When I downgraded from the American Express Gold card to the Green card last year, I had a feeling I might be canceling the card altogether once renewal time came around. Sure enough, this past week, I went ahead and closed the card. But, before I officially did so, I achieved a credit card enthusiast milestone by attaining my first-ever retention bonus. So what even is a retention bonus and why did I end up turning it down anyway?
Before we get there, let me first explain why I decided to bid the Amex Green Card goodbye. The short answer is the $150 annual fee. More accurately, it’s that I couldn’t justify the fee for a few reasons. First, while the $209 CLEAR Plus credit exceeds the annual fee on paper, I already have CLEAR via my American Express Platinum card. And while I had intended to use the Green’s credit for my wife, we still don’t think it would be worth it.
The other big reason I decided to let the Green card go has to do with what will soon be redundant rewards. As I explained a few weeks ago, my current Bilt card is being converted to the Wells Fargo Autograph card. That card offers 3x on dining, 3x on transit, and 3x on travel. Meanwhile, the Green card has 3x on dining, 3x on transit, and 3x on travel. Wait, didn’t I just say that? FWIW, the Autograph also offers 3x on popular streaming services, phone plans, and gasoline too — all the more reason why I don’t need the Green card nor its annual fee.
To get my cancellation going, I opted to try Amex’s chat feature. After answering a couple of chatbot questions, an agent came online. I explained the basics of why I wanted to cancel while they attempted to remind me of the card’s benefits. Eventually, though, they offered a retention bonus — or, as they called it, a “loyalty offer.” If I kept the card and spent at least $1,500 in the next three months, I could earn 7,500 Amex Membership Rewards points. I’ll admit that I did ponder this briefly, but there are a couple of issues. For one, unless I valued points at 2¢ each (which I generally don’t), the points won’t cover the annual fee. On top of that, $500 a month is more than I typically put on my Green card, so this deal just didn’t make sense.
After declining the loyalty bonus, the Amex rep was able to close out my Green card right away. The next day, my $150 fee was refunded. On that note, though, apparently you only have 30 days from the time your annual fee hits to close the card and get a refund (after that, you can cancel, but I’ve read that there’s no refund — not even a prorated one). Luckily for me, I was within that 30-day window. Otherwise, my plan to cancel would have been pretty useless.
All in all, even though I didn’t take Amex up on their retention bonus deal, it does feel good to have been offered one. Of course, it helps that I was serious about canceling and not just pretending to do so in hopes of getting something. In the end, though, the math just didn’t make sense for me. So, with that, I’m back to being a single Amex card customer — and I don’t see that changing any time soon.