Update: Reader Jimmy reports getting a $150 credit on the Ritz card, so it may also be worth calling on that card if you have it. A reader in our Frequent Miler Insiders reported getting the $150 offer on both a CSR and the Ritz — and their Ritz annual fee posted in June.
Doctor of Credit is reporting a sweet retention offer given to many who are calling about their Chase Sapphire Reserve credit cards: many people are being given $150 or even $250 in retention offers. My wife called and got no offer, but given the volume of positive data points and short call time reports, I’d definitely recommend calling if your annual fee has been paid recently or is due and you’ve considered canceling.
Doctor of Credit reports this offer possibly being for those whose annual fee posted possibly between October 1 and either November 1 or December 1, but at least a couple of commenters on their post mentioned having paid their fees in August and September. My wife paid her annual fee in late September and called to see if she had any offers. The agent who answered checked the computer system for an offer and said that there was none (I listened in and it sounded as though she indeed checked and the computer just came up empty).
As noted above, most people seem to be getting $150 but some have reported $250 (possibly people with balances). My wife got through to an agent after calling the number on the back of her card, verifying the last 4 digits of her card number and her zip code and then hitting 0. The entire call took less than 5 minutes. Even though she came up empty, it was worth 5 minutes of time to see if they had any offers available.
I then called about my Ritz card. My annual fee hasn’t come due yet but I thought it was due to post in a couple of weeks. It turns out it won’t post until January and they told me there were no offers now but to try back.
The fact that there is an offer available on the Sapphire Reserve is a surprise. I haven’t heard of many if any reports of retention offers on this card. Chase did reduce the renewal fee to $450 this year (it will be $550 again next year). Given the fact that Chase is allowing gas station and grocery purchases to trigger the annual $300 travel credit through June 30, 2021, a retention offer of $150 is incredibly generous and a great move to keep the card in wallets for another year.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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Annual fee for Ritz card posted early Feb, called in and got $150 credit as retention offer. Note: first time I asked for retention offer and I had the card for 5 years.
Thanks for the info!!
Annual fee just hit on Dec 1. Had the card for two years and spent around $7k this past year. Called in and wasn’t offered anything.
Annual fee posted Dec 1st. Called today and 30 seconds on the phone got me $150 off as a statement credit within 2 billing cycles. Last year I asked but did not get an offer.
Personal experience, they make it real clear that they know if you only use the card for the bonused spend and the credits, and nothing unbonused, and that they won’t give you a retention on it.
GRAZIE….a 4-minute call yielded a $250 credit….and that’s almost two billing periods after AF.
No luck for me just yesterday on the CSR…they gave me $100 off last year, so maybe I’ve run out of offers. I didn’t use the card much this year because I was chasing a lot of SUBs, so that could factor in as well.
Sapphire Reserve for 3 years. Called before AF charged in February, was notified of a $100 AF discount immediately. Did 2 minutes of hemming and hawing about downgrading or cancelling due to no travel during COVID. Asked for a retention offer and got a $150 statement credit. Really lucrative 8 minutes. Thanks for this site and advice!
Shoot – I was wondering if this was still working I waited until this week as my CSR posted its fee this week but I was offered nothing 🙁
$60 Sapphire Preferred upon request
$50 Marriott (both Business and Personal) on request – the agent seemed to clearly indicate this is something Marriott is willing to provide everyone who asks
Annual fee just posted, called retention, no offers…Might try again after Christmas
Just called on a CSR card fee that just posted. Asked if they had any retention offers for relief since I can’t use the card to its full ‘travel’ potential and pointed out that I was only able to use the One Pass benefit once before everything shut down….offered me $150 right off the bat and we never carry a balance and have used some of the other recent promotional benefits.
As mentioned, only took a few minutes. Thanks for the helpful info!!
No retention offers. I am pretty sure they didn’t even look. I called back a few times to try different agents and no luck. Literally spend tens of thousands on this card ♂️
Called them up and told them I can’t really use the card much due to the pandemic, and I was immediately without hesitation offered $250. Spent a total of 4 mins! Thank you so much for this post!
Adding another data point, just called telling them that I dont really use the Priority Pass / travel which I have valued a lot. So are there any other promotions available and they found a $150 credit on my account and applied it.
Thanks for the updates 🙂
(it still works)
Another $150 data point on the CSR. AF hit on Oct1. I’ve had the CSR for a few years now. After reminding me of the various benefits she was able to see that I had a $150 offer on the account. Nice!
Just called and received $150 credit on my CSR. Been open since 2016 and I have multiple Chase cards open. Didn’t check retention offers on the others yet.
No offer… Had my CSR, IHGs Cards for a long time.. 🙁
Is this only limited to personal cards?
[…] Chase Sapphire Reserve $150-$250 retention offer for some [Targeted] […]
Note that these are actual retention offers, not a covid or other ‘nice’ offering. The agent I spoke with also said that the offers were based on when your AF was, my wife’s CSP had no offer but her AF isn’t due until March.
I was able to get $250 on my CSR (AF due last month), $25 on my IHG, and nothing on my legacy Hyatt card. My wife got $70 on her SWA Priority card. Not a bad haul at all for just keeping cards I wanted to keep anyway
A nice haul indeed!
Regarding what the agent told you about the offers being based on when your annual fee was, that appears to be wrong. Unfortunately, agents are very very often wrong about stuff like this. We had someone in our Frequent Miler Insiders group who got this offer on a Ritz card that renewed in June. Greg got offers on all of his Chase cards with an annual fee that had been open at least a year (many of which aren’t due to renew right now). We don’t know if there’s a rhyme or reason as to who gets an offer and who doesn’t, but it doesn’t appear to be tied to the annual fee date in this case.
I’m going to have to call back in and ask about other cards though — all of you guys are walking away with some nice discounts!
There’s definitely no apparent rhyme to it, agent said he helped someone earlier yesterday that had a credit available on the legacy Hyatt card but I got none.
Also scored 15k Skymiles from my Plat Skymiles card
Received courtesy credits for:
Chase Sapphire Reserve – $250 (renewal in 12/2020)
Chase Ritz – $150 (renewed in summer/2020)
Have now called twice looking for a credit on CSR, the first time was after 7p so I tried again today during business hours. Unfortunately, same denial. Told the rep that I didn’t want to pay the fee (posted 11/1) and did they have anything they were offering to offset the fee given I wasn’t expecting to travel. Was given a full reading of the COVID additional benefits, then the option to downgrade. I mentioned that I really valued the card and would probably want to keep it once travel returned. He said there were no offers at the moment, but that could change. Based on my statement cycle, he said I had until 12/21 to cancel the card and get the full fee back so I might try again another time. Seemed like a knowledgeable, helpful agent, though I wasn’t transferred to retention.
It’s interesting that it seems like those of us being turned away are a minority here. I wonder what the criteria is? Have had the card since it launched, haven’t requested or received any retention offers in the past, have 3 other Chase personal cards and 1 business card.
Need to say that you’re considering cancelling. Guy we spoke with prompted us to say that, but most won’t. That is the only way they’re suppose to look for the offer.
Sorry, I realize I didn’t specify that in my post, I absolutely mentioned that I intended to cancel because I wasn’t traveling as much and the fee was high.
Success on two cards–Ritz ($150) and Marriott ($50). First time I called, the lady didn’t sound that certain and tried to transfer me to a retention specialist (but was left on hold). HUCA and the new rep was able to do it right away without a need to transfer (and called them “courtesy credits”). He also implied it was related to when the annual fee posts (said to try again later for other cards that didn’t have offers and no recent annual fee charges).
Just called and got $150
I always feel strange asking about retention offers. I plan to cancel the Amex Green card but I guess I should first ask if there is a retention offer to keep it.
I would recommend asking before you cancel. With Amex, you can chat with retention from Monday to Friday from 9am to 5:30pm. Just pull up chat when you log in and let them know that you’re planning to cancel the card but wondered whether there were any offers that might change your mind about that and go from there. It never hurts to ask.
Just an insider here to let you know this isn’t accurate and not to waste your time. Yes there are sometimes retention credits but they have no correlation to your annual fee. You’re less than likely to have a credit there just offered for no reason.
Wow, I was not expecting this to work, but they offered me a $250 credit on my CSR! With $300 travel/grocery deal that’s a no-brainer. Fee posted 11/1, usage had gone down lately. She mentioned my other cards with Chase and thanked me for being a loyal customer (CSR cardholder since 2015)
I called the number on the back of the card for Reserve and requested a statement credit since I cannot take full advantage of the card benefits. Was told about the DoorDash benefit but nonetheless immediately given $250 retention credit with no pushback.
Called Chase and struck out on any retention for my CSR which has been opened 3 years and had the annual fee hit on 10/1. The only option would be to downgrade, which I am not interested in. This card was primarily used for work travel prior to the pandemic.
Quick follow up. Tried on the CSR a second time and still no offer, but I was offered a $150 statement credit on my Ritz card this morning.
Called 17Nov29 at 10 pm PST and asked if there were any retention offers on my chase preferred. Rep asked if I was thinking of closing my card and I said “yes, I’m not using it as much during this time.”
Got back 60$ for my chase preferred with AF of 95$. My AF is in August.
I have a chase sapphire preferred card and called in anyways and got a $60 credit! Woohoo! The service rep asked me why I was asking after telling me there isn’t anything so I just said I read an article saying “chase has retention offers for sapphire cards”, note* I didn’t specify which card, just sapphire in general and she told me to hold on for a moment and came back and said there’s a $60 credit! And that was it.
On hold for 5 minutes, but received a $150 statement credit. I have used over 500k UR points to pay myself back this year, so I’m very pleased with their offer.
Just tried calling 11/18 at 2:45 pm ET – was on hold to get to a rep for about 15 minutes. He tried to transfer me to the Retention Department but they were full and not taking any more calls at the time, and encouraged me to call back tomorrow morning.
Sapphire Reserve card, member for past 5 years. Asked for retention bonus due to COVID, was offered $250 statement credit. Charged annual fee on 11/1.
Thanks for posting this. Just called and got $150 credit for my CSR. AF posted on Nov 1. Wait time was around 20 mins but not bad for $150 in return.
Data point: $250 credit on Reserve; cardholder since 2016; A/F posted Sept 2020.
My first call was last night (Tue around 6pm Pacific); the Customer Service Rep told me they saw no retention offers, and when I asked to speak to the retention team, he said the department was closed for the night (hours are 9am-7pm Eastern) .
I called again this morning and got the same “no offers” response from Customer Service before asking to speak with Retention. I made the same “any retention offers” ask of the latter department, explaining that I was reevaluating the card since my usage is down and I’m not getting the same value out of the $450 annual fee due to the pandemic’s travel restrictions. She first looked to see whether I’d used my $300 travel credit (I had), which I told her wouldn’t renew until next year (technically it’s late December of this year). After a quick look, she said she was able to offer a $250 credit, which I accepted.
Hi there, the retention offer is given by system or representative? I called few times and no luck
I called a few weeks ago when AF hit; no retention offer. Just called again this morning – received $250 statement credit to keep card open. Been cardholder since 2017. Thanks for sharing!
car Card holder since2016. Never called before. Card renews on dec 01. No offer
“Thanks for this post. I really enjoy your point of view on {INSERT TOPIC}. This reminds me when this one time I went to this new restaurant and I was amazed that so many people are willing to pay extra for what they could get at half the price somewhere else.”
Another data point: My annual fee should post 2/1. With all the reports of offers, I decided to call. I received the $250 offer (have had the card since January 2017). The agent also checked my Marriott Boundless card, and gave me a $50 offer on that. My Marriott annual fee posted on 11/1. I actually already called on that one on 11/6 trying for a retention offer with no success.
Called tonight with a card balance of $4200, annual fee paid on Oct 1, and card holder since 2016. No retention offer available but was offered to downgrade to a no fee card. I didn’t mention I was thinking of cancelling, just ask if there were any retention offers on my account, so will probably try again.
No luck for me. Called twice, and denied twice. It seemed like the first agent really checked. At least she took may be 15 to 30 seconds before telling me that I did not have any offers available. With the second agent (called two hours later), it seemed like she did not even check. As soon as I was done asking about any retention offers available, she said “no.” Makes me wonder if they are getting inundated with calls today such that they automatically check when a call comes in to give the information. For reference point, I’ve had the CSR for four years and, until this year, put a lot of spend on it. I also have a number of other accounts with Chase (including two new accounts). Not sure if that works against getting a retention offer.
Imo having multiple cards hurts. I have 2 other cards with Chase…
It’s human to look for causation where none exists. I’ve also had the Reserve since 2016 and I’ve got eight Chase cards, including one opened just last month, yet I was able to get the $250 credit. Go beyond the Customer Service team and ask to speak with the Retention department to explain the situation (less value out of the annual fee due to the pandemic’s impact on travel).
I got $250 yesterday. I was actually calling about ink card. No offer so I cancelled. Then asked about car and got $250. Nice for a 3 min call.
Annual fee early Sept. Got the $150 retention offer.
Thanks for this post!
Nick–here’s another data point. Nothing on Sapphire Reserve but $150 courtesy credit on Ritz Carlton. Total time on phone: 4 minutes 48 seconds.
I called earlier today, got the $150 offer on the first try. Definitely worth the five minute phone call. Thanks for the tip!
Weird interaction with CS, called CSR first rep said I do have a retention offer and xfered me over to another department. Was holding for 30+ min has to drop.
Called back an hour later and the offer wasn’t available anymore. Apparently the previous two “misinformed me”, but she went into the system and checked. The second CS rep said no right away.
When asked about cancellation they are prorating the fee now. Believe they were offering a full refund earlier during the pandemic.
Good luck to the rest
I had no idea something like this existed. Saw your email and called – spoke with an agent in 30 seconds and she found $250 statement credit for me. The entire call took less than 4 mins. BTW – I had paid my annual fee in October. Thank you so much for sharing this info.
Nice! Not a bad haul for 4 minutes of work.
AF will post December 1. Cardholder 4 years now.
First 2 calls struck out. The first agent kept going on about the doordash benefit lol. 2nd just straight up said there weren’t any offers on my account.
The 3rd agent sounded very young (and friendly)… and right away started offering the statement credit ($150) when i mentioned that i can’t use my card anymore.
I was going to downgrade to freedom flex… but this tips the scales to keeping it another year…$300 AF after credit and grandfathered annual fee.
This is interesting. While HUCA (hang up, call again) is a common mantra, I wouldn’t have expected it to work this time. It sounded like retention offers on this were working similar to how they do with Citi (the computer either shows the account eligible or not).
Similar situation, fee hits on Dec 1. Was told there were no offers. Looks like I need to HUCA!
Yahoo! Called 11/17 and got $250. Have had CSR since 2016.
I should have mentioned that my annual fee posted on 10/1. When I called Chase today saying I was thinking of closing my CSR, the Chase rep looked up how long I’ve had the card, and then transferred me to a Specialist who also checked how long I’ve had it, and clicked a few keys on his computer. He then reminded me about the annual $300 travel/grocery credit and also said he could offer me $250 to keep acct open. Thanks, FM!
Yes!!! I paid my annual fee about a month ago. Asked if there were any special offers. Rep wanted to know if I was looking to product switch. I said no. Was transferred to a “Special Department.” Got $150.
My annual fee will hit next month (December) so I just preemptively called to see if they could offer anything. No offer, but I’ll check again in December after it posts.
Lol. Called about CSR (fee posted 10/1) and got “you’re the 3rd caller in a row asking about this!” and came up empty. HUCA and same result. :/
Called for Reserve and Ritz earlier today
Call#1- Reserve – Annual fee posted 11/1- no offer
Call#2- Ritz – Annual fee posted 11/1- got $150 statement credit. Per rep credit will be posted to my account within 1-2 statements.
Nice! I was hopeful to see a Ritz data point.
I called about a week ago for both cards and got nothing. As soon as I read your article I called again and was stoked to get offer on at least one card. Ritz annual fee nets to 0 after factoring in retention credit and travel credit :).
I called this afternoon and got the $150 statement! My annual fee posted earlier this month.
How do you do this? Do you just ask if there is an offer to stay?
Literally just said “Are there any retention offers available?”. From the comments over at DoC, that seems to be all that people have needed to say to find out.
Yes Patty. As the article stated… My wife got through to an agent after calling the number on the back of her card, verifying the last 4 digits of her card number and her zip code and then hitting 0. The entire call took less than 5 minutes. Even though she came up empty, it was worth 5 minutes of time to see if they had any offers available.
I understood the article. It didn’t state whether she just asked for it or if she said she was considering canceling and then asked if there was one available or said some other thing. Just wanted to be clear on what people were doing before calling.
OK, just called.
For your info: Our fee went through on 10/1. No retention offer for us.
Thanks for letting us know anyway!