lie to you to try to get what they want :D

Get the name and location and turn 'em in.

Get the name and location and turn 'em in.

I did complain through the webiste message application but all I got was the canned we're sorry you were misled type response. So I wrote a letter to the Chase corporate customer service office detailing everything. Today I received a personal call apologizing and saying that this employee's manager would be made aware of this situation and receive additional training. Hopefully they're not just blowing smoke (since I'm no longer a customer.)

For the record, if you close your account within 90 days of the annual fee charge it is automatically refunded.

I just called and a Chase guy told me I would lose all of the miles that I had accumulated with United even though the card has been open for 9 months. I hung up and called back and had another lady say the same thing. I told her to read the terms to me over the phone, and she apologized for being wrong. She then closed the account and told me I had 18 months from the time of the last milage deposit to use the miles.

I finally cancelled my Chase United Mileage Plus Visa card today after milking it for all it was worth- and had a rather strange exchange with the cancellation supervisor. Keep in mind - I've drained my Mileage plus account down to < 10, however, about half of the miles earned were from VISA, the other half actual flown miles. The conversation went something like this:

tmapian: I'd like to cancel my card
Supervisor: Are you aware that by cancelling your Chase card you will be forefiting all of your United Mileage Plus miles? Your account will be closed and you will have no access to your miles.
tmapian: Um, that's not true. I've flown numerous times this year and credited those to my account, and Chase can't touch those
Supervisor: (in a angry tone) Sir, I've been a Chase supervisor for over 18 years, don't you proceed to tell me my business. You will lose all your miles, case closed. When you signed up for the card you agreed to this, and I can fax you the highlighted terms and conditions if you want"
tmapian: Yea, just cancel my card.


I literally have less than 5 miles left in my Mileage Plus account, so I really don't care if they do "take all my miles"- however, I find it hard to believe that they can actually do this - especially with BIS miles. Thoughts?

I have had points taken away/back in the past. So it is possible.

Best way I learned how to cancel a credit card: "I'm moving back to Japan"

You can literally hear the yelp of the retention guys because it's not in their playbook. :D

Though my CapitalOne retention guy did try his best to keep me alive:

CO: "Our card is one of the only few cards that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees..."
Me: "How do I pay my credit card bill? Surely you're not going to send a monthly credit card bill via mail all the way to Japan"
CO: "You can do online banking..."
Me: "Japanese banks do not use electronic checks, moreso people don't use checks period. And I'll be living in a yen society so I have to deal with the hassle of converting JPY to USD just to pay my US-based credit card?"
CO: "I see...okay. So you're really sure you want to cancel? (noted sense of nervousness because he can't think of anything else)"
Me: "Yes"

Best way I learned how to cancel a credit card: "I'm moving back to Japan"

You can literally hear the yelp of the retention guys because it's not in their playbook. :D

Though my CapitalOne retention guy did try his best to keep me alive:

CO: "Our card is one of the only few cards that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees..."
Me: "How do I pay my credit card bill? Surely you're not going to send a monthly credit card bill via mail all the way to Japan"
CO: "You can do online banking..."
Me: "Japanese banks do not use electronic checks, moreso people don't use checks period. And I'll be living in a yen society so I have to deal with the hassle of converting JPY to USD just to pay my US-based credit card?"
CO: "I see...okay. So you're really sure you want to cancel? (noted sense of nervousness because he can't think of anything else)"
Me: "Yes"

Haha, thats great. Will give it a try next time I need to cancel something.