Originally Posted by
scubadu
… .. upon accepting the upgrade she was billed $354 for the annual fee (which is approximately 50% of the Platinum annual fee) then had a "membership fee adj" (i.e. credit) for $151, which is the pro-rata refund of the Biz Gold annual fee.
On the surface, this would seem good. However, I'm realizing upon reviewing the T&Cs Amex sent after accepting the upgrade, that in this case her card year does not change, etc. So what I think that means, unfortunately, is that in about 6 months (the end of her card year for the original Biz Gold) we will get hit with a new $695 annual fee for renewal. And given that we accepted an upgrade offer for membership reward points, I'm assuming it would not be prudent to cancel the card upon that renewal fee posting as she'll have only had the upgraded Biz Platinum for 6 months (even though the account number will be at one year/12 months) and I'm guessing Amex would then attempt to clawback the bonus since it would have been less than one year since she received the bonus offer….
Thank you, excellent datapoint and lesson.
Reminiscent of my questionably poorly considered accepted mid-level retention offer on a 3 month old Biz Plat card which thus essentially mandated that I pay the AF 9 months later when I otherwise would have cancelled. Like you I was reluctant to cancel 9 months into receiving an (upgrade or retention) offer. I ended up product changing to Biz Green shortly after receiving the Airline Fee credit in January, received ~60% Biz Plat $695 AF refund, paid ~70% of Biz Green $95 AF, ended up closing Biz Green two months later. Another reason for lowered enthusiasm for retention offers.
I don’t know if AmEx would actually clawback your wife’s or my bonuses (in these situations) but like you I chose not to be a crash test dummy.