So, here's a weird credit card anecdote from today.
Posted by
David (aka David)
Apr 21 '20, 21:40
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I've been diligent about keeping my credit cards paid off over the past several years.
Three days ago, I logged into all my accounts to zero the balances again.
Today, I received an email from AmEx about my monthly statement. I noticed I had a balance of $250, which I knew I shouldn't.
So, I logged in to check. This credit card is the Platinum Delta SkyMiles one. It's the one where AmEx reduced the benefits significantly a few months ago.
At some point, they also increased the annual fee. I checked this to verify that it was less last year.
Obviously, I was annoyed that I got hit with a higher annual fee than last year in the middle of a pandemic and likely recession.
When I contacted their customer support, they gave me the weirdest option I could have considered. They refused to negotiate the annual fee at all.
However, they would refund the annual fee if I canceled the credit card.
During the conversation, the agent cut and pasted some script to me that acknowledged that AmEx had already made some poor changes to the account. Then, they added the updated script that nobody was going to travel this year, and they knew that the card had less value because of that.
Despite all the reasons against the annual fee, they wouldn't budge on the matter. Their only options were to accept the fee or cancel the card for the refund.
So, I canceled a card that I like that I've had for years. Can someone here explain the business logic behind that? I've idly thought about it several times today, and it legitimately makes no sense to me.
I actually read some Reddit posts to try to figure it out. Others have indicated the same option.
AmEx would literally lose customers than cede the hefty annual card fee. I just don't get that.
The only guess I've got is that I may have better benefits than they'd like as a customer who signed up several years ago. So, they couldn't update the terms of service for me, only new customers. Even that doesn't sound right, though.
I'm mystified.
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