CRC

My last renewal in Oct 05 was a direct call to the rentention desk. Reviewed my account history and offered a credit of the $95 annual fee for my card. Done!

I spoke to a cancellation specialist upon renewal of my AmEx Gold Rewards Plus. AmEx Gold offered no MR points, no credit of annual fee. Nothing, zero, zip, zilch. I didn't renew and I'm glad I did, since double everyday MR pts is coming to an end.

CRC

Called DC Bonus Retention Dept (800) 753-5577 regarding annual bonus renewal.
Best offer: 5K pts over 5 mos for any charge amount.

No credit of $95 like last year (9/05). He said the DC Marketing Dept issues the offers available for Retention Dept. Offers are going downhill just like the card programs are. Since DC is a business card, it's profitable to gut and downsize card programs and perks.

DC is still better than AmEx MR program.

ohmark

Reports in the various threads dealing with retention bonuses and card cancellation seem to indicate this is not necessarily true. Instead the bonuses have been going up, down, and sideways. It appears to vary depending on who answers the phone and what kind of mood they are in. Recent reports of bonuses have ranged from 2,000 to 5,000 to 20,000 points, all spread over a few months, to waiving the $95 fee, to absolutely nothing. Further the type and amount of spending on the card and the length of tenure of the cardholder appear to be irrelevant.

Edited to add the 10,000 points reported by Beckles below. Now you may be offered 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, waiving of annual fee, or nothing. Like roulette.

Beckles

I got 2,000 points per month for a single charge for 5 months for 10,000 points total. I've been a cardholder since 1998 and this is the first time I've asked for a renewal bonus and I typically charge several thousand a month on my card. That will come out to 15,000 British Airways miles during the usual promo next year (assuming they have it of course), not too bad. I could of course convert it to $120 cash too, which would cover my annual fee and then some.

jamesteroh

I would be surprised if DC is even around in a few more years.

When I originally received the card it was great. I received 1,000 points a month for the first year as a bonus if I used the card just once.

It used to be good on any airline I used. I usually fly delta, northwest and Southwest. It was $1,000 spent for 1,000 miles on NWA and Delta or $1,000 spent for 1 credit on SWA. Now you can't even get NWA miles and it's $1,500 miles for 1 credit on SWA. That is a 50% increase! And you have to pay money or use extra points to get those credits now. My southwest visa is only $39 a year and it's $1,200 spent for 1 credit and no fees involved for the credits. My delta Am Ex is probably about the same fee as my diner's and there are no fees for the miles and they are always running promos. This summer it was 2 miles for every $1 charged and a lot of merchant's it's always 2 miles for every $1 charged.

Diner's restaraunt program used to pay for the card itself. 3 places I dine at regularly used to offer a 20% credit. It was reduced to 10%. Now it doesn't exist. Diner's said they were working on a replacement program and I have heard nothing of this new program.

Diner's used to offer 2 months to pay the balance. This was reduced to 1 month.

For foreign transactions, not only is their exchange rate awful, there is a 3 percent fee and the fee doesn't earn miles (a lot of credit cards now charge this fee but it's added into the purchase and you get miles and it is also easier to use for reporting purposes that way). WIth my credit union visa, I get at least a 2% better exchange rate and don't pay the 3% fee. Even though I don't get miles, 5% is pretty expensive for a surcharge for the miles.

When my card is up for renewal in April the only wawy I am keeping it is if they waive the fee. I would recomend going with a credit card with the airline or hotel you frequent most.

sdsearch

I don't quite understand your logic. Because someone like you who is penny pinching is much less interested (still interested enough if they waive the fee!), this is going to cause Citi to discontinue a corporate card?

(You're apparently forgetting that the personal card is almost -- especially now -- simply a "tag along" to the corportate card. The corporate card is Citi's focus with DC, and thy key to whether the card survives.)

But all the people I see complaining here are complaining about the personal card. (People who choose corporate cards for their company don't seem to ever post here.)

I love the fact that they got rid of Restaurant Savings, it now means that I can use DC for iDine programs that earn miles! I'd much rather have miles than cashback, but as long as Restaurant Savings Program existed, I couldn't choose. I consider the "loss" of Restaurant Savings as a new benefit! I primarily focus on AA miles, but I want to be able to dump my DC points into anywhere at any time. Using other cards means I have to know ahead of time which programs I'll need how many miles/points/credits in. With DC I can "park" my points and convert when I need them, once I figure out where I need them. No other card (except SPG AMEX) lets me do that with a wide variety of airlines, and no other card (including SPG AMEX) lets me do that with a variety of hotel chains.

And you're forgetting that DC is an international card, differently functioning (very differently funcitoning) in every country. The changes you bemoan are specific to the US. (There may have been changes in other countries too, but we've heard little about them.) DC won't die or live solely on the US alone, so you need to understand what's happening with it worldwide (and again, including mostly corporate wordlwide) to really know how it's doing.

As far as the US is concerned, I'd say DC has a better chance of surviving now, because it's already an MC which means Citi can dismantle the DC infrastructure at the merchant level (within North America so far). That means it's not much harder for Citi to continue this card than any other of its oodles of customized MCs that it has.

Beckles

It's $1,041.67 in spend for a Southwest credit if you go through the Choice Privileges program first (see this thread).

CRC

Wait till DC charges the annual fee to your account, then call Retention Dept and ask for the annual fee credit.

A month or so I called and reluctantly agreed to a retention bonus of 1000 pts for 5 mos as long as a charge was made, no annual fee credit was available. As others have said, call Retention Dept back at a later time for a better offer! Don't mention any previous bonus you accepted, just tell them what you want. If not, call back later.

opus17

After 13 years of having the card and never calling for retention, I called. I have another CITI card through my brokerage, where I get (at no fee) one AA mile per dollar spent -- which is pretty much the same deal I get with Diners.

The offered me $50 off the fee, or 5000 miles over 5 months.

ohmark

If you have the time, and feel like making the effort, you should call back and get somebody else on the line. Based on anecdotal evidence in numerous threads (and including my own experience), the offer changes (and frequently improves) when you get a different rep on the phone.

ananthar

I called the Retention Dept number posted above, and at first the person I got said they longer give retention bonus. I said a collegue of mine just got one last week, so shouldn't he at least check my account ?

He said please hold for a minute, then when he got back asked for my card number and immediately offered a annual fee waiver ($95) which I accepted. He even gave his employee ID, in case there was any question about the fee waiver.

Schutzee

I just called and was immediately offered a credit of $95, which I accepted. I quite happy to keep DC to top off various accounts for myself and family members. Many thanks to the OP for the 800#

MileageAddict

For those who successfully receive a waiver of the annual fee, please post stats on how much you charge to the card per year.

dlf

Given option of no fee (and I'm CB, so it's fairly high) or additional points added to the account.....since fee is company-paid, I opted for the latter. I spend an average of about $40k/yr with it.

ohmark

As somebody who has followed this thread, and two similar threads, I can comfortably say, based on numerous posts, that spending patterns, amounts charged to card, timely payments, or the like, have absolutely nothing to do with whatever is offered to you as a so-called retention bonus. It appears to be strictly haphazard and based on nothing more than whoever answers the Diners phone and what their mood is. Indeed, as noted in this thread and others, numerous posters have reported being offered nothing during one call, then calling back and being offered a generous bonus.

My personal experience: I called Diners customer service. I was told no retention bonus. I asked to speak to the retention department. After a few moments, the Diners customer service rep told me that she had spoken to the retention department, that they had reviewed my account, that there would be no retention bonus, and they would not take my call.

The next day I called the retention department directly, not mentioning what happened in the prior phone call. The rep looked at my account and asked if I would prefer 20,000 points or a waiver of the fee. I took the points.

My advice; instead of wasting time trying to figure it out, just call back.