I called Providian and asked for retention(when they wouldn't give me a higher limit), I acted like I was going to cancel, so she offered to drop my fee $39. Next day, fee was off! BUT, my husband called too(we got our card the SAME day), asked to get a higher limit(said the same thing I did), and they started to CANCEL his card. Well, he panicked, and said "you took my wife's fee away the other day, and you should take my fee off, I have no use for a $100 limit card". Then, retention said" we are not allowed to release limit changes, or fee adjustments". Doesn't sound fair, does it? We got the same card, same limi
If you called from your home phone number, they may have figured out what was up. Personally I don't threaten to cancel unless I have a ZERO balance and it wouldn't kill me to close the account. Or I'll start out by saying "I really, really, really, want to stay with your company b/c it has done so much for me, but I'm just so unhappy with _______ feature, I beginning to wonder if I really need this card. I'm an excellent customer, I've made you all a bunch of money, and I ws wondering if you could __________ to help me keep this card..." You get the idea. I have done what your husband did with an account I needed, and I felt stupid begging them not to close it right after I acted so adamant about closing in the first place.
It all depends on your credit history. Maybe yours it's a bit better than your husband's. Or maybe you got a different rep who was in a good mood. Anyway, don't threaten to cancel until you have 0 balance and you really don't care that much about the card. I did that in december, and guess what, got the annual fee dropped, 4% off the APR, $1000 credit line increase. I dialed directly into retention, there is an option to cancel your card which will tranfer you directly there. At that point my only reason for keeping the account was because it was the oldest active one.
Good tip, Marci! =0) I did this w/Providian after having their card for a month ( the "I really want to keep this card, but can we negotiate on the terms" deal) and they lowered my APR from 23.99 to 21.99. It's not much, but for not having established anything with them yet, I don't think that was bad at all. I'm going to try and negotiate after I get my increase (I was told they offer increases after the 4th billing cycle)... this should be next month, I think. I called Aria to negotiate after having the card for about a week. I told the supervisor in retention that I was thinking about closing the acct after the 0% for 2 months was over. he basically told me to give them a chance and asked me if I knew about the $500-$1000 increases that were given after abround the 3rd month. I asked him if fees were attached to those offers, and he said yes, but that they could waive the $49-$99 fee. So I decided to keep the card since I had already put in the $49 processing fee which was non refundable. Also, about you'r husband's experience Julie, sometimes it depends on which rep you speak to. Some may be in better moods than others. It also helps to be really polite to them. Anyway, just wanted share my experiences...and remember: never threaten to close an acct you really need!! =)
