After paying the annual fee on my Chase British Airways Visa card for 2 years (so that I could earn the full 100,000 Avios bonus offer) the time had come to most likely close the card.
The Chase BA card comes with an annual fee of $95 and for my purposes the card isn’t worth paying for anymore.
I decided to give British Airways Visa customer service a call.
Even for no annual fee, this isn’t a card that I really need to hang on to. I mean, when the card offers another large sign up bonus in the future, I’ll just apply for it again! 🙂
After a brief hold I spoke to a friendly customer service representative. Immediately after saying that I was thinking of closing my account, the rep asked if it was due to the annual fee. I responded yes and said that I was calling to see if there were any offers available to me so I could keep my account open.
I was then told that there possibly were some offers but she’d have to connect me to the Loyalty Service Team. (Sounds pretty serious, right?)
After another round of greetings and getting my name confirmed by the rep, she told me that she had nothing to remove the annual fee.
So basically if I do get offered some points as a retention offer, I’d be paying for it.
I was then given my one and only offer: If I spend $1,500 in three months I’d be award 9,000 Avios.
I immediately turned the offer down.
First of all, there are cheaper ways to get more Avios. Second, I am currently working on finishing off the required spend to earn the bonus on another card. I’m also expecting another new card to be arriving within the next 2-3 days.
Just before I went ahead and gave the OK to close my account, I asked the rep if she could move my credit line from the BA card to another one of my accounts. She said it could probably be done but only if the card has the same liability on it as my BA card.
This was a first and something that I never heard of. In the end, I was able to move most of my credit onto another card.
What do you think of my Chase British Airways credit card retention offer? Let us know if you would’ve kept it or closed it.
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Dustin- I would’ve done the same unless they offered to also waive the fee!
I just got offered 15,000 avios for an additional $2,500 spend. I still rejected it. The rep also told me that she couldn’t consolidate my credit lines because my other Chase card was a business card.
CLOSE IT!!!!!
Rich- It was closed! 🙂
Guarav- I’ve always moved my credit to other cards when cancelling and haven’t had much issue getting approved for new Chase cards. A couple of times I did need to call in and then move some existing credit to the new cards. It was never really a big issue. Your idea is kind of the opposite approach. I’m not sure if one way is better or not but I’ve done pretty well with getting approved for Chase cards.
Gary- Like you, I didn’t mind closing this card. This is my second BA card and I suppose there will be a third one in the future!
Patti- Thanks and I agree about just getting the card again in the future.
Rachel- If you have an Ink card, buy gift cards at office supply stores for 5X points. Then xfer the points to BA. (Cards like Amazon, Whole Foods & gas have no fees while $200 Visas will cost you.)
Grant- I’m pretty sure that I’ve moved pesonal credit for business cards in the past but am not 100% sure. A big retention offer would’ve been nice but in the end, getting the card again in the future will also pay off!
Billy- I barely used the card at all after spending whatever I needed for the bonus offers. I used the BA card a few times on international trips but probably put $1,000 or so on it max. during the second year. It sounds like you’re using many of the card benefits that I don’t bother with.
How much volume did you put on the card? Others I know have gotten much higher retention bonuses. If you are a light user, then you aren’t a high value cardholder.
This card is a very power part of my arsenal. I find the 2-for-1 award ticket coupon to be worth roughly 100k of incremental miles a year. So, for the $30k of spend I put on the card (which earns 37.5k miles unto itself), I get 137.5k of mile value.
BA surcharges don’t bother me. I view it more as a modest fee for having availability.
I think the same liability means that it is a personal credit card from chase, not a business card or a charge card. That is just a guess. Too bad you weren’t able to get a better retention offer. Oh well, close the card and reapply later on down the road.
What is a cheaper way to get more Avios?
I agree with your decision. I closed my British Airways Card earlier this year as well. Will probably reapply for it again after 2 years for another sign up bonus.
I cancelled the BA card both for me and my wife in the past 3 months. In both cases, I asked Chase if they had a retention bonus to offer that would make us pay an annual fee and keep the card. In both cases, there was no offer to be made. I don’t particularly care about it, especially since I have a healthy balance of Avios left and can re-apply for the card in 2 years, but I found it odd that Chase did nothing on this card, on 2 separate occasions about 8 weeks apart, when they always had retention bonuses on other cards I have with them. Perhaps BA is viewed differently by Chase than others.
I think moving the credit line into existing card is not a nice Idea, every bank allocates a limit to each customer based on the credit profile, Chase being one of the best CC issuers most of us are having multiple cards and should be somewhat near that range. In future on applying new cards you may not get approved instantly and might require moving some limits from existing cards and lot of time on phone.
Jose A- I’m not exactly sure but the card I chose was the same. This was the first time it was ever mentioned when I asked to move a credit line to another card.
would it mean the different tiers of Visa? like Visa vs Visa Signature? Visa Signature has a higher liability because you’re allowed a higher CL? just guessing
Huy- Good guess! It could definitely be. I really don’t know…
Excuse the ignorance but what is meant by “having the same liability”?
It’s bs the rep was making up stuff you can transfer credit line to any card with chase you can even do it via secure message
I’m not sure if it was BS or not but I’ve never had it mentioned in the past.