Anyone ever negotiated a better credit card deal?

[futago flyer]

I currently have a westpac earth plat credit card.

It was love at first sight when I was getting 3 points per $ when it first launched.

However, I'm after some bonus points as it is time to renew my credit card and I was thinking it might be worth it to switch to the ANZ Credit card and pick up 16,000 points since the cards are fairly similar.

I put my monthly expenses through the card (bout $3-4K a month at most) and pay it off each month, the only thing I like is the good point per dollar offer.

It got me thinking, has anyone ever called up to cancel, say they were going to another provider and been able to get a one-off bonus to stay?:?:

 

[anat0l]

My mum consistently does this with her credit cards. Her usual incentive to stay is a waive of the card fee.

I think she has been annual fee free on her credit cards for at least 3-5 years now.

 

[zig]

It got me thinking, has anyone ever called up to cancel, say they were going to another provider and been able to get a one-off bonus to stay?:?:

Do you mean a bonus payment of points to stay? If so, I haven't heard of this, or ever asked for it. I have negotiated for fee to be waived only.

 

[djfuzz]

I read about all these wonderful incentives people were offered when cancelling / renewing their Earth cards.

Unfortunately we had absolutely no such luck - despite a significant spend on them, and a few calls to suss out our options before we did anything, when it came to cancelling, they did not offer anything in the way of retention incentives and let us go our merry way.

Not a huge deal, as we still have a QFF Amex - but I do miss having the MC option, and am a little baffled why everyone else seems to be able to get their fee waived, but not us.

 

[burmans]

I read about all these wonderful incentives people were offered when cancelling / renewing their Earth cards.

Unfortunately we had absolutely no such luck - despite a significant spend on them, and a few calls to suss out our options before we did anything, when it came to cancelling, they did not offer anything in the way of retention incentives and let us go our merry way.

Not a huge deal, as we still have a QFF Amex - but I do miss having the MC option, and am a little baffled why everyone else seems to be able to get their fee waived, but not us.

Some places fee waive easily, some don't. Note they all will make some attempt to keep your business, it all depends on how desperate they are to keep business and if you really do have better alternatives. For example I've been succesful in waiving QFF Amex last few years, largely because I have been able to show others who will offer a similar deal. It's quite easy now to say I get an Amex free with my banking package and it offers the same deal for points. If there really are equal of better deals I think most organisations will negotiate.

Part of it is how you go about it, I once had a helpful QFF Amex guy tell me you actually have to threaten to cancel before they wil give a deal!