Happyguy

SPG is a once per lifetime bonus. You can generally double dip on other cards and programs. I recently cancelled this card and reapplied, the bonus miles posted when my first statement closed.

Carter29072

My juniper mastercard is up for renewal as well (the annual fee will be charged in January). I called last week and asked a csr when it would be charged and asked about waiving the fee. I was told that they won't waive the fee, etc. I spend approximately $2000 per month on the card. I really don't want to go to the trouble of cancelling the card but will if I have to. My husband doesn't have the mastercard. We can always apply under his name and I can carry a card under his name. Now that we only earn one point per dollar it really isn't that great of a deal. Should I wait until the $79 renewel fee is charged to call back to argue my case or should I call back before the charge hits my account? Thanks for any input.

jimcfsus

I thought I was under the 2 year no fee plan... until I saw the $79 membership fee hit at the beginning of this month. I called them up, was not given the option for the free 2nd year... so I went with the free 1/2 mile credit plan. I couldn't see paying for a card where the credit line given to me wasn't very high.

debbieb

I cancelled mine last week. I just said I was no longer flying USAir, they did not try to talk me out of it.

pinniped

I just canceled. It was painful - called Juniper at 4:08PM CST, finally got off the phone at 4:29PM CST. Had to talk about to about 5 people to cancel the card - everybody was pretty much a Grade A jerk until I got to the "recovery specialist". (He was okay.)

He offered the no-fee swap (which is what I originally intended to accept), but by that point I was so fed up with Juniper that I canceled the whole thing. IME, the credit score hit is minimal if anything from canceling 1 credit card.

Needless to say, I won't be going back to Juniper anytime soon. Glad I was able to use 'em for some US and YX miles (plus some 0% teaser money on the YX card)...moving on to other things now.

Carter29072

Did you wait until the $79 annual fee showed up on your statement to call? Mine should post this month and I am not sure whether I should call now or wait until the end of January to call. I am a planner, kinda want to decide if I should apply for a different miles card. I won't even bother with a card that offers 1 mile for every 2 dollars spent. I did receive a new card a few weeks ago and I activated it. When should I receive my certificate for the 2 $99 companion certificates? Those came in handy this year. Thanks for all the great info!

jimcfsus

YES, wait for the membership fee to hit and the vouchers are in hand. I still have my club pass and voucher (and still have last year's club pass which I probably can still use, too). When I switched down to the no-fee card, there was no request to send the voucher back in... you just won't get any more in the future.

pinniped

I did not wait. It crossed my mind to wait until I received the kit, but there's hardly anywhere in the U.S. that I can't get to as fast or faster on UA than US from MCI. (I don't travel deep into the Northeast beyond LGA and I don't travel to US hubs.) So the companion certs wouldn't have done me any good. Lounge pass would have been marginally interesting, but I just wanted to get rid of the card while I was thinking about it today...

username

For anyone who wonders, here is an article on whether cancelling a card hurts your FICO: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/...dit_scorea.asp

The way I read it is that it only hurts if you run balances...right?

pinniped

I paid for one of those services for a full year to watch my scores closely. It was a year in which I was churning heavily, hitting big sign-up bonuses and running a lot of 0% teaser money. I just didn't see the number move much at all based on that activity... It actually went UP that year...didn't expect that at all.

Perhaps it's because I had a couple of long-standing accounts with very high limits that I used for regular spending and paid off every month. (A Marriott Visa and the SPG Amex.)

To me, the biggest risk with churning cards is when I open one that doesn't have a seamless online autopay feature. "Forgetting" about a card and going 30-60 days past due on some teaser money would be BAD. Whenever I got one of these cards, I would set multiple appointments in Outlook to make sure I paid the minimum balance in plenty of time.

In any case, if I thought I might be applying for a mortgage in the next 2-3 years, I'd probably calm things down on the credit card side and stop churning. But for now, the banks are paying us too dang well for the churning...

SS255

Yes and no: Your FICO score is partially determined by your debt-to-credit-limit ratio. If you run up balances, the ratio shrinks, thereby lowering your FICO score. On the other hand, if you cancel a credit card and do not open up a new one with the same or higher credit limit, you lower your overall credit limit, thereby even further shrinking your debt-to-credit-limit ratio.

Your FICO score is also partly determined by your credit history. If you have had a US Visa card for 10 years, and it has been your only card...and you shut it down after opening a new credit card....you will lose 10 years of your credit history. Your new card will have little or no history, so it will lower your FICO score.

If you have 3 or 4 cards, and you have had them for many years, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just make sure you keep your debt-to-credit-ratio low, and you don't cancel your US-branded credit card, or open up any new cards prior to applying for a loan. (When you open up a new card, the bank will make an inquiry about your credit, and this lowers your score, as well....lenders get nervous when people apply for new credit.)

scophreak

I'm skeptical as to whether this approach will actually work. The club pass should be no problem, but to my understanding the fare for the $99 companion vouchers must be paid for with the US MC. I understand that you may find agents that don't adhere to the rules, but in my experience in booking over the phone I was told that payment must be made with my Juniper MC. I'm not sure if the no-fee version would fly for this. Perhaps using the no-fee card would suffice for payment, but I wouldn't count on it until we actually see some positive results.

puchalskir

Just called to cancel mine.

1st they offered the lame no fee card.

Then she offered to lower the Annual Fee to $39.

I said "no" to both and told her I wanted to cancel.
She then offered to remove the entire annual fee if I kept the card.

I said "sure".

At least I'll be able to use the $99 companion certificate w/o worrying.

Rich

Jim_F

I wish I would have read this 10 minutes ago! I was just offered the $39 fee and accepted it. Had I known I would have told them I wanted to cancel (even though I don't). Oh well.

puchalskir

I almost accepted the $39 too. I was sort of shocked that she said she'd waive the entire fee.