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I took the offer from United to get their Visa card last year. Now it is near the time when they'll want to get the annual fee.
To cancel the card do I write a letter, or can I do it over the phone?
I've read on some of these threads that closing the account can have a negative effect on my FICO score. Is there a way to minimize this?
Thanks in advance for all advice.
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I took the offer from United to get their Visa card last year. Now it is near the time when they'll want to get the annual fee.
To cancel the card do I write a letter, or can I do it over the phone?
I've read on some of these threads that closing the account can have a negative effect on my FICO score. Is there a way to minimize this?
Thanks in advance for all advice.
I was about to start a new thread, but I might as well post this here. I just received my statement charging me my annual fee. Like any of my other mileage cards where I usually held on to it for a year and then cancelled upon the charging of the annual fee, which then gets subsequently waived. HOWEVER, I just tried doing this with my MP Visa card and they said, sorry your annual fee is non-refundable despite closing the card! WHAT?!??! :mad: They said that I could have closed out the card without incurring the annual card at least 30 days in advance of annual fee being posted to my account. I believe this is really really nasty and frankly, unfair. Has anyone had any success with disputing this new type of rules? I really should pay more attention to the small type. They did give me a fax number to complain. I wonder what good that will do... I thought I'd spread the word in the meantime.
To answer your questions bako:
1) You can cancel over the phone like I did (and not get any retention offer...but then again I haven't charged much to this card).
2) It'll have minimal effect on your credit score unless you've held it open for a long time. It could have an effect if you are lowering your overall outstanding possible credit to a point where your outstanding balances as a proportion to your possible credit has increased to something like well over 50%...
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Now it is near the time when they'll want to get the annual fee.
To cancel the card do I write a letter, or can I do it over the phone?
Call the number on the back of the card. They may send you to the retention department (hard sell dept.) to try and keep you from closing, either way, just tell them you don't want to pay an annual fee. They'll close the card for you if that's what you want.
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Thanks Shapscpa. My renewal comes up in September, so I have time to cancel without the rip off that you are trying to resolve. Does it say must terminate not less than thirty days prior to expiration somewhere in the terms and conditions pamphlet? I sounds like another sneaky credit card ploy to me. Thanks again for the heads up.
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If this happened to me I would be thinking about filing a complaint with the Comptroller of the Currency. http://www.occ.treas.gov/customer.htm
I'll bet you'll get your fee back. While the Comptroller is rather worthless for consumer protection the banks hate to have unresolved complaints on record there for a variety of reasons.
And, I suspect you encounted an agent who didn't know what the heck he or she was talking about. I believe that policy is you have 30 days from posting date to cancel account.
Be careful though, Chase will steal any miles that have not been posted to your miles account when you cancel. Best thing to do is stop using card a couple of months before canceling.
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I just canceled my card a month ago after the $60 fee had posted. I simply paid the balance in full (less $60). Called up and told them I wanted to cancel, repeated two more times as their retention department tried to get me to say. Than after they confirmed they would cancel the account I asked if they would credit the $60 annual fee and she said yes. Next time I logged into my account the $60 fee had been credited. From what I read here you must cancel within 30 days of the statement on which the annual fee appears.
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I just canceled my card a month ago after the $60 fee had posted. I simply paid the balance in full (less $60). Called up and told them I wanted to cancel, repeated two more times as their retention department tried to get me to say. Than after they confirmed they would cancel the account I asked if they would credit the $60 annual fee and she said yes. Next time I logged into my account the $60 fee had been credited. From what I read here you must cancel within 30 days of the statement on which the annual fee appears.
Just looked at my online activity for my card and saw that my annual fee was refunded even though I did send a nastyfax this afternoon. So all is well!
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I called today and canceled my MP Visa card. No fuss, no muss. The CSR asked why and I told her that I didn't want to pay the annual fee. She understood and canceled me. No retention department or anything. When can I get another 20,000 miles from the next offer? Is there a time limit that I can not re-apply?
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You can apply every 60 to 90 days - even if you still have a Chase card.
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When you do the every 6 weeks cancel reapply thing, how do you cancel? What phone number do you call? Is it automated or do you just speak to a "cancel rep" or what?
So basically if you avoid talking to retention then they never notice that you're cancelling every 6 weeks?
That's the last thing I'm wondering about.. :P
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So basically if you avoid talking to retention then they never notice that you're cancelling every 6 weeks?
There's no way around talking to retention, but they aren't that bad to deal with. Just keep repeating "I want to cancel my card". As reported in this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=480538&page=7&pp=15) the T&C say you must keep the card open for 6 months or they can (and apparently are) taking away the signup miles.
If you want to do this you should probably open up three cards at two month intervals. Than just start canceling one card every two months, being sure to keep the card open for 6 months.
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Anyone have a good way to keep the card after a year, yet get the $60 waived (as for courtesy credit or something)? I really don't want to pay the $60. Personally, I think it's a win-win situation for both sides.
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When you do the every 6 weeks cancel reapply thing, how do you cancel? What phone number do you call? Is it automated or do you just speak to a "cancel rep" or what?
:P
Make sure you keep the card for 6 months. Some people have reported that the bonus miles were pulled back if the card was cancelled before the 6 months. Have not seen too many reports of this but it has been reported. YMMV
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Anyone have a good way to keep the card after a year, yet get the $60 waived (as for courtesy credit or something)? I really don't want to pay the $60. Personally, I think it's a win-win situation for both sides.
I would call and tell them you want to keep the card but intend to cancel if they do not waive the annual fee. If you charge quite a bit on the card ($5k+ a year) they should waive the fee. If they say no than cancel and apply for a new card in two months, you'll get the 20k signup miles.
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Just called to cancel my MP Visa, wanted to get it done before the annual fee hits, which would be sometime soon.
Here's what's interesting:
1. No hard sell at all. An offer for a 1 mile/$2 spent card - no thanks. And then, okay, I'll close that for you.
2. She said I would forfeit the $28 worth of miles currently pending (my final month's bill). Huh?
3. She said United would be crediting me 1000 miles for calling in today. I got 1000 more miles for cancelling my card? How's that work? Very strange.
I figure I'll give it another month or two, and start looking for good MP deals again!
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For those of you who have closed this card, do you have to spend the choices that you have earned with the card or lose them?
I've never had this card, but the literature seems to imply there is a distinction between choices and miles, in that you can redeem a choice either as a mile, or as a $.01 credit towards a ticket, or as 1/10th of an EQM. The latter two sound mostly useless, since it is not hard to get cards that offer at least 1% cash back anyway, and the 10:1 ratio is very steep unless you are right near a 2P/1P/1K threshold. However, if your MP account tracks choices and miles separately, then I guess it would at least be possible for them to revoke your choices when you close your credit card account.
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No, you don't have to spend the Choices before you close your account. If you so desire, you can ignore "choices" entirely, I think, as they show up in your mileage available (one Choice = one mile, if you want.)
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3. She said United would be crediting me 1000 miles for calling in today. I got 1000 more miles for cancelling my card? How's that work? Very strange.
Keep an eye on this - IME, what will probably happen is that your closing statement will show something like "Promotional miles - 1000; Total miles transferred to United - 0" (since closed accounts don't earn miles). You will have to contact them to have the miles "manually" posted to United.
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Also, I called last week to cancel one of my UA cards. Annual fee had already posted, so I told retention that was my reason. Ended up getting the annual fee credited (account still open) and 4,000 bonus miles.
Seriously, these card companies are giving miles out like candy. I think it is just a matter of time before the sign-up bonuses end. But who knows?
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I called to cancel my United MP card and was told by retention supervisor that all the choices accumulated by the card would be forfieted after I cancel the card. I have 100000 miles in my account out of which 22000 are those accumulated by this card. He said I would be left with 78000 miles in my account after I cancel my card. He said I could change the card to any other chase card and would still keep all the miles otherwise I would have to forfiet the choices associated with the card. Have you heard of this before ? I decided not to cancel and changed it to a 2 for 1 kind of a card. But I am not sure what he told me was true. I asked for a senior guy and was told nobody was available. Any thoughts or experiences ?
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I called to cancel my United MP card and was told by retention supervisor that all the choices accumulated by the card would be forfieted after I cancel the card. I have 100000 miles in my account out of which 22000 are those accumulated by this card. He said I would be left with 78000 miles in my account after I cancel my card. He said I could change the card to any other chase card and would still keep all the miles otherwise I would have to forfiet the choices associated with the card. Have you heard of this before ? I decided not to cancel and changed it to a 2 for 1 kind of a card. But I am not sure what he told me was true. I asked for a senior guy and was told nobody was available. Any thoughts or experiences ?
Not that I have any information about this, but what you are saying makes sense. I always figured this was the reason for switching to choices, which are otherwise pretty much the same for miles. In the terms and conditions, I think it says your miles will always be debited before your choices. So the idea is to lock you into the credit card, so that eventually you can't close it without losing almost all of your miles.
I guess the other motivation for choices is to be able to put up billboards everywhere saying "no blackout dates". People who don't read the fine print may then be led to believe that they can just redeem choices like miles and have no blackout dates, when really you can redeem choices like miles OR have no blackout dates.
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Not that I have any information about this, but what you are saying makes sense. I always figured this was the reason for switching to choices, which are otherwise pretty much the same for miles. In the terms and conditions, I think it says your miles will always be debited before your choices. So the idea is to lock you into the credit card, so that eventually you can't close it without losing almost all of your miles.
I guess the other motivation for choices is to be able to put up billboards everywhere saying "no blackout dates". People who don't read the fine print may then be led to believe that they can just redeem choices like miles and have no blackout dates, when really you can redeem choices like miles OR have no blackout dates.
What this and the previos poster said is inaccurate. You can cancel your United Mileage Plus credit card and still keep ALL of your miles--the ones earned through credit cards and the ones earned in other ways (i.e. flying). What you do loose when you cancel, however, is the ability to redeem your credit card earned miles as choices (for example, to get a discount off of a ticket, hotel, etc.) because you need a card to charge these items on, which you will later request a refund of via the use of choices. But you DO NOT loose the ability to redeem these as normal miles regardless of whether or not you cancel.
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What this and the previos poster said is inaccurate. You can cancel your United Mileage Plus credit card and still keep ALL of your miles--the ones earned through credit cards and the ones earned in other ways (i.e. flying). What you do loose when you cancel, however, is the ability to redeem your credit card earned miles as choices (for example, to get a discount off of a ticket, hotel, etc.) because you need a card to charge these items on, which you will later request a refund of via the use of choices. But you DO NOT loose the ability to redeem these as normal miles regardless of whether or not you cancel.
Since most of us have three or four cards at a minimum this should not be a problem!
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There's no way around talking to retention
Call at night on a weekend.
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Just cancelled our cards today. No hard sell, no offers, NOTHING. I said "Wanted to close account" with no reason given. The CSR said "OK, we're sorry to lose you as a customer. If you want to reopen, all info kept for 90 days". I said "That's it?". She said "That's it". I said "Wow, thanks! Bye"
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Incidentally, I don't think the window to reopen is 90 days. I believe I was told that it was until the next statement date after you close, i.e. the closing statement and the time at which the account reports to the credit bureaus as closed.
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Just cancelled our cards today. No hard sell, no offers, NOTHING. I said "Wanted to close account" with no reason given. The CSR said "OK, we're sorry to lose you as a customer. If you want to reopen, all info kept for 90 days". I said "That's it?". She said "That's it". I said "Wow, thanks! Bye"
Same happened to me. It went so smooth that I was kind of in shock. I said I would like to retain the card as there are two months left for annual fee but she said now she has to pull a hard credit report which I refused. I was not even offered a 90 day window period to reopen.
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Try again with another CSR. If it was closed very recently there should be no hard to reopen it.
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A word of caution: the fine-print says they can take the miles back if you close the card within 6 months and there's some evidence they have started to do that.