Originally Posted by augmon

Amex Gold, member since 2016, got a retention offer in 2017 but didn't try last year. Annual spend varies but is about $6000 for the last 12 months (most of my non-supermarket/dining spend goes through Chase).

Called up and pretended I was surprised by the bump in the annual fee. The lady was very nice but would not budge when I asked if they could do something about it. She took me through the benefits etc etc but said there wasn't any way she could discount the fee, even when I commented that I found the airline credit hard to use. She tried to sell me on a points bonus for adding AUs instead, but I have no interest in that. Maybe if I'd pushed harder and threatened to cancel I would have gotten somewhere, but I got the sense that there was nothing showing on her screen.

An interesting result, since in 2017 the agent gave me a decent retention offer without any arguing at all. Vagaries of the algorithm... maybe they're more likely to give an offer at the first annual renewal because they have less confidence that you're willing to pay an annual fee?