May 22, 2013, 8:47 pm
Last edit by: aeneas3
- Retention offers, generally speaking, are offers made by a card issuer when they believe you might close your card account.
Often this means you have to actually say specifically you "want to cancel the card because..." before they can offer you something. Being vague saying things like "I'm not sure I want this card", or "are there any offers for me to keep this card?" don't meet their threshold to make an offer until you use the "c" word in a declarative fashion.
- Offers may include cash, points, or a combination of both and are frequently linked to required spending on the card.
- You can contact Citibank's Retention Department directly at 800-444-2568, and avoid the front line customer service reps.
- For additional tips on interacting with retention representatives, see this blog post by someone who claims to have worked for Citi's retention department.
Current offers (update with your current offer under the respective card, date of offer, how long you had the card and yearly spend)
Thank you preferred
Thank you premier
Called Sep 7 complaining about benefit cut
Card #1 (15 years, $2K spent) - no offers, she saw offer taken in February
Card #2 (2 years, $0 spent) 5000 TYPs for $1K spend in 3 month
or $125 for $4.5 spend in 3 month
11/20/13: $125 credit for annual fee. Extra 500 points each month I spend $500 for 16 months. 2 year old card. Spend $5000 per year.
AA platinum
8/22/13: $95 credit + 500 miles each month with $500+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 12/2012, min spend)
9/16/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 6 months (Opened 2 Years, no spend in last 11 months)
9/16/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 3 months (Opened 2 Years, ~$2000 spend in last year)
10/15/13: $95 statement credit and 1000 miles bonus for 1K spending for the next 16 months - (Open 2/13, 25K spend so far)
10/17/13: $95 statement credit and 500 miles bonus for $500 spend for the next 16 months - (Open 9/12, no usage after meeting bonus spend except for recent purchase for the 2K bonus from AA mall)
10/20/13: $95 statement credit and 1,000 miles bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months - (Open 2/13, $3,000 spend so far)
10/23/13 $95 statement credit and 750 miles bonus for $750 spend for next 15 cycles. (Open 3/2013, $3,000 spend so far)
11/23/13 $95 statement credit and 1,000 miles bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 11/'12 and $55K spend)
12/10/13 $95 statement credit and 1,000 mile bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 11/12 and only $5K CVS + $100 AA spend for bonus)
01/06/14 $95 statement credit and 1,000 mile bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 01/13 just made the purchases to meet the min spend)
AA gold
8/22/13: $50 credit + 750 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 2/2013, min spend)
AA Amex
12/10/13: $95 credit + 1k bonus miles each month with $1K+ in purchases for 16 months (Opened 11/2012, approx. $1,000 per month spent over 12 months)
11/21/13: $95 credit + 1k bonus miles each month with $1K+ in purchases for 16 months (Opened 11/2012, only minimum spend)
8/22/13: $95 credit + 1k miles each month with $1K+ in purchases for 16 months (Opened 8/2012, only minimum spend)
8/22/13: $95 credit + 750 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 12/2012, min spend)
9/16/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 3 months (Opened 2 Years, ~$800 spend in last year)
10/12/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 3 months (Opened <2 Year, $1200 / mo spend in last year). Can double dip with previous retention offer of 1000 bonus AA miles with $1000 monthly spend for 16 months
12/17/13: $95 credit + 1k miles each month with $1k+ in purchases for 16 months (opened 11/12, ~$8k spend on opening, minimal recent usage)
01/07/14 $95 statement credit and 1,000 mile bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 01/13 just made the purchases to meet the min spend)
AA executive
10/6/13 $50 credit + 750 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 10/2011, $60k spend)
10/6/13 2500 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 3 months - (Opened 10/2011, $60k spend)
1/3/14 $50 credit and 750 miles with $750 purchase each month for 16 months (opened 1/13 with 40k spend)
3/22/14 $100 credit and 5,000 miles with $1,500 in purchases each month for 3 months. Opened the card 2/1/14
AA business
1/3/2013: Spend $5000 in 6 months, earn 10,000 miles
7/24/14 - 1 day after AF hit - $95 credit + 1000 miles if $1000 spent per statement for 16 months - 4k spend
Hilton reserve
9/16/13: 750 HHonors Points each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months
Hilton signature
Often this means you have to actually say specifically you "want to cancel the card because..." before they can offer you something. Being vague saying things like "I'm not sure I want this card", or "are there any offers for me to keep this card?" don't meet their threshold to make an offer until you use the "c" word in a declarative fashion.
- Offers may include cash, points, or a combination of both and are frequently linked to required spending on the card.
- You can contact Citibank's Retention Department directly at 800-444-2568, and avoid the front line customer service reps.
- For additional tips on interacting with retention representatives, see this blog post by someone who claims to have worked for Citi's retention department.
Current offers (update with your current offer under the respective card, date of offer, how long you had the card and yearly spend)
Thank you preferred
Thank you premier
Called Sep 7 complaining about benefit cut
Card #1 (15 years, $2K spent) - no offers, she saw offer taken in February
Card #2 (2 years, $0 spent) 5000 TYPs for $1K spend in 3 month
or $125 for $4.5 spend in 3 month
11/20/13: $125 credit for annual fee. Extra 500 points each month I spend $500 for 16 months. 2 year old card. Spend $5000 per year.
AA platinum
8/22/13: $95 credit + 500 miles each month with $500+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 12/2012, min spend)
9/16/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 6 months (Opened 2 Years, no spend in last 11 months)
9/16/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 3 months (Opened 2 Years, ~$2000 spend in last year)
10/15/13: $95 statement credit and 1000 miles bonus for 1K spending for the next 16 months - (Open 2/13, 25K spend so far)
10/17/13: $95 statement credit and 500 miles bonus for $500 spend for the next 16 months - (Open 9/12, no usage after meeting bonus spend except for recent purchase for the 2K bonus from AA mall)
10/20/13: $95 statement credit and 1,000 miles bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months - (Open 2/13, $3,000 spend so far)
10/23/13 $95 statement credit and 750 miles bonus for $750 spend for next 15 cycles. (Open 3/2013, $3,000 spend so far)
11/23/13 $95 statement credit and 1,000 miles bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 11/'12 and $55K spend)
12/10/13 $95 statement credit and 1,000 mile bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 11/12 and only $5K CVS + $100 AA spend for bonus)
01/06/14 $95 statement credit and 1,000 mile bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 01/13 just made the purchases to meet the min spend)
AA gold
8/22/13: $50 credit + 750 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 2/2013, min spend)
AA Amex
12/10/13: $95 credit + 1k bonus miles each month with $1K+ in purchases for 16 months (Opened 11/2012, approx. $1,000 per month spent over 12 months)
11/21/13: $95 credit + 1k bonus miles each month with $1K+ in purchases for 16 months (Opened 11/2012, only minimum spend)
8/22/13: $95 credit + 1k miles each month with $1K+ in purchases for 16 months (Opened 8/2012, only minimum spend)
8/22/13: $95 credit + 750 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 12/2012, min spend)
9/16/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 3 months (Opened 2 Years, ~$800 spend in last year)
10/12/13: $95 credit after 5 eligible purchases in the next 3 months (Opened <2 Year, $1200 / mo spend in last year). Can double dip with previous retention offer of 1000 bonus AA miles with $1000 monthly spend for 16 months
12/17/13: $95 credit + 1k miles each month with $1k+ in purchases for 16 months (opened 11/12, ~$8k spend on opening, minimal recent usage)
01/07/14 $95 statement credit and 1,000 mile bonus for $1,000 spend for the next 16 months (opened 01/13 just made the purchases to meet the min spend)
AA executive
10/6/13 $50 credit + 750 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months - (Opened 10/2011, $60k spend)
10/6/13 2500 miles each month with $750+ in purchases for 3 months - (Opened 10/2011, $60k spend)
1/3/14 $50 credit and 750 miles with $750 purchase each month for 16 months (opened 1/13 with 40k spend)
3/22/14 $100 credit and 5,000 miles with $1,500 in purchases each month for 3 months. Opened the card 2/1/14
AA business
1/3/2013: Spend $5000 in 6 months, earn 10,000 miles
7/24/14 - 1 day after AF hit - $95 credit + 1000 miles if $1000 spent per statement for 16 months - 4k spend
Hilton reserve
9/16/13: 750 HHonors Points each month with $750+ in purchases for 16 months
Hilton signature
Citi retention offer reports [2009-2013]
Mar 12, 2013, 3:47 pm
#1711
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
Update:
One HHonor card statement closed on the 11th. (3+5) = 8K sent to HHonor despite the HHonor activities have not updated yet but the points are reflected in the balance.
As suggested by the 2nd rep, called today on the lone HHonor that was left out cold without any offer on the previous call. Got SD office. The rep asked whether I was transferred. Yeah, got disconnected so I called again directly.
Lo and behold, now it has the identical offers 1) and 2) versus none just a week ago. Took the $1K for 5K bonus naturally.
Rep was super-helpful. She asked are there any other cards I wanted her to look at.
Oh sure, there was this AA Visa and AA AMEX (got them in first week of January before policy changed, so exactly 2 months old cards but already met the spend and received the bonuses on the first cycle.)
Both have $85 statement credit and 750 bonus miles on $750 spend. AA Visa has 16 consecutive months while AA AMEX has 12 consecutive months.
Took the offers on both. A good day.
My accounts from Aug 2012.
One has the following:
!) $750 spend 750 pt bonus for 16 months.
2)$1000 spend in 3 months for 5K bonus (took this one)
3) 2 extra pt for 2 months.
The other has none. (That one had a single spend of $1.6K on first statement in Oct 2012 and not used again.)
However a subsequent call (as I forgot to write down which has which hasn't), the rep said after the first card's offer is activated, call back and see if there is offer for the 2nd card. He said sometimes cards are tied together for inexplicable reasons so only one card has offer
This verifies some posts upthread that if you dont have the offer on first call, wait some time then call back, you may then have offer(s) attached.
DH's 3 HHonor cards - one from Aug 2012 and two from Jan 2013, all have the above offers. The one from Aug had several spends to meet spend, the two from Jan 2013 had one single spend to meet the $1K requirement and not used again but they are less than 2 months old.
Took the 5K $1K spend in 3 months on all 3.
Conclusion:
- Cards tied together would have only one card has offers attached. However once the offer is activated, it might trigger new offers to attach to other cards in the group.
- Therefore, do call back after some days passed even if card does not have any offer on 1st call.
- Old cards have multiple transactions to meet spend have better chance for retention offers than cards only have single spend to earn bonus and not used again.
- Even new cards have offers attached, and spend patterns not matter yet due to the newness. Therefore if cards already served their purposes, despite fairly new. do call to check on offer availability.
One HHonor card statement closed on the 11th. (3+5) = 8K sent to HHonor despite the HHonor activities have not updated yet but the points are reflected in the balance.
As suggested by the 2nd rep, called today on the lone HHonor that was left out cold without any offer on the previous call. Got SD office. The rep asked whether I was transferred. Yeah, got disconnected so I called again directly.
Lo and behold, now it has the identical offers 1) and 2) versus none just a week ago. Took the $1K for 5K bonus naturally.
Rep was super-helpful. She asked are there any other cards I wanted her to look at.
Oh sure, there was this AA Visa and AA AMEX (got them in first week of January before policy changed, so exactly 2 months old cards but already met the spend and received the bonuses on the first cycle.)
Both have $85 statement credit and 750 bonus miles on $750 spend. AA Visa has 16 consecutive months while AA AMEX has 12 consecutive months.
Took the offers on both. A good day.
My accounts from Aug 2012.
One has the following:
!) $750 spend 750 pt bonus for 16 months.
2)$1000 spend in 3 months for 5K bonus (took this one)
3) 2 extra pt for 2 months.
The other has none. (That one had a single spend of $1.6K on first statement in Oct 2012 and not used again.)
However a subsequent call (as I forgot to write down which has which hasn't), the rep said after the first card's offer is activated, call back and see if there is offer for the 2nd card. He said sometimes cards are tied together for inexplicable reasons so only one card has offer
This verifies some posts upthread that if you dont have the offer on first call, wait some time then call back, you may then have offer(s) attached.
DH's 3 HHonor cards - one from Aug 2012 and two from Jan 2013, all have the above offers. The one from Aug had several spends to meet spend, the two from Jan 2013 had one single spend to meet the $1K requirement and not used again but they are less than 2 months old.
Took the 5K $1K spend in 3 months on all 3.
Conclusion:
- Cards tied together would have only one card has offers attached. However once the offer is activated, it might trigger new offers to attach to other cards in the group.
- Therefore, do call back after some days passed even if card does not have any offer on 1st call.
- Old cards have multiple transactions to meet spend have better chance for retention offers than cards only have single spend to earn bonus and not used again.
- Even new cards have offers attached, and spend patterns not matter yet due to the newness. Therefore if cards already served their purposes, despite fairly new. do call to check on offer availability.
Mar 12, 2013, 3:53 pm
#1712
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
Less than 2 months old HHonor cards got the 5K $1K spend in 3 months offer.
2 months old AA cards got the $85 statement credit, 750 miles $750 spend for X consecutive months offer.
Therefore if you could, earn your sign up bonus as soon as possible then call to see what are in store.
Mar 12, 2013, 4:20 pm
#1713
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 731
Also new cards got offers too.
Less than 2 months old HHonor cards got the 5K $1K spend in 3 months offer.
2 months old AA cards got the $85 statement credit, 750 miles $750 spend for X consecutive months offer.
Therefore if you could, earn your sign up bonus as soon as possible then call to see what are in store.
Less than 2 months old HHonor cards got the 5K $1K spend in 3 months offer.
2 months old AA cards got the $85 statement credit, 750 miles $750 spend for X consecutive months offer.
Therefore if you could, earn your sign up bonus as soon as possible then call to see what are in store.
Mar 12, 2013, 5:03 pm
#1714
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 88
citi thank you preferred, called to close account, transfered to rentention. offered 10K TYP for spending 3k in 6 months. took the offer. plan to convert to citi dividend after getting the TYP
Mar 13, 2013, 4:10 am
#1715
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,516
Also new cards got offers too.
Less than 2 months old HHonor cards got the 5K $1K spend in 3 months offer.
2 months old AA cards got the $85 statement credit, 750 miles $750 spend for X consecutive months offer.
Therefore if you could, earn your sign up bonus as soon as possible then call to see what are in store.
Less than 2 months old HHonor cards got the 5K $1K spend in 3 months offer.
2 months old AA cards got the $85 statement credit, 750 miles $750 spend for X consecutive months offer.
Therefore if you could, earn your sign up bonus as soon as possible then call to see what are in store.
Mar 13, 2013, 12:09 pm
#1716
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
are you sure you can "churn" their offers? From my experience with AA/TYP cards - after 5 months of having them I called retention and got nice offers. Then, when renewal came I called again and they told me that since they gave earlier (6 month before) bonus points, there are no retention offers anymore.
Though the 2nd time around usually always are spend bonus, never another statement credit, except when in the case the previous statement credit required you to do something, such as make 5 transactions or spend X amount - those were posted as Promotional versus those statement credits without any requirement, are posted as Retention - the latter seems to 100% exclude future statement credit related to another retention effort.
I much prefer the often-offered, $ statement credit after 5 eligible transactions versus the $ statement credit just like that. But I will take what is reasonable offers that are attached to the accounts. You may know by now that offers MUST be already there under your account else the rep is not able to offer it.
Mar 13, 2013, 1:23 pm
#1717
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: SAN
Posts: 1,396
Did you in any way indicate you were interested in canceling, or merely ask what offers are available? After an AF hits, its pretty easy for me call up and indicate that I might cancel; but on a free card < 3 months from opening, I think a different approach would be necessary.
Mar 13, 2013, 8:27 pm
#1718
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
Did you in any way indicate you were interested in canceling, or merely ask what offers are available? After an AF hits, its pretty easy for me call up and indicate that I might cancel; but on a free card < 3 months from opening, I think a different approach would be necessary.
Regarding the insistence from the rep that you must say the magic word of Cancel before you get to talk to retention rep, or the retention rep herself insisted to hear the magic word first before making any offer - I had this experience in the past on and off but not always. Such requirements seem to be there but then depends on how strictly being enforced in Citi's internal control.
On the 2nd round (in my update), the retention rep simply assumed that I was already thru the dance with the front line CSR. After I got the offer for the lone HHonor that did not get offer in the 1st call, she asked were there any more cards I wanted to go over with her. So I offered up the 2 months old AA pair. Got that. She asked Any more? I actually knew what the offers were on my TYP cards (2 per $ spend for 2 months) but I am not interested so I thanked her and wished her a good day. We ended the call pleasantly.
Mar 13, 2013, 8:54 pm
#1719
Moderator: Travel Buzz
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Sunny San Diego
Posts: 3,099
Hmmm... I just called on a 5 year old AA card. Front line rep offered me a $95 fee waiver in two flavors, one with 3K spend, one with 1K spend. I declined both and went to the retention department. NO LUCK!
She said there were NO bonuses for my card. We both marveled that the initial rep would show an offer/s that that Retention dept didn't have. Weird, we agreed. I told her I was sad because it's my favorite card and last year I got a very, very sweet offer. We agreed that I would keep my card and try, try again. Fee renews on 4/30.
She said there were NO bonuses for my card. We both marveled that the initial rep would show an offer/s that that Retention dept didn't have. Weird, we agreed. I told her I was sad because it's my favorite card and last year I got a very, very sweet offer. We agreed that I would keep my card and try, try again. Fee renews on 4/30.
Mar 15, 2013, 7:45 pm
#1720
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: ORD, LAS
Programs: AA-EXP, BAEC Silver, Hyatt-Globalist, Hilton-gold, SPG-gold
Posts: 855
AA Amex- got the waived fee plus 750 bonus miles for 750 in spend for 16 months.
Mar 16, 2013, 1:40 pm
#1721
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 1,947
Citi retention offer reports [All cards]
AA Citi Visa with af hitting in 2 weeks.
Got the standard treatment: af reimbursed ($85) and 750 miles for $750 monthly spend for next 16 months. Not bad for a card we rarely use.
Of note, the $100 reimbursement off the first AA purchase does not exactly coincide with the af hitting. So, I goofed that up by a few days, and CSR had no wiggle room to compensate my stupidity.
Got the standard treatment: af reimbursed ($85) and 750 miles for $750 monthly spend for next 16 months. Not bad for a card we rarely use.
Of note, the $100 reimbursement off the first AA purchase does not exactly coincide with the af hitting. So, I goofed that up by a few days, and CSR had no wiggle room to compensate my stupidity.
Mar 16, 2013, 10:27 pm
#1722
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 699
i was surprised w/the generous offer since this card also has a grandfathered $75 annual fee! the rest of us have $125 annual fees and were offered 10K TYP after spending $3K back in january. we're still working on those spends lol
Mar 17, 2013, 6:57 pm
#1723
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 2,833
Just called to cancel my AA citicard. We have been spending about $500 each month in order to earn 500 bonus miles on each statement. I said I wanted to cancel because the annual fee was coming due next month. I accepted their retention offer of $95 statement credit if I made 5 purchases (no minimum amount) during the next month.
I figured that the offer was a no-cost method to keep my miles alive for another year.....
I figured that the offer was a no-cost method to keep my miles alive for another year.....
Mar 18, 2013, 10:53 am
#1724
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 197
Results from ThankYou Premier Visa Cancel Call
Talked to customer service on 3/18/13, transferred me to an acct specialist when I wanted to cancel and told her I didn't like the downgrade idea she offered. Specialist immediately suggested I move some of the credit line away from that card before canceling. I agreed, and she initiated credit line transfer. She then read me the fine print of the cancellation, including having 30 days to use or lose the remaining points in the account. I explained that I didn't love the idea of canceling the card since I did have some points, I just didn't think my usage of the card was worth $125 when I was similarly using the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
She gave three options: downgrade to fee free card, $75 statement credit after spending $1k in 3 months, or $125 statement credit after spending $4500 in 4 months. I took the $75 statement credit, goes into effect within 2 days.
I should also point out that 2 months before the fee was due, Citi sent me an invite for 5 pts/dollar up to $1500. I signed up and immediately spent $1500 to get $75 worth of points. Little did I know that when I called to cancel my retention offer would be an even $75. Nice little bow we tied up there.
NOTE: I didn't want to cancel because I plan on opening a Citi ThankYou Preferred card soon and having the Premier card still will allow me to book airfare at a fixed 1.33% So keeping this card another year netted me $25 profit, allows me to keep holding the remaining points I have on this account, and lets my future Preferred card be more versatile.
She gave three options: downgrade to fee free card, $75 statement credit after spending $1k in 3 months, or $125 statement credit after spending $4500 in 4 months. I took the $75 statement credit, goes into effect within 2 days.
I should also point out that 2 months before the fee was due, Citi sent me an invite for 5 pts/dollar up to $1500. I signed up and immediately spent $1500 to get $75 worth of points. Little did I know that when I called to cancel my retention offer would be an even $75. Nice little bow we tied up there.
NOTE: I didn't want to cancel because I plan on opening a Citi ThankYou Preferred card soon and having the Premier card still will allow me to book airfare at a fixed 1.33% So keeping this card another year netted me $25 profit, allows me to keep holding the remaining points I have on this account, and lets my future Preferred card be more versatile.
Last edited by jacisme; Mar 18, 2013 at 10:58 am Reason: added note
Mar 18, 2013, 5:31 pm
#1725
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: DCA
Programs: US, AA, UA, LH, VX
Posts: 45
Citi retention offer reports [All cards]
Called in 3/18 for my TY PremierCard that I've had since 05, but right before the rep was going to transfer me he said that he could take care of it for me and cancelled the card.