Nicole Called Her Credit Card Company and Threatened To Cancel- Here's What Happened

Nicole Lapin
When I'm not hosting this podcast, I am writing books. But it is really hard for me to write when I'm at home. So I like to find remote cabins in the middle of nowhere to just hang out and write. But I hate the idea of my house just sitting empty, doing nothing but collecting dust and definitely not collecting checks. And that's why I'm an Airbnb host.

It's one of my all time favorite side hustles. Other popular side hustles are awesome, too, don't get me wrong, but they often involve big startup costs. By hosting your space, you're monetizing what you already have access to. It doesn't get easier than that. And if you're new to the side hustle game and you're anxious about getting started, don't worry because you're not in this alone.

Airbnb makes it super easy to host. I mean, if I could do it. You could do it. And your home might be worth a lot more than you think. Find out how much@airbnb.com.

host I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert. You don't need a dictionary to understand it's time for some money rehab.

I've gotten into the habit of asking for discounts everywhere, and honestly, you'd be surprised how often it works. I recently ordered a step and repeat, which is the industry term for the type of backdrop that you often see behind red carpets with all those partner logos splashed across them. I know this is a very niche example, but the step and repeat is for a very cool project that I am really, really excited to tell you about. More on that soon. But anyway, when I was putting the order together, I just emailed the company and I was like, hey, do you have any discounts right now?

And they gave me 12% off just like that. I've heard a rumor that you can negotiate with your credit card company to get the annual fee waived on your credit card. Now, I know that there are other elements of your credit card that are negotiable, like the APR or annual percentage rate. That's the rate that the debt accumulates on your credit card. That's negotiable.

But the fee has gotten mixed negotiating reviews. So as I decided to put it to the test and ask my credit card company to waive my fee as a retention credit, basically a gift for being such a dope customer. And I'm going to bleep out any identifying information of my credit card company because your girl has been hacked before. But I will tell you that I had some pretty good leverage here. Because I've been with this credit card company for literally two decades.

And because of that, I have done a lot of business with them. I have one personal card and two business cards. And all of that loyalty comes with annual fees of over $500. That's not ideal. So today I'm going to call up my credit card company and ask them to wave it.

And you get to be a fly on the wall. Plus, I'll pop in every so often to give you some behind the scenes rationale behind my responses. And because my credit card company has a special name for its loyalty points that might give away the brand, every time the rep says the name of those loyalty points, you're going to hear this noise instead. So remember, every time you hear this, it means special, magical loyalty points. Alright, let's call the credit card peeps.

Please tell me in a few words how I can help you. Retention department. Just a moment. A representative is available to personally assist you right away. This call may be recorded.

Thank you so much for your time and patience. Really appreciate it. My name is. I'm one of the account managers here on a recorded line. How are you doing today?

Hi, I'm okay. How are you? I'm good too. Thank you for asking. And just before we proceed, I can see that you have been a wonderful member from past 25 years.

I would take a moment to appreciate your membership and business. Let's take that moment for a second.

Up with you, which is a personal card. Emma, can you mention that you're considering some changes? Could you tell me more about what exactly you're looking for? For the fees to be waived. They're so high and I've been such a long time customer that I would consider moving my business elsewhere if we're not able to waive those fees today.

Got you. I totally understand, Mister Lapin. And just to let you know, ma'am, that waiver of the membership fee is not possible. However, as I can see that you have been a wonderful member for past 25 years now and you have a huge spin on the card. I will definitely find out the best possible options which can help you reduce the obligations towards the fee.

And here I just wanted to ask any specific reason you considering the questioning the annual fee? I hope you are able to use the travel benefits on the card because I can see that you travel a lot. But from past three months, like on this particular car, there are very lesser charges for travel. So do you think, like do you have any upcoming plans when you see yourself traveling. Hi, me again.

Nicole Lapin
Here's your first behind the scenes look. So what he's doing, of course, is selling me on all the wonderful perks of being a customer with them and lol at me for not using my travel perks. Gotta love that startup life. The fee is just too cumbersome right now, and in 25 years, I've not asked for a retention credit, so I'd love to have that considered. Definitely.

I was just making sure that you're well aware about the benefits and taking the advantages of that. I'll definitely. Like, as I assured you initially, ma'am, I will be able to find the best possible options for you. Okay, sure. Like in this situation, like if I talk about right now, like, which may help you reduce the obligations towards the fee.

Like, I have a couple of loyalty bonuses that I would love to extend. So here the offer is like, if you manage to keep the card and spend just $4,000 on the card within the next three months from today, can offer you either a statement, either 60,000 or a statement credit of $400 on the same requirement. So do you think any of these loyalty bonuses may hold you onto the card, at least for another year? And what is the. I just saw the fees hit the account.

So the fee was how much? 450? It's 500. No, it's $550. Oh, even worse.

550 per card. Yes. But actually, like the. Like, there is a huge benefit on the card. Like if we keep aside all of the benefits, let it be the lounge axes or getting yourself you shaked in bags free.

The major benefit you get on the card is the companion certificate. And I can see that you have never used one. I've never used one. Unless you want to go on a trip with me. Nobody wants to take that companion pass.

Nicole Lapin
This is me trying to win him over with my jokes and my super sweet quick wit. But spoiler alert, it didn't work, so. It'S not valuable to me. Really. Money is the most valuable thing to me.

Totally understandable. However, Muslim, as I mentioned, I really appreciate your business and we do want you to be a card member with. However, as of today, the maximum I can offer in order to reduce the obligation towards the fee is either $400 statement credit on a span of $4,000 in the next three months, or 60,000 on the same spend requirement of 4000 next three months. So would this be for each card? You could give a statement credit of $400 both of the cards.

So I'm right now checking your personal card, ma'am. So this offer is only meant for your personal card. And what about the business card? For business card, what I can do is once, once I'm done with it, like if you accept any offers, I'll enrol you on that bonus. And every dollar that you spend on the card would be counted towards the threshold.

And once we have enroll you for the bonus, if you accept them, and I'm done with the personal card, what I'll do, I'll get a representative from the business retentions team and he or she will be more than happy to discuss all possible options on your business as well. So in this moment, I went online at my credit card portal and I went to the calculator feature that they have that shows the conversion of their loyalty points into dollars. This is not unique to one credit card company. They all have some sort of calculator like this. So you'll be able to do this too, if you decide to call your credit card folks.

Nicole Lapin
So I quickly typed in 60,000 points, which is what he was offering, and saw that that's equal to $420. But in a perfect world, I want points equal to my annual fee. And $420 put me more than $100 short. So in the calculator I searched, how many points would be equal to 550, and I got 80,000. So because the answer is always no if you don't ask.

I just asked, would you be able to give me 80,000? I'm sorry, could you repeat? Would you be able to give me 80,000? I wish I could. However, ma'am, these offers are dynamic and we don't have any manual intervention in order to make changes to the account.

Ma'am, I wish I could have done it for you. I know you do. Me too. Would you have a manager that's available to chat and maybe they could change it to 80,000? Like to.

Like so situation. If you would like to get in touch with the manager, I will be able to get you a manager. But here, just wanted to let you know that there is nothing much they can also do in this because like I'm giving, I'm just keeping the right expectations. Well, if you want, I can get you a supervisor. That's not a big deal for me.

But here, there is nothing additional that can be done because even they cannot change the offers. Well, because we don't have. We have zero manual intervention in order to changing any sort of attention office. Got it. So maybe let's just go ahead and close the account.

All right. Here I decided to play hardball. I thought that maybe if I threatened to close the account, I would be connected to like, the bat phone or something that would reach someone at the credit card company with real power to get me a way better offer. But just between us, I really don't want to close my credit card account because I use this credit card company for my personal and business accounts. So it would be a huge endeavor to switch all the tools I use for my business to a new credit card.

Nicole Lapin
And while $550 is an obnoxious amount of money, I do get a lot of perks from this card. So I wasn't actually going to cancel the card. I just wanted to see what would happen that situation. I can go ahead and take the request. Let me review the account just to make sure everything is in place so you don't lose anything upon this cancellation.

I can take the request accordingly. So you wouldn't be able to just. Wave it all together if I stayed? I mean, this situation was love. I wish I could have done it for you, but we don't even have an option to do that.

Like, in this situation. Like, as you mentioned, you would like to speak to supervisor? I don't have any issue. I can get you a supervisor right away for that as well. Well, why don't you just give me the maximum cash that you could give, and then I'll just think about how to proceed after that and then speak.

Nicole Lapin
With the business representative. Sure, sure. I'll quickly enroll you for that bonus. I just need to read a few disclosures here and I'll enroll you for the bonus. Is it possible to go instead with the 60,000?

It looks like the market value for that is higher than $400. Definitely. Like if I talk about the value with the redemption amount, they are equal approximately $600, ma'am. No, 60,000 points are $420 and then 80,000 points. Okay.

Or higher. Got you. Sushi. Thank you for educating me as well, ma'am. I'll make sure that I take care of that information.

Thank you for that. Just interrupting to pat myself on the back. Okay, carry on. All right, well, why don't you go ahead and do the 60,000? Sure, sure.

Mister Lapan. So here, I want to confirm that after our conversation today, you're keeping your card account open. You can earn 60,000 after you spend $4,000 or more in qualifying purchases on your card within three months of accepting this offer starting today. And then there are a gazillion other terms and conditions we can skip and then I got connected to the department that oversees the business credit cards.

I have my colleague here from the business division on the line and he's one of the account managers. He will look into the account and address your query right away. Over to you, Khalid. Okay, thanks. Thank you.

I'm just Lapin. My name is with membership consulting and we're. You gave me your business card. That's the one we're taking a look at. That's right.

Okay, awesome. 25 year member. Nice. And he says you're looking to make a change on that one. I am looking at leaving.

I think the fee is too high. The annual fee is too high. Okay, let me pull this up here. Did you just upgrade to this one in last month? I didn't, no.

Nicole Lapin
I've been. Well, first of all, I've been with for 25 years. Yes, you have. And I've been a member. I have had this crisis for many years.

I've never asked for a retention credit. I've always paid in full. But the fee that just hit my account is just ridiculous. Okay. So obviously we can get in there and look at something and see if there's something that's beneficial to you, but we don't want to keep you in a car that you're not happy with.

Do you feel like you're still working with the card? Like it's still beneficial to you, like the benefits, things like that? Is that still working for you or. I mean, it. It works.

But I think cash is queen, as you know. So I would prefer cash. I like the way you put that. Thanks. With that being said, 25 years long time, which means you're very knowledgeable about the products.

I like talking to long time cardholders because, you know, they tend to know what they're talking about and they're easier. To do business with. So if you still feel it's a good fit for you, you know, and you're not looking to change it, like the. You do have a loyalty offer on here right now. It's just if you spend 5000 in the next 92 days, they'll bonus you 25,000.

I don't have any cash ones like that. But you do have one turn if you're interested in it. The only other commitment is keep the account till your next anniversary date next year. 25,000. I mean, the other card for my personal, which I spend much less on, offered 60,000 or $400 statement credit.

Yeah. And that one on this one is the only offer that I have for you on here. This is the only one that we're showing at this time. Yeah, that doesn't feel right. I know.

I hear you. And I'm not a kind of, like, barter type of person. I always give the best thing that they have on the account at the time because I don't want to give you something. And then I'm like, wait, wait. What if I can do this so I don't do that?

The only offer I have for you at this time is spend the five and 92 days and receive the additional 25,000. And what about statement credit? Nothing. I have nothing. No credits whatsoever for the account.

And even if I escalate this or close the account, then that's all I get. That feels unfair. If you tell me you're gonna close the account, like, you don't want to change it to the or you don't want to accept this offer. If you tell me to close the account, it's gonna let me close your account. So even if I, like, escalate this up the chain, not that you're not the boss of all of, but I still wouldn't be able to get a better hookup.

No, they see the same thing we do. They see exactly the same thing we do do. And we're account managers on this side, so our department either closes the account or we find a solution or option for you that we have within our power for each account to be able to do so. That's why I said I'm going to present you with the highest offer that I see on there. If there was a bigger one, believe me, that would have been the first thing I would have gave to you.

Oh, thanks. Well, would you be able to give me that 25,000 and scoot me down to the. No. So this one is to retain you at your level. If you want to go to the card, it would just be a complete product change.

But if I change it to the level, do I get my statement credit back? Because it's not been 30 days. Yes, ma'am. So most definitely. So that part they would.

Because you're still within your 30 day window for your membership fee, that part would get given back, and then whatever the amount of the, which I believe is 250 would just show up on your next month statement. It would just rebuild you for the new membership going forward. Hold onto your wallets, money, rehab. We'll be right back.

Nicole Lapin
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It is time that house returned the favor. And to get real with you for a sec, I felt so much guilt before treating myself on vacation because traveling can be so expensive. But since hosting on Airbnb, I feel zero stress for treating myself to a much needed vacation because having Airbnb guests stay at my house when I'm traveling helps offset the cost of my travel. So it's such a win win. I mean, if I could do it, you could do it.

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So I guess it would probably be best to just downgrade. Okay, let me, um, let me get back into your account. Kick me out for a second here. Yeah, it kicked you out because you weren't giving me good enough deals. It's not me.

If I can give things away for free, I would. But you say that to all the. People asking for retention credits. Trust me, I don't like fees. I don't like finance charges, I don't like late fees.

I don't like any of that stuff. You know, who does? I feel for people when they. They get hit with them every once in a while. Let me grab back to your card.

So the good news is we're keeping the same account number. You're not reapplying for a card. It's just going to be an internal product change. Perfect. I'm going to read you a little paragraph here, and then it's going to ask your permission to do the product change.

Nicole Lapin
It says the disclosure saga, part two. Let's skip ahead. Are there certain times of year where there are better retention credits? You said it just depends on when those offers show up. So how often do those offers change?

You know, I see them change, to be honest with you. All the time. Like, sometimes, like what I just saw for you right now, you could call back in a week and it could be gone or it could be less. It could be more. I've had people call back and go, and that's, you know, that offer, they offered me something different.

And it's less when they call back the second time or it's gone. It just depends on, you know, what, I don't know, whatever the algorithm is of the computer or whatever it's looking at at the time, but whatever we have at that time with that conversation is what we can work with. Gotcha. So it's not specific on the individual and my payment history and credit score and all of that. I don't.

To be honest with you, I don't know what they choose them from. Yeah. I've seen cardholders that spend a few hundred thousand dollars a month and it could have the same offer, you know what I mean? So it just depends. And a lot of it is because they're spending so much the.

Obviously they're using the benefits of the card, right? They're still using the card. They earn a lot of points. So if they got a million plus points and we're like, oh, you know, we can give you 25 more, how it doesn't really impact them. You know what I mean?

There's like, I got a million points already, or I'm spending 100,000 a month, 625 is or 695. It doesn't really have a bearing on them. So some of the accounts just don't have any offers on them. They'll just let you cancel them out. Some aren't even get to you this far.

Like to talk to our department, sometimes the representatives in customer service can just close them out because they're not able to qualify to speak to this department. Oh, so this department is reserved for who exactly? I don't know. People with no spin on the account come through. So it just depends on if they're eligible.

If they're eligible, then they get them through to us. Like somebody that, let's say somebody opened a card today and they call back next week to cancel it. They're gonna let them cancel the card. They're gonna let them cancel it on the customer service side because whatever reason they open the wrong card, the annual fee, whatever it could be, it's just they're gonna not be retention eligible and they're gonna let them close out the account. There's, you know, basically no harm, no foul.

They didn't use the card. There's no impact. They're just going to shut it down. So it just depends, you know, I, if I had a reasoning for it, if I knew the insight, I would definitely share it with you. I just don't know what shows up on here.

Hmm. Okay, interesting. Now let me take a look at your other card real quick. Let me just note this. All right.

Let me grab that one online. Maybe we'll be surprised. Let's see what happens. All right, I'm getting into the card. That one's under money news network.

That's right. All right, one moment. It's coming up online. And that one you opened up in November 2022. So about a year ago.

Coming up on a year. Yeah, it's our birthday coming up. Congratulations on that. Thanks. Let's see what we got.

Okay, wait for this to come up online here. So see, like even with this one, looking at offers that we have for you, it's been more and get less. It's spend 3000 in 92 days and get 10,000 for that card. Less than what? Remember last, the other one you're for 25,000 you had to spend.

Oh no, you had to spend 5000 and then you'd get 25. But this one is spend 3000 in 92 days and they'll bonus you 10,000. And that's the best offer. Correct. The other thing is too, you probably, when you open that, you probably got some type of opening welcome offer for it.

Let me just take a look and see what your promotion. So they just gave you a whole mess up and we're not up to a year yet and you're thinking about closing the account. That can have effect on what's on that we see as well. Let me pull up your rewards for this one. Let me take a look.

10,000 is just like $70. So. Yeah. Okay. So I think in December, we gave you 70,000 for opening the card.

So they just gave you. See what I mean? They just gave you 70,000. You did do the spend. Thank you.

And you hit the 70,000 points and you got them. But we haven't even finished a year on that card and you're coming. You're contemplating closing the account. You were about to say, complaining that we have. Not complaining.

Contemplating closing the account. Not complaining. Contemplating. But I've been a member for 25 years. So, like, even if I just open this card, like, overall, I'm such an amazing customer.

You are. And I'm not even arguing that I think you got a great history. I don't see anything wrong with the account, but I can only provide you with what we have, and that's what you have on there for that offer, for that card at this time. So you seem like an honest, kind man. Would you accept this offer?

Me personally? Yeah. Would I? No, I would wait. I would wait until my anniversary came up and then I would, if I was still thinking about shutting down the account, that's when I would take a look at it.

Okay. Because I haven't paid the annual fee for this one yet. Right. Right. It doesn't.

It's not going to come up until your November, 2023. And the reason I would wait is because what happens is, like, let's say you take this offer right now. Let's say you take it. That's fine. That's great.

But what it does is part of the terms and condition. It locks you into the card for an additional twelve months. So it's going to say if you cancel or change or downgrade the account within twelve months of accepting the software, they're going to reverse them. What that does is that puts you past your next renewal date. So if your renewal date comes up in November and you go, oh, man, I'm going to close this out, I'm not going to pay it.

You just locked yourself in till 2024. You know what I mean? Because you're going to. If you cancel it, they're going to reverse whatever they gave you. So if it was me, I would wait and I would kind of look at my cards in a hole when they come up for renewal and then see which ones work for you and which ones don't.

And if one of them not working for you, that's when I would want to have our conversation. Got it. Okay. So I'll just pass on this one. Okay.

Nicole Lapin
So that was a lot. Let's recap. I basically did the Goldilocks of credit card arbitrage. For my personal card. I took the bonus.

I got 60,000, but I have to spend $4,000 in the next three months in order to get that. And I do have some big purchases that I was already planning on making in the next few months. So I knew that I could accept this bonus offer and not change up my spending plan. And this is really important. If you're offered a promotion that involves spending more on your credit card than you're planning on doing, it's probably not worth it.

For business card number one, I downgraded the card so I got a cheaper annual fee just through dropping down to a less fancy tier. And for business card number two, I did not accept the bonus offer because it sucked. But I will call back in November to see if I'm eligible for any anniversary bonuses. So what's the verdict on getting your annual fee waived as a retention credit? Well, let's address the I didn't get what I asked for and that's totally okay.

That's part of this negotiation game. You don't always get a yes, but you will always get a no if you don't ask. So if you give this a try, it might vary based on the credit card company you're with and the representative you talk to that day. But I do think a fair expectation is that you'll get some goodies and you're more likely to get some points than cash or a discount. And PS, credit card guy if you're listening bro vo credit card customer service reps are given this impossible task of telling people no and making them happy at the same time.

And I think you did an awesome job navigating my antics. For todays tip, you can take straight to the bank. If you do try this at home, call up a competitor first and ask what their welcome offer would be. If you do switch and become their customer, this would be an extra piece of leverage that you could offer up when negotiating and push your credit card company to meet, if not beat their competitors. Offer Money rehab is a production of Money news Network.

Im your host Nicole Lapin. Money rehabs executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do.

So email us your money questions moneyrehaboneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one on one intervention with me and follow us on instagramoneyoneynews and tiktokoneynewsnetwork for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.

Nicole Called Her Credit Card Company and Threatened To Cancel- Here's What Happened

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1: Introduction

2: The Call Begins

3: Negotiation Tactics

4: Outcome and Reflection

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