Did I Get A Retention Offer for the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Card?

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A little over a year back I had reconsideration line success. After a lengthy call, I was approved for the United MileagePlus Explorer card.

After completing the minimum spend to earn the 50,000 miles bonus, I pretty much put the card away. The only time that I use the card is for car rentals since the United MileagePlus Explorer card offers primary rental auto coverage.

The $95 annual fee recently posted so I had an important decision to make- should I keep the card or close it?

If I’m going to pay a fee for a credit card, it better be one that offers some sort of nice annual perk- free hotel night, the ability to earn lots of miles etc…

I couldn’t really justify paying $95 for the United MileagePlus Explorer card just to have primary rental auto insurance the rare times I do rent a car. If I was a consistent car renter, maybe it would be worth the fee…

I called in to Chase and after a brief hold, spoke to a friendly rep. Once the pleasantries were finished, I explained how I was thinking about closing the card. I gave my reasoning for wanting to close- the fee and how I don’t really use the card on a frequent basis.

The rep politely told me how she wasn’t able to waive the fee due to the benefits of the card. The one benefit she mentioned was no foreign transaction fees. I quickly said how this isn’t much of a benefit since many other cards that I have offer this.

I asked if there was anyone else to talk to about a retention offer and was told no.

She then mentioned that she saw how I have other cards with Chase. I was then asked if I would you like to move the credit to one of my other cards. I agreed to this and was placed on hold to see how much of the credit limit could be moved. It turned out that $8,473 could be moved, but she offered to move an even amount.

In the end, no retention offer was mentioned so I closed my account.

Have you received a retention offer for the United MileagePlus Explorer Card? If so, what were you offered?

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13 thoughts on “Did I Get A Retention Offer for the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Card?

  1. Just spent two hours on the phone complaining about international fees.
    They apparently have no retention department I am canceling two 30 K credit cards today and moving to American advantage Elite

  2. ozzie- I wasn’t offered the no- fee version.

    Michael C Langlois- From what I read, there is a no fee United card but you can’t apply for it. You can downgrade and it offers 1 miler per $2 spent. Maybe it doesn’t earn the bank enough money to make it worthwhile to offer? Not really sure.

  3. I wonder… I’m not a credit card expert, but why don’t they have a branded base line “No Fee” card? Say United or even Southwest?

    No membership fee, 1% on all purchases, no free bags, no bonus…

    I wouldn’t do it… But I would venture to say a lot of people would

  4. Last week I called and was told none of bonus or retention for the same card. So I downgraded it to the no-AF one. But I was told I can call anytime to do product change afterward.

  5. caveman- So true…

    Bill n DC- They let you move it all?

    Nick- Very interesting. They’ll refund the full fee up to 6 months after closing?

    Andrew- I definitely didn’t put a ton on it.

    Michael C Langlois- Gaming? Well it depends on how you look at it. Chase is probably making their share of profit off credit cards by charging fees to places that accept the card etc.

    JRG- I wouldn’t be interested in a downgrade.

    JohnJ- lol

  6. I’ve had the MileagePlus Club card for a while now… But last year they offered me a 70k signup bonus for the Explorer Card, plus another 5k for adding a second card; but the $95 fee wasn’t waived for the first year.

    I met the spending quota and walked away with about 85K in miles for $95. I thought that was a pretty good deal…

    After I got all the miles, I called to cancel the card or see if they would wave/reverse the fee; the short and long answers I got were no… I too was offered to move the credit line to my MileagePlus Card, however I countered by asking to move it to my Sapphire Reserve… Wasn’t an issue.

    At the end of the day, I got what I wanted… So I was happy. those miles are worth some upgrades 🙂

    I can see why Chase doesn’t try and waive the fee though, those Miles do actually cost Chase real money… and in a way, we are gaming the system. 🙂

  7. It depends on how much spend you put on the card. I put 25k on it in a year to hit the 10k bonus. That year they gave me 5k miles retention which would essentially offset the $95.

  8. They refund the fee up to 6 months after the fee posting date, so I typically call up when I see it post and then again a couple months later. If nothing entices me I close it.

  9. I did practically the same thing yesterday. No waiving the fee, no retention offer, so I closed the account after moving the $34K credit to my Ink

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