Question
I'm about to call and cancel my Chase MileagePlus VISA card and I was wondering what reasons for cancelling seems to get the job done the quickest. I know they're going to want a reason why I'm cancelling (and I don't think saying "so I can sign up for another card and get miles again" would work), and I'm trying to avoid being sent over to their customer retention department.
What reason for cancelling works best?
Answer
Just call them between midnight and 4 AM and tell them you "just don't want the card anymore" you want to "simplify your number of cards" or something.
Customer retention will be closed, you'll most likely get a contracted customer service agent from abroad. All will be over in less than 2 min! Let us know about your experience!
P.S. Though if you are from Hawaii (as your sn might suggest) you'll want to wait until midnight EST. ;-)
Answer
idle curiosity... why not leave your existing card open, then apply for the new one and combine the credit lines?
Answer
Just tried to cancel my MP VISA because of the annual fee. Was hoping that they'd offer to waive it but they didn't. I even mentioned to the CSR that it would be silly to pay an annual fee for the card when I was weekly getting offers from them to open a new card with 20,000 miles and no annual fee for the first year. The CSR agreed but told me that if I cancelled my card I would lose all Miles that I had earned in 2006. She recommended I convert the card to a "no annual fee" card that earn 1mi/$2 spent. I did this. A few minutes after hanging up I applied for a new MP VISA, received it a week later, my 20,000 miles 2 weeks after that. Just yesterday my husband called to cancel his card to avoid the annual fee. He immediately told them he just wanted to convert the card. The call lasted 45 seconds.
Answer
The CSR agreed but told me that if I cancelled my card I would lose all Miles that I had earned in 2006.
Why would you lose all the miles?
I remember reading somewhere that you could lose the miles if you had the card less than six months, but if you were calling to avoid the annual fee it sounds as if you must have had it longer than six months. How long had you had it?
Answer
I had the card 1 year at this point. They told me the poicy was that if I cancelled the card that any miles earned by this card in the calendar year would be forfeited. The CSR told me this forfeiture could be avoided by converting the card to another Chase card- the no annual fee version of the MP Visa which earns 1mi/$2 spent.
Answer
Either the CSR is mis-informed (likely), or is bluffing (ethically lacking, and unlikely). Once the miles move from the bank to the airline account, the bank can't and won't "pull them back" and has no control over them. Am I 100% certain ? No. 99.95% ? yes.
The better strategy is never to cancel a card outright, since getting back to credit lines can be tough and opening new cards nails ones FICO score...by far, IMO, the best strategy is to CANCEL THE AFFINITY and have the card moved back to a no-annual-fee or a "more appropriate" affinity. Chase hass so many its certainly confusing enough.
You might use the reason "because Chase bypasses me when they offer double miles MP promotions" (happens to me routinely these days). They should know there are repurcusssions for de-targeting someone, especially informed flyertalk cardholders. :)